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In our second episode of the Women in Wildfire series, we brought on Banff National Park Fire and Vegetation Management Specialist Jane Park, who on top of being a profound presence in the wildfire and prescribed fire management space is also, quite simply, really frickin cool (and very fun to chat with). Jane is a Korean-Canadian woman and a type one incident commander; she has also played a huge role in building more diversity within the Canada Parks system, and has notable on-the-ground achievements in bringing more progressive fire management to Banff National Park.



We broke this conversation up in to two parts, with the first focusing on fire ecology/regimes in and around Banff, as well as some of the prescribed fire initiatives Jane has led in the park (and lots more). Stay tuned for the second half of our conversation with Jane, which will be published later next week.

Prescribed Fire Management in Banff National Park with Jane Park

There&#8217;s a chance you&#8217;ve seen Nez Perce wildland firefighter and model Celilo Miles in a recent advertisement for Victoria&#8217;s Secret—in it, she wears Nomex pants and holds her hard hat, emblazoned with the Nez Perce Tribe&#8217;s fire management program logo. After seeing the ad making the rounds in the wildland fire community, we tracked Celilo down to chat about her background as both a wildland firefighter and a model and how her appearance in the VS advertisement came about. She spoke about balancing modeling and fire, and what each vocation has taught her about the other. We also spoke about the dynamic of being a woman in fire, during which she provided some suggestions for other woman who are interested in fire or are just getting started. This episode is the first in our series on women in wildfire, which will run until early May.<a href="https://lifewithfirepodcast.com/episodes/prescribed-fire-management-in-banff-national-park-with-jane-park"></a>

From Fashion Week to the Fireline with Celilo Miles

The Mt. Adams Resource Stewards in Washington State is an excellent example of hyper-local solutions to community fire resilience. Started in 2004 by this week&#8217;s guest, Jay McLaughlin, the organization now boasts a community forest, a 10-person stewardship crew, community development programs and fire adaptation resources for nearby communities. Jay has a deep pool of experience in engaging rural (often former logging) communities in fire resilience and more progressive land management; in today&#8217;s episode, we speak about the challenges of an organization like this, but also the myriad ways this work has been immensely rewarding for Jay and others in the community. He also offers some suggestions and bits of advice for others who hope to develop similar organizations in their own communities.

Creating Connections Through Community Forests with Jay McLaughlin

In the second half of their conversation, Michael Wara and Amanda briefly dive into the nitty gritty of liability regimes as they relate to both wildland and prescribed fires, how smoke will continue to impact communities across the West and finally, how the current suppression workforce structure is not a practical means of moving into a more fire-adapted future.



Of course, a suppression workforce will always be important, but Michael considers the abysmal work-life balance of the current wildland fire suppression structure and how that contributes to low retention of skilled employees. Eventually this brings him to consider how women are pushed out of the suppression/operational fire world by way of wanting a family or children, and how this has long-standing implications for the sustainability of the workforce and its objectives.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Timestamps</h2>



3:15—Wildfire liability/responsibility regimes 8:45—Air quality impacts on communities 12:30—Prescribed fire liabilities, California&#8217;s &#8220;claims fund&#8221; 21:55—Sustainability of suppression workforce; retention and having a family; the engrained misogyny of wildland firefighter work-life balance 23:30—Could community fire stewards be the future of sustainable employment in the wildfire/prescribed fire spaces? 26:55—The desperate need to build a bigger, skilled workforce to meet our management objectives

Michael Wara Part 2: Sustainability of the Suppression Workforce + Lots More

President Biden recently rolled out a plan to treat 50 million acres of land with fire over the next 10 years. The question is—is 50 million acres actually realistic with the system we have in place right now? We spoke with environmental law and policy expert <a href="https://law.stanford.edu/directory/michael-wara/">Michael Wara</a> about the logistics of actually putting that much fire on the ground to reduce risk in vulnerable communities, how we may not be in a place to scale it to that level yet, and what we can do to get to the necessary level of fuels reduction and fire resilience. We also talked a bit about Michael&#8217;s job as the Director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program at Stanford, and what he and his students are doing in the environmental and wildland fire spaces to help fire practitioners and build fire resilience into law and policy. This is our episode one of two with Michael, with the next publishing in two weeks.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Timestamps</h2>



7:55 — Wildfire risk to utilities. 15:30 — Biden&#8217;s plan to burn 50 million acres in 10 years. 21:35 — Limitations of Forest Service resources in achieving those acreage goals. 26:00 — Thinking radically about the future of fire policy.

The Reality of Burning 50 Million Acres in 10 Years with Michael Wara

Life with Fire Podcast

Life with Fire Podcast

Episodes

Ep. 30—Prescribed Fire Management in Banff National Park with Jane Park

Ep. 29—From Fashion Week to the Fireline with Celilo Miles

Ep. 28—Creating Connections Through Community Forests with Jay McLaughlin

Ep. 27—Michael Wara Part 2: Sustainability of the Suppression Workforce + Lots More

Ep. 26—The Reality of Burning 50 Million Acres in 10 Years with Michael Wara

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