January, 2012 - Phase 2 Technology Transfer Working Group Formed Phase 1 of the WWA will deliver a final report, statistical summaries, and assessment data to Partner States in March 2012. To help develop the deliverables for the Phase 2 Technology Transfer Component of the project, a working group with diverse backgrounds has been formed to review state needs, examine and evaluate opportunities and examples for tech transfer products, and provide a recommendation to the Steering Committee. Implementation of Phase 2 is expected in fall 2012. January, 2012 - States Provide Input on Fire Effects Data Layers Partner States actively reviewed fire effects input datasets on the data review tool, finding potential data gaps that were investigated. As a result, some adjustments have been made to the infrastructure dataset. January 5, 2012 - Steering Committee Reviewed Options for Assigning a Region-Wide Fire Effects Score States are in the process of completing a worksheet to record response scores and relative importance values needed to develop a Fire Effects Index. The Steering Committee discussed how these individual state scores would be used to develop the values to be used in the regional assessment. They provided guidance to the technical team to focus on a method that would generate common WWA-wide fire response scores and relative importance values using a weighted average of state values. December, 2011 - States Score and Weight Fire Effects A Fire Effects briefing paper was developed and presented to state representatives via web briefings on December 15th, 16th, and 20th. State representatives were provided a worksheet to record response function values and relative importance weights for the fire effects input datasets. They were also introduced to the Data Review Tool, a web tool developed to allow viewing and feedback onthe various Values Impacted layers. December 13, 2011 - March 2012 Western States Fire Managers Meeting Identified for WWA Executive Summary The Western States Fire Managers annual meeting was identified as the venue for making the WWA Executive Summary Presentation. The WSFM meet in San Diego, California March 20-22, 2012. December 13, 2011 - Progress Report and Draft Data Gap Analysis Presented The project team provided the steering committee a bi-annual project update and a summary of the draft data gap analysis. Component 1, data compilation, is complete, although some editing is being done based upon state feedback and technical team review, and to fill in gaps for Alaska and Hawaii. The gap analysis identifies known issues with the source datasets and what corrections, if any, are being made. Component 2, risk assessment development, is underway.   November, 2011 – States Provided a Date Review Tool for Reviewing and Commenting on Data In November, a web-based Data Review Tool was developed and tested by Sanborn to engage the states in review of the data layers and provision of feedback. Secure logins were created for individuals approved by the state representatives. November 10, 2011 – Final Forest to Faucets Data Available The final Forest to Faucet data layer became available in November for use in the WWA to represent the value of public surface drinking water. This data replaced the draft data acquired in 2010. November 3, 2011 – Steering Committee Agrees to Use a “Response Function” Approach to Modeling Fire Effects On November 3rd, the Steering Committee unanimously agreed with the staff recommendation to use a response function modeling approach for fire effects rather than the method used in the Southern Risk Assessment. The change has a number of benefits and will provide consistency with national initiatives (Cohesive Strategy). Sanborn sees no increase in costs and no expected timeline increase, although the method has not been implemented on WWA scale so issues could arise. October 6, 2011 - Steering Committee Agrees to Summarize Assessment Results By County Rather Than Community On October 6th the Steering Committee agreed with a staff recommendation for the WWA to NOT provide community risk ratings as a project deliverablebut rather summarize and report risk (low-moderate-high) by county and state using the number of acres and people. To develop this recommendation, staff corresponded with the Southern Wildfire Risk Assessment (SWRA) steering committee, Dan Smith of NASF and Maureen Brooks representing the NE region. Staff also met individually with representatives from Nebraska, Montana, Alaska, Oregon, and California to view pilot Wildland Development Area data and discuss how this WWA project data might assist states in developing the state-provided communities layers. Two significant issues that drove the recommendation were identified through this investigation: 1) the inability of states to commit resources and provide a communities dataset within WWA timelines and 2) impacts that would arise from publishing a new, WWA communities at risk listing and spatial layer that conflicts with existing state products. Although the communities dataset will not be part of the WWA, each state will receive the WWA data so they can develop/enhance their own communities at risk data for internal use, future State Forest Resource Assessment updates, and regional and national reporting. September, 2011 – Inclusion of NFIRS fire occurrence data In September, the project received the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) database. The technical team determined that a significant number of fires were unaccounted for and will use this fire occurrence database to augment the federal and state data where appropriate.