Crater Lake

We filled out our 14 day detail in CA and stopped by Crater Lake on the way back. Really neat. My days off lined up nicely so I got a block of 3 days off and headed up to Spokane. Spent the night at a hot spring on the Umatilla NF and then met up with a buddy in the city. I went to the Whites Boots factory and got fitted for custom boots. The guy was amazing! He knew so much about their boots and about feet. Really impressive!

Down in California

Well I guess its been about a month since my last post. In that time I rappelled a fire in the Strawberry Wilderness just outside of John Day. It was about 30 ac. at the bottom of a steep south facing slope when we got to it and despite our best efforts it got away from us. I returned later in the week with our national helicopter for 6 or 7 days and staffed helispots, did cargo and crew shuttles. I got another operational rappel on that same fire to extinguish a hot spot near the retardant line high up in the rock cliffs but then we promptly got pulled off due to lightning and had to leave our gear on the hill, paving the way for my 3rd operational on the same fire to retreive our gear! About the same time I rappeled a fire on the Umatilla NF and spent 2 days there, including a grueling 110 lb. packout through blowdown. On Aug. 15th I got dispatched with 5 others to CA. We've been
moving every couple days and are now on the Red Rock Fire where I saw this cool Fire Cobra.

Dry Spell Continues

Well no fires yet. Very hot and dry weather but no lightning. There is a chance of lightening this weekend so fingers are crossed for that. The first crew that went to staff our national helicopter in California is back and the second crew for the helicopter left on Wednesday. I'll probably make the third crew in a couple weeks. In the meantime its just the old waiting game again. Everything is clean and organized so we are having to look harder for projects to stay busy. Some folks have elevated tool rehab to an art. The picture is of some of my favorites. I've been staying busy in our sew shop learning how to sew and working on putting together some packout bags.

Busy times...

Busy times at the rappel base! Its a pretty slow fire season nationwide right now and we're no exception. We had a small lightning bust around the 4th of July and I got on two fires but didn't get to rappel either. Our national helicopter went to California with a crew of 10 but other than that we've been spending a lot of quality time around the helibase. Its bound to pick up sooner or later though. It always does.

Rappel Academy

The week of rappel academy. Lots of tower work, some mock ups with the ship on the ground and then eight live rappels. All six of the Forest Service's northwest region rappel crews are here so its kind of a mad house. Lots of moving parts. Hopefully I can get some pictures and video up soon.

Keystone Fire

Made it on my first fire of the season! The Keystone Mine fire was 20 acres in mixed conifer on a steep south aspect. We IA'd the fire on Saturday and then came back Sunday morning to help mop up. It was a great little fire and a nice surprise. I wasn't expecting to get on a fire until after the academy was over. The grass is still green but the needle cast and dead and down debris is very dry, so we might see some more early fires.

Rookie Training

Well, I made it out to Oregon. I've just finished week one of the four week rookie training program with the Malheur Rappel Crew. The photo is from our first packout. We'll spend this week camping in the woods and brushing up on chainsaw skills, line digging and of course more running. the 3rd week will be S-271 (helicopter crewmember training) and the 4th will be the rappel academy where I will learn how to actually rappel.

Heading out to Oregon

Left for Oregon yesterday. Spent last night in Salina, Kansas and staying tonight with friends in Kemmerer, Wyoming. Tomorrow on to Utah, Idaho and finally Oregon! I was in Boone, NC last weekend for my WFR re-cert so when (and if!) I make it to Oregon that'll be my first cross country drive. This bear was welcoming customers to a gas station in Limon, CO.

S-390 in AZ

Most of the crew and I are headed out to Prescott, AZ for the Arizona Wildland Fire Academy this week. I'll be taking S-390, Introduction to Fire Behavior Calculations, and a one day sand table training course. I've been trying to take S-390 for a while so I'll be glad to get it out of the way. We started driving at 2030 last night and caught the sunrise in NM. There was even a little snow to break up the monotony!

Burning at Fort Chaffee

Just finished up a great burn run. We implemented 2800 acres, including 2200 acres at Fort Chaffee. I had the opportunity to lead all five of the Chaffee burns which was a great experience. We've got a contract to burn 5300 acres at Ft. Chaffee so we're close to half way way there!

Pinnacle Mtn. Rx Fire

We had the opportunity to burn out at Pinnacle Mountain State Park today. What a cool burn! Pinnacle is the northeastern extent of the Ouachita Mountain ridge systems across western Arkansas. I've been hiking there for years and every time thought, "Man, I wish they'd burn this!" The state park system in Arkansas has been slowly ramping up their prescribed fire program over the last couple years and this burn alone was several years in the making. Pinnacle Mtn. State Park is just west of Little Rock, so the burn would be a very public and political event and smoke management was definitely be an issue.
For all its complexity, the burn went off almost without a hitch. Over 600 acres of prescribed fire were implemented in about 4 hours. I had the opportunity to hike up to the top of the mountain with 7 other guys, then light our way down in a starburst pattern to mitigate the intensity of uphill runs. There is a trail that surrounds the base of the mountain and once all the interior igniters were clear of the unit the base was lit. It was a very cool burn and one that I'm glad I got to be a part of.
An added bonus was that we received very positive feedback from the public about the burn. Park rangers report that since the burn visitors have commented on how pleased they were that the park was burned. They appreciate the fuel reduction in their community and are interested to see the herbaceous response this spring. I am too!

TNC Arkansas' Prescribed Fire Blog

TNC Arkansas has started a blog to track all of our prescribed fire activities. When we get busy it'll probably get a bit backed up, but details of all our burns as well as photos, when available, will get posted there. Check it out and see what I've been up to since September!

http://streamrestoration.typepad.com/the_nature_conservancy_ar/

Five Months Later...

Wow! So I haven't posted anything in about 5 months and have undoubtedly lost all 5 readers that I had. Well, in that time I've moved back to Arkansas to begin work with The Nature Conservancy again, gotten married, honeymooned across New England and Quebec, and moved to a new place in Little Rock. My intentions were to keep this blog up over the winter and highlight some of my prescribed fire activities. Obviously that didn't happen. So what provoked me to start writing again you ask? The next wildfire season of course. Shortly after I finished wading through the application process I got a call from the Malheur Rappel Crew in John Day, OR and had a nice chat with them. They are a Forest Service Heli-Rappel crew on the Malheur National Forest. Two days later I interviewed for the job and got hired the next day. This is good news for several reasons: its a GS-05 level job (a step up from last season), its a rappel job on a reputable crew, and I don't have to worry about what summer job I'm going to end up with for the next couple months! Anyways, if anybody still checks this site, glad you stuck around and I'll try to get some Rx fire posts up in the near future.