Forest $ervice Large Fire $uppression Cost

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Forest ervice Large Fire uppression Cost
OIG Audit Report November 2006
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• Or how we spent our 2007 fire season..

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What did I miss that started this journey?

• FS suppression costs repeatedly exceed 1 billon
• OMB scrutiny since 2002
• Numerous outside Reports critical

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What had the FS been doing?

• Revised and updated the Wildland Fire Situation
  Analysis (WFSA)
• Started making cost containment a performance
  measure for ICs
• Strengthened the Line Officer financial approval
  process
• Washington Office level financial review teams of
  fires over 10 million

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And yet the costs climbed

• FS requested Office of the Inspector General of
  the USDA to evaluate FS controls over its
  wildfire suppression costs

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Audit determined

• Have non-federal entities pay an equitable share
  of wildfire protection costs
• Increase use of wildland fires to reduce
  vegetation
• Controls to assess performance of Line Officers
  and Incident Commanders

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Woe of the WUI

• Found that the majority of FS large fire
  suppression costs are directly linked to
  protecting private property in the Wildland Urban
  Interface
• FS not responsive to the Federal Wildland Fire
  Policy to renegotiate agreement to apportion WUI
  protection responsibilities

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Increase use of Wildland Fire

• Suppression centric organization
• Lack of qualified personnel

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Strengthen cost containment controls

• Strategy determined by option that minimizes cost
  without compromising safety
• Poor oversight of Line Officers and ICs
• Poor performance measures
• Poor reviews and corrections

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Six Findings Eighteen Recommendations

• Wildland Fire Protection
• One finding, four recommendations
• Wildland Fire Use
• Two Findings, five recommendations
• Cost-Effective Controls
• Three Findings, nine recommendations

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Wildland Fire Protection Costs

• Finding 1 FS should ensure Non-Federal Entities
  Pay Equitable Share of Wildfire Suppression Costs

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Wildland Fire Protection Costs

• Recommendations
• Request clarification from Congress
• If Not, then renegotiate
• Direction to review Master Agreements
  periodically
• Equal consideration of Natural Resources

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Management Efficiencies
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Purpose

• Develop actions the Forest Service can take to
  reduce suppression costs.
• Recommendations prioritized upon
• Immediacy of cost savings
• Timeline for implementation
• Whether action can be implemented FS only
• Goal cut suppression costs by 300 million

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Result 47 Management Efficiencies

• Categorized into
• Leadership
• Operations
• Management

• Include actions that can be implemented in short,
  mid and long term

Seven Key Management Efficiencies
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Appropriate Management Response

• Clearly articulate policy for consistency among
  field units
• Review policy to allow movement between
  suppression and WFU as needed

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Line Officer Authority

• Move Line Officer authority up the line as
  incidents grow in complexity, cost
• Use current benchmarks of 2, 10 and 50 million
  for Line Officer approval

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Chiefs Principle Representative (CPR)

• Line Officer designated by Washington Office to
  provide oversight on incidents of national
  significance

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Decision Support (Future)

• Continue to invest in and expand use of decision
  support technologies (FS Pro, WFDSS)
• Establish decision support teams to assist units
  in development of strategies

• WFDSS needs to equally consider Fire Use and
  suppression oriented portions of AMR
• Integrate WFSA and WFIP into one product

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Stratified Cost Index

• Use SCI to
• Establish budget for incident
• Evaluate unit and Line Officer cost efficiencies

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Severity Funds

• Apply a cap to approvals of no more than 1
  million per pay period or a percentage of WFPR
  allocation for each regional severity request
• Review use of ABCD miscellaneous funds in lieu of
  severity requests

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National Shared Resources

• Assign resources based on projections by
  Predictive Services
• Based on Planning Levels, hold percentage of NSRs
  at each level for IA

• Resources should be treated without regional
  boundaries
• Funding for NSRs at national level. Centralize
  funding and management of cache system

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Key Aviation Management Efficiencies

• National Helicopter Coordinator
• Performance based aircraft dispatching
• Centralization of Exclusive-Use helicopters

• Performance based contracts
• Limiting aviation resources
• Airtanker base efficiency

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Conclusion

• While key efficiencies have been highlighted, all
  need to be implemented to achieve maximum benefit
• May stretch relationships with interagency
  partners, but must continue to work
  collaboratively
• Communication within Forest Service is essential
  to move forward with efficiencies

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...Follo
w the moneywho benefits?

• Questions?

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