Guidance for Submitting Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation Treatment Polygons
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOS
BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20240
http://www.blm.gov/
April 23, 2018
In Reply Refer To:
1742 (220) P
EMS TRANSMISSION 05/15/2018
Instruction Memorandum No. 2018-058
Expires: 09/30/2021
To: All State Directors
From: Assistant Director, Resources and Planning
Subject: Guidance for Submitting Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation Treatment Polygons DD: 6/1/2018, 12/31/2018
Program Areas: Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation
Purpose: This Instruction Memorandum (IM) provides direction to offices that report Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation (ESR) treatments in the National Fire Plan Reporting Operating and Reporting System (NFPORS). This guidance is intended to increase efficiencies and compliance with spatial data reporting requirements for many Department of Interior (DOI) applications.
Other wildland fire management programs, such as fuels management, also require spatial reporting of vegetation treatments. Spatial reporting of completed ESR treatments is a required component of the Sage-Grouse Integrated Program of Work (SG IPOW), outlined in WO-IM-2016-148. This IM supports DOI’s and BLM’s efforts to deliver comprehensive and integrated spatial data that will assist in documenting treatment effectiveness and support adaptive management.
Policy/Action: States will ensure a process exists for annual submission of completed ESR treatment polygons in the Vegetation Treatment Geodatabase (VTRT). Beginning immediately, all completed treatments planned, funded, and implemented under ESR subactivities (LF220 and LF320), and reported in NFPORS, will have a corresponding treatment polygon submitted to the VTRT. States will ensure that if polygon data exists for completed ESR treatments accomplished in fiscal years (FYs) 2015, 2016, and 2017 and reported in NFPORS, the existing polygon data is submitted into their state’s VTRT. District and field offices are not required to digitize maps or otherwise create polygons when they do not currently exist.
States only need to submit polygons once, they need not submit the same polygon to multiple systems. There is currently a process in place to batch upload VTRT with data from the National Invasive Species Information Management System (NISIMS) data per WO-IM 2015-129. Therefore, if ESR chemical or biological treatment polygons have already been or are in the future entered into NISIMS, there is no need to also submit these polygon data to VTRT. States are also not responsible for submitting or entering polygon data directly to NFPORS or other databases such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Conservation Efforts Database (CED). Staff from the National Operations Center (NOC) and WO-220 will submit polygons from VTRT to other systems in batch uploads, as appropriate.
This requirement will be effective until the Vegetation Management Action Portal (VMAP) is functional and becomes the system of record for BLM’s spatial data submission and storage.
Technical guidance is available in Guidance for Entering Treatment Polygons into VTRT posted at the ESR SharePoint Site.
Timeframe: States will have all existing FYs 2015, 2016, and 2017 treatment polygons which were reported in NFPORS uploaded to VTRT by June 1, 2018. Beginning in FY 2018, current year treatment polygons will be submitted to VTRT by December 31 annually. Department-wide guidance from the Office of Wildland Fire (OWF) is forthcoming which requires all prior year treatment polygons to be submitted to VTRT by early February, beginning in 2019. By setting a BLM deadline of December 31, we are assured that we will have data entry completed in advance of the OWF due date.
Budget Impact: There will be a moderate budget impact to district and state ESR staff to compile and submit polygon data to the VTRT.
Background: Spatial data which depict the location, effectiveness, and attributes of ESR treatments are needed to support required DOI reporting systems. Polygons for completed ESR treatments are needed for the FWS Conservation Efforts Database (CED) to showcase the locations and treatment types applied across the sagebrush biome. At the DOI level, these data are needed to characterize the locations and effectiveness of ESR treatments related to Performance Measures in the wildland fire management program. Treatment polygons are also required to populate the Vegetation Management Action Portal (VMAP), which will serve as DOI’s system of record for vegetation treatments. Both current and legacy data are required for these applications. The WO-IM 2015-129 requires all ESR chemical or biological treatment polygons to be entered into NISIMS. All other completed ESR treatment polygons will be submitted to VTRT, using the process established in this IM.
The intent of this IM is to confirm an established process exists, leading to consistent data submission in VTRT. For states lacking an established process for data submission into VTRT, customized training is available by the Division of Rangeland Resources (WO-220) staff.
Manual/Handbook Sections Affected: This guidance will be incorporated into the BLM Handbook H-1742-1 (Burned Area Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation).
Coordination: This IM was coordinated with WO-230, FA600, and the NOC.
Contacts: For questions related to submitting vegetation polygons or requests for assistance, contact your local GIS lead, state GIS program lead, or Tenille Lenard, WO-220 Business Analyst, at 719-269-8708 or by email at tlenard@blm.com. For questions related to this policy, contact Doug Havlina, Acting ESR Program Lead, at 208-387-5061 or by email at dhavlina@blm.gov.
Signed by: Authenticated by:
Kristin Bail Robert M. Williams
Assistant Director Division of IT Policy and Planning, WO-870
Resources and Planning