SOS Forests

A New Wildland Fire Executive Council

On Feb. 15 last, Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior, and Thomas Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture, announced in the Federal Register [here] the establishment of a new “Wildland Fire Executive Council (WFEC)”.

February 15, 2011 (Volume 76, Number 31)]
[Notices]
[Page 8768]

Establishment of the Wildland Fire Executive Council

AGENCY: Department of the Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

SUMMARY: In accordance with the provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), as amended, 5 U.S.C. App. 2, and with the concurrence of the General Services Administration, the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture are announcing the establishment of the Wildland Fire Executive Council (WFEC). The purpose of the WFEC is to provide advice on the coordinated national level wildland fire policy leadership, direction, and program oversight in support to the Wildland Fire Leadership Council.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kirk Rowdabaugh, Office of Wildland Fire Coordination, 1849 C Street, NW., Room 2660, Washington, DC 20240; (202) 606-3447.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The WFEC is being established as a discretionary advisory committee under the authorities of the Secretary of the Interior and Secretary of Agriculture, in furtherance of 43 U.S.C. 1457 and provisions of the Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956 (16 U.S.C. 742a-742j), the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.), the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997 (16 U.S.C. 668dd-668ee), and the National Forest Management Act of 1976 (16 U.S.C. 1600 et seq.) and in accordance with the provisions of the FACA, as amended, 5 U.S.C. App. 2. The Secretary of the Interior and Secretary of Agriculture certify that the formation of the WFEC is necessary and is in the public interest.

The WFEC will conduct its operations in accordance with the provisions of the FACA. It will report to the Secretary of the Interior and Secretary of Agriculture through the Wildland Fire Leadership Council, which is comprised of, in part, the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget and the Directors of National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the U.S. Geological Survey for the Department of the Interior, and for the Department of Agriculture, the Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment, the Deputy Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment, and the Chief of the Forest Service.

The Department of the Interior’s Office of Wildland Fire Coordination will provide support for the WFEC.

The purpose of the WFEC is to provide advice on the coordinated national level wildland fire policy leadership, direction, and program oversight in support to the Wildland Fire Leadership Council.

The WFEC will meet approximately 6-12 times a year. The Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture will appoint members on a staggered term basis for terms not to exceed 3 years.

Members of the WFEC shall be composed of representatives from the Federal government, and from among, but not limited to, the following interest groups. (1) Director, Department of the Interior, Office of Wildland Fire Coordination; (2) Director, United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Fire and Aviation Management; (3) Assistant Administrator, U.S. Fire Administration; (4) National Wildfire Coordinating Group; (5) National Association of State Foresters; (6) International Association of Fire Chiefs; (7) Intertribal Timber Council; (8) National Association of Counties; (9) National League of Cities; and (10) National Governors’ Association.

No individual who is currently registered as a Federal lobbyist is eligible to serve as a member of the WFEC.

Certification Statement: I hereby certify that the establishment of the Wildland Fire Executive Council is necessary and is in the public interest in connection with the performance of duties imposed on the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture under 43 U.S.C. 1457 and provisions of the Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956 (16 U.S.C. 742a-742j), the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.), the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997 (16 U.S.C. 668dd-668ee), and the National Forest Management Act of 1976 (16 U.S.C. 1600 et seq.).

Ken Salazar,
Secretary of the Interior.
Dated: February 3, 2011.
Thomas Vilsack,
Secretary of Agriculture.
[FR Doc. 2011-3350 Filed 2-14-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-J4-P

What does this mean? For starters, we review some history of Federal wildfire management. Please refer to A Short History of the WFLC [here].

The Wildland Fire Leadership Council (WFLC) was established in April 2002 by the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior “to provide an intergovernmental committee to support the implementation and coordination of Federal Fire Management Policy” [here].

Note: the WFLC referred to herein is the Wildland Fire Leadership Council, not the Western Forestry Leadership Coalition [here]. Same acronym, different organizations.

The WFLC was supposed to consist of “senior level department officials, federal, state, tribal and county representatives, including all five federal wildland firefighting agency heads.”

But in defiance of their charter, various enviro NGO’s were invited to participate. By 2006 the Wilderness Society and the Nature Conservancy dominated the WFLC. Their Let It Burn policies held sway, and aberrant policies such as “whoofoos” (wildfire use) and “hammer” (appropriate management response)were promulgated by the “captured” WFLC.

