Nation-wide the agency has experienced a fairly mild fire season compared to those over the last few years. Overall this is good news. However with the planning and budget methods used to staff the firefighting workforce, this less active year has the potential to run the fire preparedness budget into deficit, an estimated $9.3million based upon recent trends. The fire season can turn around quickly and make this a moot issue, but I want to reemphasize the direction set out in the final 2009 program and budget advice including the requirement that fire resources be managed to ensure no deficits, that overtime expenditures be minimized, and that there will be no significant fourth-quarter purchases. There are numbers of additional steps that I would ask you to implement, as possible, to mitigate the potential deficit. · Utilize fire suppression resources to help accomplish the region’s fuels and other program targets; and · As appropriate, direct dispatch organizations and incident management teams under your authority to order agency assets for fire suppression events in lieu of contracted and state or local government fire resources, and to replace non-agency resources with Forest Service assets as quickly as possible. Resource Orders should specify agency resources, whether from inside or outside Region 5. By copy of this letter to the Director of FAM, I expect the same actions on part of the GACCs in terms of agency resources on agency fires. Thank you in advance for your time and attention to this matter.
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