Cross Talk
On Aug. 14, 2009, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack asked the USDA Forest Service to "engage in a shared vision built on collaboration." This collaborative management strategy binds together various stakeholders throughout our forested lands — from law enforcement officials to range and timber staff members, and from volunteer, local and state firefighters to line and fire management officers — with federal agencies. They all come together to help preserve forest health and promote public safety.
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Virtually every single contributor to this mission uses radios. Historically, the communications infrastructure that was designed and implemented throughout fire and aviation management met the needs of single agencies and their systems. Today, due to tremendous collaborative efforts from interagency sources, the opportunity exists to merge the infrastructures into a single integrated communications system. Such an effort not only will help achieve Vilsack's vision, it will use new technology, reduce the costs of operations and maintenance, and ultimately deliver a single interagency service-provider solution that meets the business requirements of all the customers it serves.
One group dedicated to such an effort is the Interagency Interoperability Oversight Group (IIOG). IIOG exists to address land mobile radio and information technology issues that affect public safety programs in the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Forest Service, supporting related programs and capabilities such as dispatch, procurement, facilities management and capital planning.
Dedicated to leading and coordinating efforts that promote radio inter-operability, IIOG has members from both the Forest Service and Interior agencies associated with land management. IIOG takes action to ensure clear objectives and direction, find dedicated funding, agree on milestones with projects and mitigate risk throughout the process. Rather than direct specific action, it oversees the process and makes recommendations.
IIOG currently is working with the Central Oregon Fire Management Service (COFMS) in Prineville, Ore., on a pilot project to create an inter-operability template that eventually could be used all over the country.
All radio systems in the COFMS area currently owned and managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service will be integrated into a seamless radio system. It will be designed for increased efficiency and interoperability while ensuring that it "does no harm" to all pertinent stakeholders. All components, including policies, systems, funding and governance, will be addressed in the course of the project. Once onboard, a contract radio engineering consultant will design the system for approval by stakeholders. Installation of the new system will be a follow-on project.
According to Kolleen Shelley, IIOG program manager, IIOG is hiring a contractor so that "we create the system that makes the most sense and uses the best available technologies." The contractor will "reduce the opportunity for agency-specific bias and stove-pipe design," according to the project charter. The contractor will gather information about the equipment currently in place and the business needs of stakeholders, and ultimately will design and recommend a fully integrated system to meet future needs. The system will be both backward-compatible with existing equipment and Project 25-compliant.
Once a project coordinator and contract-engineering-consultant support are in place, work on the project will begin. The system they create will serve the business needs of the COFMS and all field users it supports, including fire and aviation management, law enforcement and investigations, and natural resource management. Participants in the pilot project include the BLM Prineville District and Crooked River National Grasslands; the Ochoco and Deschutes National Forests; and the Deschutes, Crook and Jefferson County Sheriff Departments.
The idea for the project came after IIOG members visited Central Oregon in July 2009. During that visit, they recognized the potential to develop a seamless, integrated radio system from a single service provider.
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IIOG is the project sponsor. In addition to Shelley, members of the team include Jimmie Porter, Forest Service assistant director for radio; Matt Cnudde, Forest Service employee and chair of the Incident Communications Subcommittee, under the NWCG Branch of Equipment and Technology; Shannon Tippett, BLM telecommunications specialist; Alan Albertson and David Santiago, BLM telecommunication specialists; and Eileen Richey, project manager.
The contractor and COFMS project coordinator will be engaged in the project by late summer. Additional information about the project and IIOG in general will be updated regularly at www.iiog.gov.
Miles Stirewalt is a public affairs intern with the National Interagency Fire Center.
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