And so begins the 2009 fire season

With snow. Actually, we got started down in the Ozarks with a month of prescribed fire and a few small wildfires. Now we are back in Custer, with snow on the ground, a broke-down truck, and no clue as to where we are heading next.

The Ozarks were fun. I guess it is a crazy tourist area in the summer, but it was quiet while we were there. Very rednecky, reminds me a lot of the country where I grew up. Putting in fire line with a leaf blower was strange, but it definitely lets your mind wander more than with a chainsaw.

I'll get some pics on here soon, but for now, here is the crew. Yabba-dabba-do indeed.

Back to work, fools!

I'm back at work after being furloughed since early November. It is strange to be starting when there is snow on the ground, and temps still getting down in the single digits. But we'll be heading down to the Ozarks to burn and do initial attack on wildfires, maybe as soon as next weekend. I look forward to it, we should have a good time and get back in the groove.

Non-traditional

Visiting friends and family, I'm reminded again and again how odd our lifestyle is. We talk to people who are grateful they don't have to work until after New Years- I don't have to work until mid-February. They go to the office at 8, return home after 4:30. I too go to the office at 8, but may not return home for 18 days or more. During those work days away, it isn't unusual for me to help set hundreds of acres of forest or grassland on fire, cut down hundreds of trees, and cook most of my meals over an open fire. My office is the public lands of around half of the country; that is very cool. I can see a time coming when the road time and sheer grinding physicality of it gets old, but for now it is fun.

Si, se puede!

Update!

It is snowing in Seattle, and everyone is freaking out. It doesn’t snow often enough for people to deal well with it here. I’m finally recovered from a cold, and antsy to get out, even if it means a slippery run through the snow hiding the ice (left over from the previous snow). If the weather bums me out, I look at the forecast for Custer, SD, and at least we aren’t back there yet.
So, much time has passed since an update. To summarize: we moved to Custer, I started work with the Black Hills Fire Use Module, burned some in ND and SD, rented a house, got furloughed till february, hung out a bit, then hit the road. We’re doing a big triangle, visiting friends and family in CO, AZ, CA, and now WA. Soon, back to Custer, then to Houghton for me to finally defend my MS coffee research.
It has been fun to be on the road for pleasure rather than work. We camped on the Pacific, rode the tandem through Saguaro national park, drank beer at the Pike Brewery, had great espresso and baked goods in at least 5 states, and made it to Seattle before this unusually nasty weather set in.
I'll add some pics shortly.

And the sun sets on fire season

It was a long, short season. Long because I've logged 700 hours of overtime since mid-May. Those that came on just before me are at 850 hours for the season, since they got to go burn at Yosemite. For me, that equals about 35 hours of overtime a week, which is a lot. Still, it has felt short, since it never really felt like fire season got rolling. California burned, but nowhere else did much. The fire use we just got back from in Oregon was quiet & cold. We got snowed on June 13th, and saw some flurries again on August 31st. Now we are looking at a lull until we start getting ordered for prescribed fires. I may not be able to go if we don't leave soon, since I need to start in the Black Hills at the end of September.

Still, the quiet has been welcome- I got the first real long weekend of the year, so we went over to Red Lodge, MT, and camped/hiked/biked in snow & rain sprinkles. It was fun anyway.

A brief sojourn in the Park

I've worked at Yellowstone since april, but have only spent a few days actually in the park- our job has been far more likely to bring us to California this year. So when we were out in Cali and heard rumours of a fire making thousand acre runs in Yellowstone, we figured that was where we would end up next. Sure enough, we did, just in time for the fire to really lay down and mostly go out. Still, we got five days of good work in on it, mostly pulling hose from the firelines and from around structures at Fishing Bridge, rehabbing line, and general clean-up. It was gorgeous out there, and every day brought National Geographic moments- the moon coming out from behind a cloud as a bison ambles by and a flock of Canada geese fly overhead. Sunrises & sunsets over Yellowstone Lake, each spectacular and unique.

Now it seems like fire season is dying down, a really odd situation for mid-August. We'll get out again soon enough, but many crews and resources are just sitting around. Since we aren't very well paid, most folks depend on some overtime to make ends meet, especially those of us who are laid-off during the winter, and this may not pan out for many this year.

And finally, it seems almost definite that Karinne, Java, and I will be moving soon to the Black Hills of South Dakota. I got a permanent job on the Black Hills Fire Use Module, and will be starting as soon as the slow gears of government hiring can crank my paperwork through the system. It'll be a longer season there, with more prescribed fire, which is what I like. The Hills were my first experience with living in the West, way back in '96, and I've liked them ever since.

California Stars

Sometimes I look through these pics I take on fire assignments and lament that they are not very representative of the work we do. I'm often only pulling out my camera when there is some down time. When we are chasing a spot fire, lighting off hillsides during burnout operations, or even just hauling heavy loads up and down ridiculous slopes, the camera mostly stays nestled deep in my pack. It also stays there when we are stretched out on the ground, wrapped in space blankets, trying to catch a quick nap at 3AM, or when we are putting in huge amounts of highway and dirt road time (we have covered over 10,000 miles since I started here in mid-April). I often marvel at how strange and unpredictable my job can be, especially when I think of the jobs that most other 33-year-olds hold down here in the U.S.A. For example, the other day the radio crackled to life at around 3AM, saying the winds that'd kept us from lighting off a burnout since 6PM had died down. We woke up the few that were sleeping, grabbed drip torches, and ended up igniting a hillside until around 8AM. While snapping out of a fitful half-unconscious state was hard, it was still a good shift of work, especially once it got light out. The local newspapers had opinion columns by people angry about how much control efforts focused on burnouts (the smoke aggravated them, especially since most of these fires had been burning over a month). But really, in such steep, rocky terrain, there is no other option, and I have little sympathy for people who live in the American west but don't want to deal with the realities of the ecosystem, namely the need for and pervasiveness of fire for months on end during the summer. Ok, I'm going to step down off my soapbox, crack open a beer, and make dinner.