National Wildfire Coordinating Group

Information Technology Committee

Geospatial Task Group

Spring 2010
Geospatial News
for Wildland Fire Incident Support
The Geospatial Task Group (GTG) seeks to provide quality information regarding the use of geospatial data, applications,
standards and processes in support of interagency wildland fire management, consistent with the mission of the NWCG.

WHAT’S NEW ...

Training Developments - Geospatial training opportunities continue to improve this year. Geospatial Task Group
The 2010 GIS Specialist for Incident Management (S-341) course was reduced to a 3-day
Katy Madrid-Hipke (Chair)
format and many of the pre-work materials were moved to distance learning. Courses were Bureau of Land Management NIFC
held in Olympia, WA; Phoenix, AZ; Billings; MT and Lexington, KY. Students and faculty Katy_Madrid-Hipke@blm.gov
found the new distance learning pre-work increased classroom productivity. Materials can be
accessed online at: http://www.odf.state.or.us/gis/gtag/giss.html Glen Buettner (Vice-Chair)
Western States
The GPS for Fire Management & ICS course was also reduced to a 2-day format and materi- Arizona Forestry Division
glenbuettner@azstatefire.org
als were rewritten to cover the newer color Garmin receivers: GPSMAP60C series,
GPSMAP76C series, and eTrex HC series. Scheduling has been revised to allow for smaller, Lou Ballard
more local sessions at lower cost. Courses were held in Ft. Collins, CO; Keno, OR; Gatlin- US Fish and Wildlife Service
burg, TN; Kingman, AZ, and at the Colorado, Wyoming, and Arizona Fire Academies. GPS Lou_Ballard@fws.gov
course materials can be accessed online at: http://gis.nwcg.gov/training_gps.html
Sue McLellan
For information on fall GISS or GPS courses, or hosting a 2011 course, contact Don Washco, Eastern States
BLM NTC Fire Training Coordinator at: don_washco@blm.gov Florida Division of Forestry
mclells@doacs.state.fl.us
GeoMAC Update - A new version of GeoMAC will Sean Triplett
be available this fire season. The beta version is US Forest Service
available by clicking on the “NEW GeoMAC Beta setriplett@fs.fed.us
Viewer” button on the GeoMAC Home page
(http://www.geomac.gov/ .) This viewer takes advan- Luther Arizana
tage of ArcGIS Server technologies which enables Bureau of Indian Affairs
easier navigation and allows for quicker refresh time Luther_Arizana@nifc.gov
and more robust map information. For those using IE Kathie Hansen
7 or greater, Firefox, or Google Chrome, check it out National Park Service
and send comments to: geomac@usgs.gov Kathie_Hansen@nps.gov
A dynamic KMZ and RSS Feed are also available in
this version. John Guthrie
New GeoMAC viewer, currently in Beta
US Geological Survey
WFDSS - The transition continues as more federal agencies implement WFDSS. jdguthrie@usgs.gov
WFDSS is mandatory for all wildfires for the Forest Service and implementation continues in
Jim Menakis
2010 for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, and the IT Committee Liaison
Bureau of Land Management. jmenakis@fs.fed.us

There are several implications of the expanded WFDSS implementation for the GIS commu-
nity. There will be an increasing demand for geospatial data that adhere to approved data Technical Advisors:
standards and a need for more geospatial analysis. WFDSS will continue to increase the num- Andrew E. Wilson USFS
ber of authoritative national, geographic area, and regional spatial data sources. When possi- Bill Yohn NPS
ble WFDSS will adhere to National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) data standards - and Allison Mead USFS
Kim Kelly BIA
will help support development of new standards where needed. Dorothy Albright USFS
Shannon Theall BLM
For general information regarding WFDSS—or to request a user account, go to: Curt Stripling Texas FS
http://wfdss.usgs.gov Andrew Bailey North Carolina FS

