News on Youtube Feb 23 2018

hi I'm Lori Gerhart and today I'll be walking through a demo of the online

permitting system that 18f acquisition is building with the United States

Forest Service today I'll be walking through two different permit types both

the special use application type as well as a Christmas tree permit and so to get

started let's talk about the special use applications in our initial research we

learned that the current process lends the public to be a little bit confused

by the form questions and that the Forest Service spends a fair amount of

time reviewing incomplete applications and then applicants aren't clear on what

happens next so we built out this new product in order to help minimize some

of these existing problems so to get started we're on the special use home

page where you can apply for permits directly so you can either apply for a

non-commercial group permit or a temporary Outfitters permit and even if

you're not sure we can help you find out so let's help you find a permit so first

we ask a couple of simple questions just about what you'd like to do on National

Forest Service land whether or not you're charging a fee in this case we're

gonna say no whether or not you're gonna be selling goods or services again not

today and whether or not your activity involves more than 75 people and so

we'll say yes and so then the application will tell us that we

probably not need a non-commercial group use application and if we're still not

quite sure what that means we've got a link to go over that gives an

explanation of who needs a permit what you need to in order to submit a permit

how you'll be evaluated and then also gives you the opportunity to go and

apply for a permit there so when you apply we have integrated with loggin gov

which allows you to sign in across government services so we'll be using

that to apply for our permit and once I've logged in with loggin gov I'll be

redirected to the application for a non-commercial group use so one of the

things we found was the the process was a little confusing so we

wanted to make sure that applicants had the opportunity to learn more about

what's going to happen when they submit their application so we'll be submitting

today on behalf of my favorite Forest Service employee Smokey the Bear and so

you can fill out the application and if you have additional phone numbers or

you'd like to add someone else to the permit we give the option whether or not

include that additional information then we go then we can go on to fill out the

actual information about the permit event that we're hoping to do it and

since we know that we need more than 75 participants we're going to add in that

and we can also add additional spectators if it's sort of an event that

might have that currently we don't well then

and a date for when we think this would occur and then can sign the application

and submit it and now we see a confirmation page that outlines that our

application has been submitted but it's not yet approved because it needs to be

reviewed by a member of or service staff you'll also receive at this time a

confirmation email to the email address you provided we also provide information

on the process from now until your application gets approved by the Forest

Service and your permit gets issued and then we also provide force level contact

information for administrators for applicants to reach out to so for

special uses a Forest Service staff needs to review the applications so you

can't get your permit immediately but now I'm going to walk through the

self-service application of getting a christmas-tree permit which allows you

to walk out with your own permit so for Christmas trees we're working with a

couple different pilot forests so first you're going to be able to look and see

which forests around you you can choose to cut down your trees so we're gonna go

ahead and choose the Arapaho Roosevelt which is in Fort Collins Colorado and

then we're gonna go learn a little bit more about the permit information for

that specific forest when in the year given that Christmas trees are seasonal

you can cut what times of day what areas how you choose your tree in terms of

what kinds of trees specific rules and information around how and where to cut

your tree including handy Maps about the cutting areas and so from that you can

go ahead and buy your permit with a credit card there's only a little bit of

information that is actually needed in order to get a Christmas tree permit so

I'm gonna go enter my name or Smokey's again

and you can buy up to five trees which each costs $10 so we'll go ahead and buy

three trees and I also have to confirm that I know the rules so I can look

again right here to know what I should know and confirm that I have

acknowledged the rules and then I can go ahead and pay for my permit so for this

permit will be using pay gov right now this is our sample of pay gov until we

have that hooked up and you can go ahead and enter in your credit card

information and it already fills in some of the information I already supplied

and when your credit card will expire ideally in the future and then I can

submit my payment and if my payment is successful I'll be directed back to a

confirmation on the Forest Service website which says a little bit of

information about the purchase I just had as well as allows me to print out my

permit right there so when I click print it opens up a print window and then I

can go ahead and print it so I've gone ahead and printed my permit and then can

go down and cut my tree the system isn't quite live yet so stay tuned and so that

you can go and cut down your own tree and if you want to learn more go check

out the 18f blog where there are a few posts about our work with the Forest

Service thanks so much