Fire Prevention Portal

Positions are being filled under the Pathways Student Internship Authority which is designed to provide students enrolled in a variety of educational institutions, from high school to graduate level, with paid work opportunities in agencies to explore federal careers while in school.

Responsibilities:

• The incumbent of this position performs a variety of clearly defined tasks within one or more functional areas of biological sciences.
• Biological sciences include forestry, rangeland management, wildlife biology, fish biology, ecology, botany, recreation, natural resources management, biological sciences, and other related disciplines.
• Assignments will vary by Agency and setting.
• The major duties include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Develops and applies knowledge of principles, concepts, work processes, and regulations of one or more functional areas of biological science.
• Assists in one or more phases of the research process.
• Performs routine techniques using a variety of specialized equipment.
• Records instrument readings, collects samples, and takes measurements.
• Maintains inventory of chemical and biological materials.
• Maintains work area in a neat and orderly manner
• Forest Service incumbents in wildland fire management may also perform the following:
• Develops and applies knowledge of fuels management and fire suppression techniques.
• Cleans, reconditions, and stores fire tools and equipment.
• Serves as a member of fire crew assigned to suppress wildland fires.
• Reviews detailed procedural instructions and receives in-depth on-the-job and formal classroom training.

POSITION PURPOSE: To expose candidates to a wide variety of functions within the Company, to include botany, wildlife, fisheries, timber cruising, forest engineering, sales, timberland services, forestry, and operations.Designed to provide an opportunity to gain an understanding of the processes and roles within Green Diamond at multiple locations within the company.

DUTIES:  Plans, coordinates, and facilitates wildland fire prevention and pre-suppressions actions to reduce hazard and fire fuels in and around the project area. Drives to field sites to implement fire pre-suppression actions through vegetation control through manual and chemical means in challenging terrain. Ensures successful completion of projects and participant safety. Works with NNRM Staff, partners, collaborators, and permit holders to coordinate volunteer service projects, restoration activities, and outplanting and weed removal efforts.  Designs and creates displays, presentations, websites, social media, various documents (e.g., flyers, handouts, brochures) and related materials for use in fire prevention outreach and education events. Attends and helps plan community and outreach events to educate the community on wildland fire prevention and pre-suppression.  Work includes but not limited to, volunteer event coordination and participation, outreach material development, and coordination of meetings with the local community.  Processes, organizes, files all paperwork, spreadsheets and reports following completion of outreach programs and volunteer days, and maintains records. Provides monthly reports on number of education visits, hours worked on service projects, accomplishments, challenges faced, and ideas for improving the fire prevention program. Oversees up to six (6) summer and seasonal interns and up to thirty (30) volunteers.  Assists with weed monitoring and control, out planting, fence construction, repair and maintenance, seed collection and propagation, wildlife and plant surveys and related activities.  Must be able/willing to work on nights and weekends and occasionally camp. This position is not involved in direct action on fire suppression operations and will not be exposed to the hazards and risks of fireline personnel.

The Boise National Forest will advertiseto fill two (2) GS-0460-7/9 Forester's to serve as projectleaders supervising field crews of permanent seasonal employees for the Boise-Payette Timber Strike Team.

This is a unique group within the Forest Service that provides employees with valuable operational forestry skills. Team members have an opportunity to see how vegetation management is applied across different Forest programs, network with other forestry professionals, and explore landscapes throughout the Intermountain Region.

Every two years, the Southern Fire Exchange collects information in an online survey in order to understand whether we are meeting the needs of the Southeast fire community and to help us shape the future of our programming. Please take a few minutes to participate in the survey and help us continue to offer the best in wildland fire science communication.

The Field Steward (FS) provides technical leadership and support to a business unit plans and directs preserve management programs and stewardship within the PFBE ecoregion.  The FS addresses critical threats to natural systems and individual species, fosters cross-site learning among conservation community, and supplies conservation planning teams with site or landscape level information relevant to the planning process.  The FS assists with conservation strategies, land protection, and implements strategies to secure public and private support for TNC conservation priorities.  The FS coordinates community support, ensures the maintenance of preserve areas frequented by the visiting public and coordinates multiple projects, sets deadlines and manages completion.  The FS manages TNC staff, interns, volunteers, and contracts to accomplish land management goals throughout the work geography.

The International Association of Fire Chiefs, National Association of State Foresters, National Fire Protection Association, and USDA Forest Service are now accepting nominations for the 2020 Wildfire Mitigation Awards.    
 
The Wildfire Mitigation Awards (WMA) are the highest national honor one can receive for outstanding work and significant program impact in wildfire preparedness and mitigation.  The three award categories are:

•     National Wildfire Mitigation Award
•     National Mitigation Hero Award
•     Wildfire Mitigation Legacy Award

These awards are designed to recognize outstanding service in wildfire preparedness and safety across a broad spectrum of activities and among a variety of individuals and organizations. By honoring these achievements, the award sponsors also seek to increase public recognition and awareness of the value of wildfire mitigation efforts.

We encourage you to  gather your information to nominate some very deserving folks for these prestigious awards! The recipient does not need to be an IAWF member to receive an award. Awards will be announce and/or presented at one of our upcoming IAWF Conferences in 2020.

If you’ve nominated someone in the past and they were not selected as the recipient, please do not hesitate to re-nominate them. At times we have numerous deserving folks, however, at this time we are only able to select one person per award.

