Introducing Prescribed Firelighter
A new adventure for those who want to learn, be, and do more with Prescribed Fire
No longer the forgotten stepchild…
…of Wildland Fire! As we start to realize that over 80 years of “ONLY YOU…”/“PREVENT ALLLLLL WILDFIRES” has definitely done more ecological harm than good, that we need to learn to ADAPT to fire instead of trying to conquer it - we need a new breed of folks engaging in Prescribed Fire practices.
I spent ~18 years in the Wildland Fire world, almost all of it out West, where Prescribed Fire was something you did in the shoulder season as a kind of “warm-up/cool-down” from the busy summer fire season. Chunk away a couple hundred acres at a time:
Hey it’s overtime, in a time of year when overtime is pretty scarce, in a career where you need a few hundred hours of OT just to make some modest ends meet. Oh right, there’s ecological benefits too.
At least, that was the prevalent thinking when I was growing up in fire in the 2000s, and I know I wasn’t the only one.
Now, as I’ve been in it almost 20 years and pivoted to Prescribed Fire as a primary focus - one that’s growing rapidly as people realize that “hey maybe there’s something to this “prescribed fire” thing,” I see many smaller competing interests trying to put their own fingerprints and spin on it.
NWCG (the overarching Federal Land Management Fire standards group) has its giant hand in the middle of things, but so does each State - and the standards vary WIDELY from “you must have been a Federal Burn Boss” (which is a 6-8 year path of classes and experience in a full-time wildland fire position - and that’s if you’re “fast-tracked”) to “here take this 8 hour online course and you’re good to do complex urban interface burns!”
No matter what, nobody knows it all…
…even me, especially me. I teach on University of Idaho’s S-290 “Anticipating Wildland Fire Behavior” cadre and even I learn something new every. single. time! Maybe it’s a tip on something region-specific from someone somewhere else; I almost always learn something new from the other cadre members as we chat fire behavior and effects.
So my goal, with this new effort, is to promote fire knowledge and culture in private lands Prescribed Fire. No matter whether you’re a 20+ year fire vet or just took your 20-hour online course to be a “Certified Burn Manager” and know generally what fire is - I’m hoping to bring you something new and informative, as frequently as possible while still remaining a Fire Practitioner myself.
I already started…
…with my YouTube channel! I have a playlist set up specifically for Prescribed Fire tools, tips, and information - you should check it out! If you find it useful or informative, drop a comment, a like, subscribe - all of it helps me get the word out and share my experiences and knowledge with a broader audience.
Also, if you’re not already subscribed here, now’s a good time! Here I’ll even provide you a handy button!
In closing
Let’s start building that Learning Culture in Prescribed Fire - let’s not be content with “status quo” and “ops normal”, let’s push ourselves and each other to learn more, be more, and do more with fire to better habitat for ourselves and wildlife!