As a direct result of the new “hands-off” firefighting policies, numerous catastrophic holocausts raged through Federal forests, including the largest fires in the state histories of many states. A short list:

Volusia-Flagler Complex (205,786 acres, Florida 1998);
Valley Complex (212,030 acres, Montana 2000);
Hayman Fire (137,760 acres, Colorado 2002);
Rodeo-Chedeski Fire (468,638 acres, Arizona 2002);
Biscuit Fire (499,965 acres, Oregon 2002);
Ponil Complex (92,522 acres, New Mexico 2002);
Cedar Complex Fire (721,791 acres, 3,640 homes burned, 15 deaths, California 2003);
B and B Fire (90,000 acres — now a complex of over 150,000 acres — Oregon 2003);
Tripod Complex Fire (300,000 acres, Washington 2006);
Georgia Bay Complex/Bugaboo (561,000 acres, Georgia and Florida 2007);
Yellow Pine (Cascade)Complex Fires (750,000 acres, Idaho 2007),
Zaca Fire (240,000 acres, California 2007);
Basin/Indians Fires (244,000 acres, California 2008);
Iron Complex Fires (Including this fire, 650,000 acres, 12 deaths, California 2008);
South Barker WFU Fire (38,583 acres, Idaho 2008);
Gunbarrel WFU Fire (67,141 acres, Wyoming 2008);
East Slide Rock Ridge WFU Fire (54,549 acres, Nevada 2008);
Station Fire (160,600 acres, 90 homes, California 2009);

and many, many more.

Rather than reducing expenditures, the new WFLC policies caused Federal firefighting costs to go through the roof, from an average of $515 million per year in the 1990’s to well over $2 billion per year today. The cost-plus-loss damages from Federal wildfires also skyrocketed [here, here, here] as unfought fires jumped from Federal lands to private and even into city limits on numerous occasions.

By excluding the public yet seating radical enviro lobbying groups, the WFLC operates in violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). Despite numerous protests beginning in 2006 (or earlier) the WFLC adamantly refused to obey FACA, going so far as to have Federal attorneys promulgate a “Memorandum of Understanding” that self-declared the WFLC to be above the law.

Besides ignoring FACA, the WFLC has consistently avoided the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA), despite the fact that the policies promulgated by the WFLC have huge impact on the environment and endangered species. The WFLC also eschews the National Forest Management Act (NFMA), the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).

In March of 2010 I wrote a letter [here] to Sec DOI Ken Salazar pointing out and decrying the illegalities and abuses wrought by the WFLC. That letter was cc-ed to numerous elected and appointed Federal officials.

The letter had some effect. First, the DOI did respond [here], albeit not in an entirely satisfactory manner. Second, the WFLC decided to open (partially) to the public their process of developing a “Cohesive Wildfire Management Strategy” [here].

To be sure, the WFLC populated the Cohesive Strategy meetings [here] with government functionaries and radical pro-holocaust enviros, but a handful of us non-affiliated pro-stewardship types got invited (after pulling our teeth out and setting our hair on fire).

The Cohesive Strategy process trundled through a comment period [here, here] and then faded into the fog of the bureaucracy. The most recent word (Feb. 7, 2011) is that a National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy Report has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget for “review and clearance” [here].

The WFLC has also begun

…initial work … to develop a collaborative planning process and analytical protocol for Phase II and Phase III of the Cohesive Strategy. A prototype of the proposed planning and analysis process is being conducted February 7-11, 2011, in Asheville, NC. The prototype considers and analyzes wildland fire management in AL, GA, NC, and SC. The results of the prototype will be synthesized and presented to the WFLC at the Council’s March meeting. Additionally, nominations for the Phase II National Science and Analysis Team as well as the Regional Strategy Committees will be discussed and approved by the WFLC in March 2011.

What that means is another secretive process is underway to front-end load a “team” with selected individuals who will implement the new Strategy.

With all that history as background, on Feb. 15th the Sec of Interior and Agriculture announced yet another new layer of bureaucracy, the Wildland Fire Executive Council (WFEC). The WFEC is supposed to act in accordance with FACA, something the WFLC has never done. The job of the WFEC is to “advise” the WFLC, although it is to be made up of exactly the same people, albeit without the pro-holocaust enviro lobbyists.

However, the WFEC meetings will be open to the “public” (that is what FACA requires), meaning that the pro-holocaust enviro lobbyists will pack the room. They may not sit at the table, but they will be present in large numbers.

In effect, the WFEC is a way to restore the old-style WFLC — government functionaries and deep-pocket lobbyists hobnobbing and planning massive conflagrations while the general public slumbers cluelessly. Although Obama promised to shut the revolving door between high-rank civil service and high-pay NGO’s, he didn’t really mean it.

The kissy-face that went on at the Cohesive Strategy meetings between government functionaries like Ann Walker of the Western Governors’ Association and various radical extremists was revolting to this cynical observer. More of that unnerving display is expected at the WFEC meets.

The ongoing usurpation of US Forest Service (Dept. Ag) responsibilities and authority by the BLM, BIA, USFWS, and NPS (Dept. Interior) is also expected. Although the most severe and largest fires occur on USFS lands, the USFS is no longer in charge of those fires. Instead, functionaries from a different Department are calling the shots on USFS fires.

This may be part of a larger strategy to eliminate the USFS entirely and transfer management of those lands to the Dept. of the Interior. Or what’s left of them after they are totally incinerated.

All of the above is my cynical analysis, and may be wrong. Maybe the WFEC bodes a new era of engagement with the public regarding fire management. I don’t think so, but then I have tracked these folks very closely for many years and have a jaundiced view based on their past behaviors.