What is Wildland Fire Fighting?

• Sustainable Forestry
  - Maintaining a healthy forest by sustainable logging, invasive species management, watershed protection and maintaining tree variety.
• Prescribed Burns
  -Burning heavy undergrowth and brush to allow strength in trees and prevent ground cover that encourages extreme fire behaviour
• Defensible Space Maintenance
  - Clearing and trimming areas around houses and roads to create natural and man made fire lines which help prevent wide spread destruction due to wildland fires
• Active Fire Suppression
  - Contract, Federal and State resources deploying hand crews, Engines, Tankers, Helicopters, dozers and more in a military style to work together on a wildland fire. Hand crews use hand tools and chainsaws to creating boundary lines around the fire to prevent further spreading. Tankers and Helicopters perform dumps of retardant and water to suppress flames. Dozers create fire lines and engines provide mobile water for wet mopping and occasionally active suppression. 

Wildland firefighters are tasked with combating wildfires and preventing future fires from starting. Wildland firefighting agencies operate at the federal level (National Park Service, Forest Service Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs), the state level (Fish and Game, Land Management, Emergency Services, Fire and Rescue) at the contracting level (Private Wildland contractors, such as Oregon Woods, Inc.) and at the local level where forest land lies within the incorporated area. While some wildland firefighters work year-round and some work only during the fire season, the work is always strenuous and positions are always highly competitive. 

Most duties are related to prescribed burning, wildfire suppression, and fire preparedness. These duties include serving as a firefighter or engine operator during prescribed burning and wildfire suppression activities; conducting regular maintenance and repairs on various equipment such as fire engines, tractors, mowers, chain saws, and hand tools; serving as a crew member during fire break preparation which involves rock removal, mowing, trimming, tree and brush removal. You may have the potential to assist federal or state agencies throughout the nation with prescribed burning and wildfire suppression.