For further information regarding WFDSS geospatial data, go to:

http://frames.nbii.gov/wfdss

GTG Website: http://gis.nwcg.gov

Geospatial News—page 2 Spring 2010

Application News:
ArcGIS 10.0 - is expected to ship in June (See ESRI.com ),
TECH CORNER
but due to discontinued support for Visual Basic 6, there will be Platypus Contract for 2010
compatibility issues with various add-on tools such as FIMT, http://platypuscomputing.com/fire.html
ALMS, etc. Federal agencies plan to continue using ArcGIS GIS Laptops are:
9.3.1 through the end of the 2010 fire season - and it is recom- - Core Duo 2.0 GHz notebooks
mended that anyone supporting a fire incident plan to continue - 4 GB of RAM / 100 GB hard drives
using ArcGIS 9.3.1 through this summer. - 17 inch wide TFT screens / USB ports
- Gb Ethernet / 802.11 g wireless / and DVD +/- RW
FIMT v9.2.1.8 - is the current version for fire season 2010.
A new release of FIMT programmed in the Micro- Installed software includes:
soft .NET environment for compatibility with the upcom- - ArcGIS 9.3.1 SP1 / FIMT 9.2.1.8 / CDF IMT Tools Arc9
ing release of ArcGIS 10 will be available in July. - PFE ColorMap / DNR Garmin 5.4.1 / XTools Pro 6.1
- Google Earth 5.1 / Enhanced Shapefile Creator
DNR Garmin 5.4.1 - continues to be the latest version of this
- Export to KML / CoreFTPLite / and MS Office 2007.
popular GPS management tool. For info and downloads, see
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/mis/gis/tools/arcview/extensions/ Each laptop will have the ArcGIS license manager and a full
DNRGarmin/DNRGarmin.html keyless license with 10 licenses for ArcGIS and all exten-
sions installed.
For Garmin software and drivers, see http://www.garmin.com/
If you have problems with these GIS laptops, contact :
WFDSS 3.10 - this release improves map functionality and
adds data layers: http://wfdss.usgs.gov/ Lorri Peltz-Lewis (Primary)
USFS Region 5 GIS Coordinator, Fire and Aviation Mgmt
Office - 916-640-1049, Cell - 916-995-3107
Data Resources: lpeltzlewis@fs.fed.us
- or -
Having the right data is critical to effective incident support - and
the GTG website is a good place to start any data search. If you Sean Triplett
have suggestions for websites or other sources to add to our USFS Fire and Aviation Mgmt - NIFC, Geospatial Coordinator
site, please let us know. A few highlights: Office - 208-387-5284 , Cell - 208-908-9513
setriplett@fs.fed.us
• Aviation Hazards - www.nwportal.fs.usda.gov
(for login info, contact:
Dale Guenther—dguenther@fs.fed.us, 502-808-2188)
Other Support:
• Aviation Sectionals - www.aeroplanner.com
(for login info, contact: Incident Information:
Katy Madrid Hipke—Katy_Madrid-Hipke@blm.gov 208-387-5184)
• GEOMAC - www.geomac.gov
• TFR Data - http://airspace.nifc.gov • Active Fire Maps - http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us
• INCIWEB - www.inciweb.org
• USGS Fire Data Ordering - http://firedata.cr.usgs.gov
Collaboration:
• NRCS Gateway - http://datagateway.nrcs.usda.gov • MyFireCommunity - www.myfirecommunity.net
• Google Groups - www.groups.google.com
• Weather KMLs - www.srh.noaa.gov/gis/kml
Training:
• Base Data - • NAFRI - www.nafri.gov
ftp://ftp.nifc.gov/BASE_INFO/Statewide_GIS_Data/
• National Fire Training - www.nationalfiretraining.net
• NIFC FTP - ftp://ftp.nifc.gov
Help Desk:
Data Posting: The NIFC interagency FTP site will function
as it has in previous years for data posting . Passwords will • NIFC Fire Applications Help Desk -
remain the same, though there are some changes in GACC 1-800-253-5559
contacts. For the latest information on posting and Fire_help@fs.fed.us
downloading fire incident data, including instructions on
using the simplified web interface and GACC contact list, GTG Feedback:
see http://ftpinfo.nifc.gov . Technical questions should be • Contact any GTG member or technical advisor with your
directed to the Help Desk. ideas. To find your agency contact, visit:
http://gis.nwcg.gov/contacts_gtg.html

GTG Website: http://gis.nwcg.gov