COLORADO – Wildfire is becoming more frequent and intense across the country, and fire planning and management professionals are increasingly strained. Forest Service scientists develop tools and processes that can be used across boundaries to prepare for and respond to wildfire, such as Potential Operational Delineations and the Risk Management Assistance Dashboard. However, these tools require greater capacity and interagency coordination to provide the most benefit to communities facing wildfire. To generate solutions, the Rocky Mountain Research Station Wildfire Risk Management Science team convened the PODs User Community, a community of practice to build innovation, collaboration and capacity around spatial planning. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act identified PODs as a critical tool for wildfire management, supporting its application and increasing the need for interagency collaboration with a $100 million investment to expand delivery and training for PODs planning.

During the third virtual PODs User Community workshop, Nov. 3 – 5, 2021, over 150 participants, including fuel managers, planners and resource specialists, had honest conversations about spatial fire planning opportunities and challenges. These user community meetings focus on PODs not as a stand-alone tool, but as a framework providing a natural springboard for developing risk-informed approaches to address emerging wildland fire management challenges. During the event, USDA Forest Service Deputy Chief of State and Private Forestry Jaelith Hall-Rivera described the PODs process as the spatial realization of the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy.

“We are starting to realize the power of the integrated POD-RMA processes providing a common map that allows forest staff, specifically fire and fuels planners, to communicate with resource specialists and impacted communities about the growing challenges of wildfire on the landscape. Further, the integration of PODs with the RMA tools allow Forests and Incident Management Teams to more rapidly identify strategic objectives and suppression opportunities to improve incident alignment and assure firefighters are effective and safe in their response,” said Dave Calkin, Rocky Mountain Research Station research forester.

The workshop featured case studies from the 2021 Twenty Five Mile, Dixie and Balsinger fires that demonstrated how spatial fire planning has been adopted across geographies and scales to fit needs on specific incidents. Small break out groups focused on development of what is needed for future success in pre-fire planning. The workshop culminated in a discussion with a multiagency leadership panel about building capacity, guiding investment and developing future directions.

WRMS team science is foundational in supporting and advancing PODs. The WRMS and RMA teams work closely together to help fire managers and communities mitigate risk before and during wildfire incidents. Both PODs and the RMA Dashboard have been widely adopted by national forests and other fire and land management groups. User community workshops encourage national interagency discussion about needed developments in spatial fire planning. Learn more about the PODs User Community and watch the recordings on the PODs webpage.