Text of the International Association of Wildland Fire (IAWF) statement:

Climate change has already had significant consequences in the global wildfire reality, affecting citizens as well as the global wildland fire community. Many key issues of importance to the IAWF - including firefighter and civilian safety, fire management expenses, changing weather patterns, natural role of fire, fire regimes and ecosystem succession, as well as the wildland urban interface - all require recognition of the role of climate change.

Globally, we regularly see new reports about the “worst”, “largest”, “most expensive”, and “deadliest” fires and fire seasons. In 2019 and 2018, striking headlines read “Arctic on Fire” (Sweden, Russia, Greenland, Canada and Alaska), and the most expensive and largest fire years were recorded in 2018 in California and British Columbia, respectively, breaking the previous records set in 2017. The Camp Fire (CA, 2018), Attica Greece (2018), Black Saturday Australia (2009), and Portugal (2017) fires were all ranked amongst the top 11 deadliest fires in the last 100 years.

Under current climate change scenarios, fire regimes will change in terms of increases in burned area, severity, fire season length, frequency, and ignitions from lightning. Many parts of the world have already experienced an increase in record breaking temperatures and recurring droughts that have led to shifts in wildland fire. There is already evidence of climate-driven fire regime change in the Northern Hemisphere upper latitudes with fire risk increasing in non-traditional fire-prone countries. The consequences of human actions are here today, not in some distant future, and these are alarming and, most important, escalating.

The IAWF encourages all countries to emphasize increased international fire training and to implement easier cross-border sharing of professional fire management resources for suppression and prescribed fire opportunities. These will lessen the irrationally heavy burden any single country will have to carry to manage extreme fire seasons. Homes and communities must be better planned and built, so they are increasingly fire resistant and more adapted to natural disasters of all types. Health impacts of fires have long-term consequences, not only those that are immediate from the flames but also those from smoke and toxins, and these must be considered when planning and managing for future wildland fires. Wildfires and smoke do not recognize borders. As the global community tries to manage the new wildfire challenges, it is incumbent on everyone to prepare to support international neighbours in protecting lives and communities from fires and their impacts.

IAWF Vice-President Toddi Steelman recently said in Wildfire magazine (August 2019) that “Recent extreme weather events have catalysed public belief in, and concern about, climate change, and boosted public support for government actions to reduce its harmful impacts. This gives us a window of opportunity when conditions are right to make great strides on climate if we are strategic about it.” This window of opportunity requires people having the knowledge and political will to act now. Our global scientific community needs to publicly share knowledge learned about patterns of extreme wildland fire and weather, as well as how climate change is associated with these patterns. Our global fire management community needs to leverage its credibility to share its experiences about how climate change and its role in extreme weather is playing out in their day to day work environments. Connecting extreme weather events to real on-the-ground consequences can help more people understand how climate impacts are affecting us all.

The Lake States Fire Science Consortium (LSFSC) is committed to ensuring that the ‘best available science’ is available for planning and managing northern fire-dependent ecosystems of the Lake States. Where there are current gaps in the science, the goal of the LSFSC is to assist in filling those gaps so that science informs practice and vice-versa. Unfortunately, for many local fire management issues, there are few resources available to bring managers and scientists together to solve these important issues.

In an effort to enhance the opportunities for managers and scientists to work together, and to expose future professionals to opportunities of management and research collaborations, the LSFSC requests proposals to fund research internships that address relevant fire science and management issues associated with northern fire-dependent ecosystems of the Lake States region (See our Ecosystems page for a description of fire-dependent ecosystems that are the focus of the Lake States Fire Science Consortium). Proposals must be developed by joint manager-scientist teams (i.e. both must be listed as co-PIs and equally contribute to proposal development) and outline how the research internship will address a critical need that will help improve management of fire-dependent ecosystems locally. Preference will be given to partnerships that have not yet received funding from the program.

The LSFSC anticipates awarding several $4,000 research internship awards. It is expected that 100% of the funds should go to support the undergraduate internship experience (preferably for salary, though a limited amount of funds may be used to purchase materials and supplies needed to complete the project - funds should not be used as a supplement or summer salary for graduate students). All proposals must be submitted by 5:00 PM Eastern / 4:00 PM Central on Monday, December 9, 2019 by email to Jack McGowan-Stinski. There will be no exceptions to this closing date and time.

The Northeast Region of the Washington State Department of Natural Resources is currently recruiting for four Non-Perm, State Uplands Foresters (Natural Resources Specialist 1) to join our team of Silviculture Foresters. 
 
Are you someone who loves the outdoors, and is passionate about natural resource forester opportunities in Washington State? If you love working in the outdoors, appreciate a remote natural environment, and have good practical field skills with a proven ability for working in a small team, then this is the job for you.
 
These positions will assist the Silviculture Foresters in implementing sound ecological forest management that generates revenue while improving forest health and habitat.  Position responsibilities include assisting in the layout of timber sales. This work includes, locating and marking timber sale unit boundaries, tree marking, GPS mapping, locating and delineating riparian buffers or other sensitive areas, road layout, cruising, and developing detailed summary reports. Additional silvicultural duties include conducting stand surveys, preparing and administering pre-commercial thinning, tree planting and fuels reduction contracts under the agency's forest health program. In addition, this position will assess the health of stands and recommend silvicultural prescriptions and harvest strategies.
 
We have opportunities available in the following locations:

• Arcadia (Deer Park, WA)
• North Columbia (Colville, WA)
• South Okanogan (Omak, WA)
• Highlands (Loomis, WA)