STATE AGREEMENTS

CHAPTER 9 INTERAGENCY COORDINATION

Maintaining close working relationships with our cooperators is one of the cornerstones of the Division’s fire management program. Because of the mixed ownership of private, state and federal lands in Utah, we engage in multi-jurisdictional fire incidents on a regular basis.

Fostering and maintaining these relationships is a full-time job. We cannot expect everything to run smoothly and efficiently if we do not interact with our local and federal partners on a regular and ongoing basis. Division personnel link the interests and resources of the federal fire management agencies with those of the State, county, and cooperating local jurisdictions.

We also function as liaison between multiple dispatch systems; the counties and the interagency fire center for the area. Information sharing is part of our many interagency agreements, and the timely exchange of information between agencies is essential to assure efficient and effective fire management operations. However, not sharing information in an appropriate length of time and taking action on a fire in another jurisdiction could be viewed as an independent action. Subsequently, the Division or county could be held financially liable if notification to the responsible agency is not made in a timely manner.

The Division is party to multiple agreements with various local, county, state and federal agencies and entities. The authority to enter into these agreements is granted in Utah Code Annotated 65A-8-101(4) and 65A-8-203.

A hierarchy of agreements has been developed to establish the roles, responsibilities, methods and procedures that bind and guide the signatory agencies.

STATE AGREEMENTS

UTAH COOPERATIVE FIRE MANAGEMENT AGREEMENT (CFMA) The purpose of this agreement is to document commitments of the Agencies involved, to improve efficiency by facilitating the coordination and exchange of personnel, equipment, supplies, services and funds among cooperating Agencies. The CFMA authorizes the formation of groups and committees to provide oversight to interagency efforts. These include the Great Basin Coordination Group and the Geographic Coordination Center, Operations, Training, Fuels and Prevention Groups.

A key component is that the Division represents all political subdivisions of the State to the federal agencies on wildland fire management matters. Therefore, the Division maintains cooperative agreements with county and local agencies.

STATEWIDE OPERATING PLAN This Statewide Operating Plan (OP) is prepared pursuant to the Master Cooperative Wildland Fire Management and Stafford Act Response Agreement (CFMA) between the State of Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands and USDA/DOI Agencies within the State and the Intermountain Region of the U.S. Forest Service. It outlines specific procedures to be followed by the cooperating agencies in these general categories: Working Relationships, Preparedness, Operations, Use and Reimbursement and Interagency Resources. Other key components outlined are the consolidated billing procedures between agencies and out-ofstate billing procedures.

LOCAL OR ZONE OPERATING PLANS Local and zone OPs are mandated by the statewide OP, and serve to document agreements and commitment to fire management assistance and cooperation at the Area, District, Zone, Tribal and Forest level. In each of these OPs the local management and organizational structures are outlined and SOPs, dispatch protocols and guidelines are documented and endorsed.

COST-SHARE AGREEMENTS Mandated by the Utah Cooperative Fire Management Agreement (CFMA) and OP; agencies must agree upon a method to account for and share costs that are fair and equitable to the parties when a fire is burning in more than one jurisdiction. This is normally between a federal agency(s) and the FFSL on behalf of the State, County(s) or incorporated town or city.

Methods need to be quantifiable. Breaking cost by acres burned is the easiest to execute as well as agreed upon dollar amounts. Other methods should be discussed with the Division Incident Business Analyst (IBA) before agreement is signed.

AGREEMENT BETWEEN FFSL, COUNTIES AND MUNICIPALITIES Pursuant to Utah Code 65A-8-203 (2017), this Cooperative Agreement is required for a county, municipality, or certain other eligible entity (“Participating Entity”) and the State of Utah, Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands (“FFSL”)(collectively “parties”) to cooperatively discharge their joint responsibilities for protecting non-federal land from wildland fire.

FIRE DEPARTMENT UWRMOU The fire department Utah Wildfire Response Memorandum of Understanding (UWRMOU) is an appendix of the county cooperative agreement.

The purpose of this UWRMOU is to provide a mechanism for procurement, use and compensation for fire management services provided by Utah fire departments or districts outside their jurisdictional area of responsibility to the State of Utah and its cooperators. FFSL’s Fire Department Manual & Rates defines the required procedures for wildland fire certification, establishes requirements and payment method for Utah fire departments and supporting agencies providing services on wildland fires outside their jurisdictional responsibility or large fire support.