Southern Fire Portal

3 vacancies in the following locations:

• Folkston, GA
• Sudbury, MA
• Burbank, WA

Wildland Fire Suppression:

• Provides oversight during initial and extended attack fires, directs fireline activities and tactics of dispersed firefighters, resources, equipment, and aircraft.
• Provides for follow-up actions to safely and effectively manage wildland fires.
• Assigns missions to ground and aviation wildland fire suppression resources. Makes efficient and effective use of multiple types of interagency wildland fire suppression resources with varying capabilities. Ensures common communications for interagency resources. Monitors weather and fire behavior, and communicates changes to strategy and tactics. Transfers command to an upper level Incident Management Team as necessary.
• Provides protection for life, property and resources. Selects strategies and tactics to ensure safe operations for assigned resources. Recognizes potential hazardous situations and provides operational briefings. Initiates contacts with federal, state, and/or local law enforcement personnel as necessary to close roads, evacuate structures, and deal with the public.
• Coordinates with dispatch office regarding current fire behavior and fire conditions, release of resources, and other logistical considerations.
• Responsible for the development of incident objectives and strategies and tactics, to provide for safe operations and cost effective incident management.
• Conducts After Action Reviews and makes adjustments or implements corrective actions.
• Serves as the lead for local level preparedness reviews. May serve as a subject matter expert for State and national level preparedness reviews.
• Responsible for ensuring that required documentation is completed and submitted by subordinates. Conducts audits, reviews and approves fire reports completed by others. Initiates cost share agreements for payment of expenses associated with individual incidents.
• May manage national wildland fire support resources (e.g., lnteragency Hotshot Crews, aviation assets, or other types of specialized modules).

Non-Suppression Operations:

• Performs, and supervises employees in a variety of fire management positions such as: fire prevention, preparedness, detection, resource rehabilitation, mobilization, prescribed fire, aviation operations, and training programs.
• Ensures preparedness of wildland fire suppression equipment and personnel. Serves on preparedness review teams.
• Responsible for fire caches; maintains inventory and accountable property; positions equipment and personnel for the most efficient response; evaluates equipment and personnel needs; and develops and prioritizes equipment and personnel funding requests. May be responsible for subunit caches as appropriate.
• Conducts field reconnaissance of proposed prescribed burn units, makes recommendations on appropriate treatment techniques for meeting management objectives, drafts prescribed burn plans to meet those objectives and implements approved prescribed burn plans. Performs post-burn evaluation and completes documentation.
• Develops and revises interagency annual operating plans, annual budget requests, the fire management plan and operating procedures pertaining to preparedness, wildland fire suppression, and prescribed fire.
• Assists in wildland fire management planning, coordination and implementation including, but not limited to, fire assistance program coordination, interdisciplinary team participation, National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and other compliance document preparation, contracting, fire rehabilitation planning, and fire mitigation measures.
• Provides oversight and management for fire facilities within the zone/area. Assists in managing the budget for facility maintenance, supplies, and equipment. Requests long- and short-term funding for wildland fire facility maintenance and improvements.
• Coordinates wildland fire and aviation related training courses and serves as a lead instructor for 300-400 level courses at the local, regional and interagency levels. Coordinates wildland fire training needs for unit personnel and submits training nominations. Develops and delivers specific training for unique unit issues.
• May serve as the unit training officer.
• Responsible for hiring of seasonal employees, employee onboarding off boarding, and remedial HR actions.
• Reviews and approves fire reports. Conducts audits of reports entered by subordinates.
• May serve as a Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) and may be responsible for the preparation of contract specifications and performance measures.
• May serve as the agency fire management representative at local cooperator meetings in the absence of the Fire Management Office or Assistant Fire Management Officer.

The Department of Applied Ecology at North Carolina State University, in collaboration with the Department of Statistics, the North Carolina Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, and the USGS Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center, will be hiring a Postdoctoral Research Scholar in data science to assist with efforts to develop a prototype early warning system for Prescribed Fire Managers (PFMs). The primary research objective of the successful candidate is to characterize short, medium, and long-term climatological-risk for PFMs in the Southeast US, and to build a framework that allows for optimal decision making under uncertainty.

The successful candidate will work with Drs. Brian Reich (Statistics), Jaime Collazo (Applied Ecology), and Adam Terando (USGS) to model environmental conditions conducive to prescribed burning activities over time scales of days to decades in the future. Three major objectives of the position include 1). Define, identify, and model ‘fail-states’, or the sets of conditions that PFMs wish to avoid 2) Model risk exposure of PFMs given existing numerical model simulations of future climate over near-term (days) to long-term (decades) time scales, and 3) develop spatio-temporal models to characterize extreme wildfire risk on decadal time scales.

The incumbent will also join a national cohort as part of the National and Regional Climate Adaptation Postdoctoral Fellows (CAPF) Program. The SE CAPF scholar will collaborate with other cohort scholars from across the country on national-scale research and synthesis on climate-fire issues and participate in regular training and professional development opportunities, including training on translational ecology, co-production of actionable science with natural resource decision-makers, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

This is a two (2) year position, contingent on availability of funding, based in the Department of Applied Ecology and the Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center at North Carolina State University in close collaboration with the Department of Statistics. The successful candidate will be jointly mentored by Drs. Brian Reich, Adam Terando, and Jaime Collazo.

The Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management, Oklahoma State University, is seeking qualified individuals to work on a research project funded through the South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center (South Central-CASC). The research aims to understand the nexus of climate change and prescribed fire risk analysis, tolerance, and communication.

The Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management (NREM) at Oklahoma State University invites applications for a full-time, eleven-month, tenure-track position (75% Research and 25% Teaching) in fire modeling. The department is seeking a candidate to contribute to research related to understanding wildland fire behavior and risk in Oklahoma and the United States. Application and/or development of models to understand fire behavior at multiple spatial scales is required. Possible outcomes of research include improved management of fuels and smoke with prescribed fire, reduction of wildfire risk and mitigation of its effects to infrastructure, reduced impacts of smoke on human health, and improved ecosystem function. The successful candidate is expected to work closely with multidisciplinary faculty in natural resources, climatology, social science, and engineering to meet the needs of diverse stakeholder groups.

Review of applications will begin December 15, 2020, and will continue until a suitable candidate is identified.  The position will be filled by June 1, 2021, or as soon thereafter as an outstanding candidate is available.