OP, you might want to check out wildland fire hotlist if you haven't. Kid of a fusty forum culture, but there aren't many places online where you'll find more guys who have fought wildfire in Alaska.
>>1128442>Get on a private fire crew that actually cares about the environment.u fokken wot m8
this is such a strange suggestion I don't know where to begin. I went out with Grayback last season, and two things were readily apparent:
1) we pretty much did what other resources of the same ICS type did, plus or minus an increased willingness to take risks (this mostly applied to the more experienced type II IA crews.). dig line, mop up, a little restoration, a little brushing, patrol the roads, lay hose, project work when we weren't on fires. We weren't doing anything the Feds weren't also doing, and the Feds weren't doing anything we weren't also doing. Well, except the jumpers/hotshots/helitack guys were getting wilder IA and more remote assignments, but, you know, duh. And all the other contract crews I saw were doing pretty much the same shit we were. So I don't know how contract crews could possibly be doing more good than Federal crews.
2) most of my coworkers were redneck logger types, not that there's anything wrong with that but again I have no idea how you look at a company made up of those guys and think "ah yes, true stewards of the wild, not like the Feds." The other contractors I worked with were mostly about the same. Except some of them were fresh over the border Mexicans, but again, not a group known for a strong conservation ethic.
>>1128451A fair amount of wildland firefighting is farmed out to private contractors. Grayback is probably the biggest and has the biggest online presence. There's also PatRick, Dustbusters, and a bunch of smaller ones. Engines and hand crews alike.
