Introduction

By Jaelith Hall-Rivera, Deputy Chief for State and Private Forestry and Cynthia West, Acting Deputy Chief for Research and Development

As part of our quest to be a learning organization, it is important for all levels of our organization to learn as much as we can from accidents and incidents. In an effort to facilitate that learning, we must provide tools that help us talk about and make sense of the lessons we learn. We would like to introduce a new learning and discussion tool from the Forest Service’s Innovation and Organizational Learning team (IOL), the Wildland Fire Metareview. 

After the Twisp Fire (2015), agency leadership directed the IOL team to look across multiple years of incidents and accidents to see what lessons could be learned by taking a “meta” approach to systematically reviewing past events. Looking across multiple incidents allows themes to be detected in ways that single accidents don’t allow. Their review examined accidents and incidents, including fatality incidents, in the Forest Service over a 10-year period (2007–2016). Chapter 3 of the Metareview includes the quantitative and qualitative analysis of this data. From their analysis, five themes emerged. In order to dive deeper into the learning around these themes, IOL conducted five focus groups in 2019, comprised of a cross section of Forest Service employees who work in wildland fire management and academic subject matter experts. The focus group findings are detailed in chapters 4–12. The format is intentionally presented in an open way that is intended to facilitate discussion and both individual and group learning. Each chapter highlights information from the meta-analysis and focus groups and then broadens the conversation by including learning challenges to prompt discussion among your local work group. Out of the quantitative and qualitative work of the previous chapters, chapter 13 introduces an ongoing Learning Strategy. 

As you work through the discussion tool and learning challenges, you will see the themes that emerged from the metareview effort:

• Fatalities and injuries—Why are they continuing to occur?
• Fiscal incentives—How does the current pay structure affect operational strategies and risk management?
• Society—How do social and political pressures play into the wildland fire system?
• Ecological soundness—How do ecological health and land management factors currently play into wildland fire decision making and strategy planning processes?
• Communication/work environment—What do current successes and failures look like in the context of communication and the wildland fire work environment?

These are all great questions and ones that we as an agency continue to grapple with. We recently made positive strides in the area of fiscal incentives by implementing the pay raises funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and working with Office of Personnel Management and the Department of the Interior on the policy for the new wildland firefighter job series. We are starting to place emphasis on firefighter mental health through enhancements to our Work Environment and Performance Office programs, Employee Assistance Program contract improvements, and suicide awareness trainings, as well as the joint federal effort to develop a comprehensive wildland firefighter health and well-being program made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. We look forward to continuing this conversation with the wildland firefighter community as we work to build and solidify the well-supported, more permanent wildland firefighting force needed to address the wildfire crisis. 

We view this metareview as one important step in our learning journey. This learning tool should be viewed in combination with other interagency wildfire safety products, such as the annual interagency safety gram and the Lessons Learned Center’s annual “Incident Review Summary.” These learning products require ongoing engagement at all levels of the organization as we continue to build on our safety journey. 

We hope you take time to use this metareview learning guide to facilitate conversation among your work group. Beginning in March 2023, IOL will host monthly webinars to introduce the content and demonstrate how this learning tool can be used to transition from singular incident learning to ongoing, multiformat, iterative, shared learning. We hope that you will share your insights with your work group, but we also encourage you to share insights across the organization during one of IOL's virtual Coffee Shop sessions. Initially, the Coffee Shop will serve as a place to meet, discuss, and share ideas about the metareview and other organizational learning efforts in a more informal setting. As time goes by, additional functions will be added, like a virtual "bulletin board" where you can share ideas and innovations for others to learn from. Each of us sharing our unique learning is a critical component of being a learning organization. Let’s continue to learn together.

Metareview: An Introduction

To help you get your bearings around what the metareview is, the intent behind it, and the many learning products available to you, we’ve put together this short 7-minute video to watch before you dive in:

The Metareview

The primary learning from the metareview process is hosted in three formats: an interactive PDF, an audiobook, and a set of StoryMaps. The content within each platform is the same. However, each product provides a different avenue for learning. Some folks may be readers, others may enjoy a more visual experience. Hopefully we have a product that suits your learning preference and needs. Below is a synopsis of each product and links to access them.

Facilitators Guide

Thinking about discussing a chapter or two with your peers, supervisors, or employees, but don’t know where to start? Check out this short video that provides some suggestions and food for thought about facilitating a potentially hard or controversial conversation. 

Facilitation Challenge Material

• Facilitating a Challenge (PDF Document/508 Compliant)

Focus Group 

Want to know what it was like to be a focus group participant? Hear some of the focus group participants talk about their experience in the following podcast-style interviews. 

Webinars and Coffee Shop

Webinars and Coffee Shops are hosted the third Wednesday of each month. If you are interested in participating, please email us.

Have any questions or comments about the metareview or any of its learning products? Want to join as a focus group participant in future sessions?  Please feel free to EMAIL the Innovation and Organizational Learning (IOL) team.