Season Retrospective

So its been over two months since the last post although it doesn't feel that long. While a lot has happened in that time it has really been a slow season. I've only IA'd a handful of fires and gotten to rappel a few; thankfully though I've spent a fair amount of time out of John Day either boosting other bases or on helibases somewhere. Now we are in that awkward late season phase where we're not sure if we should expect more fire or not. Fuels are still dry but the days are cooler and there is more rain in the forecast.

All in all a good season though. We are rappelling after much uncertainty, R6 has rappelled a bunch of fires safely and we have a really solid crew.

Rookie Academy

Vet academy is over and I am finally a re-certified rappeller. Rookie academy started today with half of this year's rookies familiarizing themselves with the equipment and learning basic procedures. They ended the day on the low station on the rappel simulator and tomorrow should progress to the high tower. We launched our IA ship for a fire on the south end of the forest but got turned around after sizing the fire up. Looks like fire season is just around the corner.

Vet Academy

Veteran Rappel Academy started today with Frazier, Sled Springs and MRC vets getting briefed on the protocol changes this year and hitting the high tower. Everything went smoothly and tomorrow we'll head out to the machines for some mock-ups, then live rappels. Finally! Its hard to believe that we're actually doing it but everyone is pretty stoked about it.

Rappel Ops a go!

After much hair pulling and nail biting we found out today that the rappel program will stand up for the 2010 season! The program was stood down in the off season for several reasons and we were supposed to hear whether or not we'd be able to slide ropes in early May. Instead we had to post-pone the veteran and rookie academies and wait (not so) patiently to hear the verdict. With the good news in hand we'll start vet academy on Thursday and then rookie academy the following Monday or Tuesday. Let the games begin!

An Update

A lot has happened in the last couple weeks. Sunday of Memorial day weekend I got a call about a single resource HECM assignment to Alaska. I flew into Fairbanks the next day with two other guys from the crew and we were welcomed by a thick haze of smoke in the city. The Alaska Fire Service headquarters at Ft. Wainwright was swamped with people from the lower 48 and it was kind of a mad house. We got briefed that night and I traveled to the Toklat fire near Anderson the next day. After a day at the Clear helibase I got sent out to helispot 40 and stayed there the rest of the assignement. After a day or two it started raining a fair bit and the fire calmed down significantly. Crews started demobing but there were plenty of HECMs left spread out over the fire so we started doing structure protection and hot spotting, which meant lots of long boat rides. This fire's location, like most of the interior of Alaska, was in a roadless area and boats were the primary means of transportation. I filled out my assignment working out of H-40 and got driven back to AFS on my 14th day. Flights out of AK were pretty booked with firefighters heading back down south so I had to spend an extra day at Ft. Wainwright, which was fine with me. All in all a really lucky opportunity for me and a great experience. The photo above shows an awesome plumbed saw line that Chena IHC put in through some black spruce.

Aldrich Mtns.

We spent last week training in the Aldrich mountains west of town. It is a great opportunity to practice what we preach, or as the saying around the base goes, "Work like you train and train like you work." While it snowed and/or rained on us every day, it was a very successful week of experiential learning filled with saw training, PT, SAR and medical scenarious, PT, line digs, live fire training, and oh yeah, more PT. Camping in the woods for a week is also a great way to start the ever important crew cohesion process. The program is a great way to shake the cobwebs off, gain some valuable training and evaluate the rookies.

Day Two

Day two is over. Looks like a really good rookie class this year. Fit and motivated. It brings back a lot of memories from when I showed up not knowing what to expect last year. Its a lot different being the returning vet! I'm very much looking forward to the rest of the season.
Our first helicopter showed up today, a Bell 205A++, which is basically a souped up civilian version of the Huey. Looks like a great ship and I can't wait to fly in it.

Another Season

After another successful season of prescribed fire with The Nature Conservancy of Arkansas (and a consequent 6 months of blog neglect) I'm back out in John Day, OR for another season on the Malheur Rappel Crew. Do I still have any readers? Probably not. Oh well. I'll try to keep the blog up to date this summer with fires etc. but if you want more info check me out on Facebook. Yeah, I finally gave in and signed up this fall. Work starts tomorrow! PT test, pack test, paperwork and more. Looks like rain so it should be interesting.

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/