Summer fire season nears as many wildland firefighting jobs are vacant

[Pivo]

The forecast for a hotter-than-normal summer has Westerners on edge, especially with up to a quarter of all U.S. federal wildland firefighter jobs currently unfilled.

Audio.

[Jim]

Had the FS not been so aggressive with fire suppression for 100 years many fires could be managed to fill their ecological role.

Can't say if it is related or not, but I talked to several USFS employees who encouraged me to apply for positions with the feds claiming they have many unfilled positions and are short staffed everywhere. The claim will initially be one reason or another, but they will eventually say it is due to an ideologically driven HR department that isn't hiring guys that look like me. This could be the case with fire, but also why would you pursue a dead end job that is not coming competitive with an Amazon job? I left the field for that reason in 2007.

[Pivo]

@Jim_H
Wild land firefighting as I understand it is one of the most dangerous jobs. Why would someone want to do it if they're so underpaid.

[Jim]

@Pivo
Path to a career. The CEO of the SAF was a hotshot 24 years ago.

[Pivo]

An all women’s fire crew in western Colorado clears a path for more women in wildland firefighting. I remember seeing a NM Carson NF Hotshot crew training on Blackett's Ridge a couple of years back; there were five women on the crew.

https://www.ksut.org/news/2024-06-10/an ... refighting