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!