Hard Truths, Fantastic Failures and Magnificent Successes of Cross-Boundary, Landscape Level and Community-Wide Implementation

Since the inception of The National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy, we have learned that there are multiple “hard truths” of living with fire that must be accepted in order to make meaningful progress towards the three national goals of Resilient Landscapes, Fire Adapted Communities and a Safe, Effective, Risk-Based Wildfire Response. We have also experienced multiple opportunities where learning continues around:

• Significant wildland fire events that are changing the way future fires are addressed,
• “Fantastic Failures” where alignment of ideas and resources did not produce the desired outcomes,
• “Magnificent Successes” where collaborative, cross-boundary collaboration, prioritization and investments have led to better wildland fire and landscape scale outcomes,

The 4th National Cohesive Strategy Workshop will center on these themes, and focus sharply on understanding how the guiding principles and management options are making meaningful progress towards the three goals, to create a learning environment for attendees.

The National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy was finalized in 2014 to provide a strategic framework for comprehensively addressing wildland fire issues and management utilizing an “All Hands, All Lands” approach across all landscapes and communities at risk in the United States. The Cohesive Strategy is by far, the most comprehensive, timely, and applicable strategy ever developed to address these issues. The national goals stated above reflect the major issues we are facing now and in the foreseeable future and cannot be left unaddressed.

The Cohesive Strategy identifies broad, strategic, and national-level direction as a foundation for implementing actions and activities nationwide; providing an all-inclusive and relevant vision the next century:

To safely and effectively extinguish fire, when needed; use fire where allowable; manage our natural resources; and as a Nation, live with wildland fire.

The previous three workshops (the first two in Reno, Nevada and the third in Plymouth, MA) focused on themes consistent with implementation and application of the Cohesive Strategy as well as showcasing relevant efforts across the country.

The 4th National Cohesive Strategy Workshop focus on the following topics and questions:

• In addition to understanding the national goals, what are the Guiding Principles and Management Options of the Cohesive Strategy and how can we implement those locally and at scale?
• What are Hard Truths of living with wildland fire and how can we better communicate this understanding to our stakeholders?
• What are we learning from our experiences?
• How can these lessons be communicated to local, regional and national stakeholders more effectively?
• How can we better coordinate, collaborate and prioritize actions across boundaries and jurisdictions to improve collective outcomes and resiliency at landscape scales?
• What is shared risk and shared responsibility and how can we move past the “blame game” to work better together for better wildland fire outcomes?
• How do we utilize and blend new and emerging technology and the best available science to support practices and collaborative, prioritized actions?
• How do we better prepare for the fire year in terms of landscape resiliency, fire adapted communities and wildfire response?

The 4th National Cohesive Strategy Workshop will step beyond previous workshop events to dive deeper into the conversations stimulated above and provide potential solutions to these questions that practitioners, managers and all stakeholders can apply within their own organizations. The Workshop will deliver opportunities for participants to do more than just listen to presentations. All sessions will be interactive and involve audiences through a variety of facilitation techniques and exercises.

The overall objective of the 4th National Cohesive Strategy Workshop is to facilitate an interactive forum for participants around the stated topics for shared learning and provide practical information they can utilize in their own organizations. In addition, Workshop leaders will collectively document session outcomes to provide a summary for local, regional and national stakeholders.

Who should attend?

This Workshop is considered “mission critical” for anyone working on these issues in local, state, Tribal and federal agencies and organizations as well as non-governmental organizations and private companies. There is no other forum in the nation that provides these opportunities.

• State, Federal and Tribal land managers, agency administrators and fire managers
• Federal, State and Private natural resource planning specialists
• Local planning officials
• Emergency management and law enforcement personnel
• Wildfire risk reduction and post fire recovery practitioners
• County and city management
• Utilities management
• Insurance industry leaders