National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy Success Story

Interagency Partnerships Promote Effective Fire Effects Monitoring
Mississippi National River & Recreation Area, Minnesota
Cohesive Strategy - Maintain and Restore Landscapes
2011

The Fire and Fuels Working Group of the Minnesota Interagency Command System (MNICS) initiated a fire effects monitoring training program to help area practitioners implement effective monitoring programs. The MNICS program consists of federal and state agencies with an interest in wildland fire as well as The Nature Conservancy.

A cadre consisting of employees from the State of Minnesota, The Nature Conservancy, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, US Forest Service, and the National Park Service organized the training. Training topics included statistics, monitoring protocols, data management and computer software options as well as a day in the field to practice monitoring techniques. Getting the participants out the door with the basic building blocks to establish a small but effective monitoring program is the focus of this training. The goal is to provide protocols that are simple to implement and specifically address the needs of the practitioner.

To date, two such trainings have been held and were well attended. Participants represented several agencies with the majority being State of Minnesota employees. The cost of the training was covered by MNICS and was less than $500, excluding travel costs. As a follow up to the training, the cadre is currently working on providing a mentoring program that participants can access to receive assistance in setting up their own monitoring program.

Contact: Scott Weyenberg, Fire Ecologist, Great Lakes Eco-region; Scott_Weyenberg@nps.gov; 715-483-2285.