Wildland Fire

Wildland Fire, an Introduction:

European colonists to North America struggled to understand the natural and anthropogenic fire regimes of the native forests, woodlands, and grasslands.  Many North American landscapes prior to European settlement featured plant communities and assemblages of communities specially adapted to specific landscape-level fire return intervals.  With the establishment of European agricultural and land tenancy practices, fire on the landscape became regarded as a destructive and wasteful occurrence to be prevented at all costs.  This led to an era of fire suppression which drastically altered disturbance regimes and sped the succession of fire-originated plant communities towards greater fire-intolerant species composition and/or structure.  Without the myriad of fire effects which often serve to reduce the intensity of subsequent fire, catastrophic stand-replacing fires became more frequent and served to further reduce diversity of disturbance history across the landscape.  This is the case today with land managers seeking to increase diversity of disturbance history and restore fire-adapted plant communities through fuel treatments including mechanical and prescribed burning.  Most efforts are focused on reducing likely fire severity in the "wildland-urban interface" between fire-adapted plant communities and developed property such as homes and resorts that may be threatened by an intense wildfire.



Wildland Fire as a Profession:

Wildland Fire is a growing field within the natural resources profession.  Many career opportunities abound in job fields such as wildfire suppression, fuels management, and ecological restoration.  Agencies and organizations especially value candidates with expertise and experience in fire ecology and composing fire prescriptions.  For the entry-level candidate, many agencies recruit and train young wildland firefighters for hand- and engine crews, thereby providing many job opportunities wherein early-career professionals can develop skills and needed career experience.

Training:
The National Wildfire Coordinating Group is the certification body responsible for developing standardized training programs in Wildland Firefighting.  These training programs are taught and administered by member agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), US Forest Service (USFS), and National Park Service (NPS).

For the natural resources professional interested in becoming a certified Wildland Firefighter, the first and most basic certification to pursue is the Wildland Firefighter Type II (FFT2).  To find a training class near you, visit the National Schedule of Wildland Fire Training.

Other opportunities exist for training including organizations such as the Colorado Fire Camp and the Mid-Atlantic Wildfire Training Academy.  Organizations such as these train and assist participants in gaining employment.

Federal Wildland Fire Positions:
Wildland Firefighter positions within agencies of the US Federal Government are notoriously competitive. As an aspiring wildland firefighter, seek out summer temporary hiring outreach notices sent out to public universities such as can be found at the Texas A&M Job Board.  Federal outreach notices give instructions on where and how to apply for available temporary seasonal positions. A new wildland firefighter is most likely to qualify at the GS-3 level on a hand or engine crew team.  HOTSHOT and smokejumper positions are usually available only to those with multiple seasons of wildland firefighting experience and are the most competitive.

Where to Apply:
Search USAJobs, The Nature Conservancy's Career page, or various State career websites for available opportunities.