From Incarcerated Firefighter to Full-Time Hotshot with Mando Perez

Restoring the Land, Restoring the People: Cultural Burning with Margo Robbins by Life with Fire

Off-Season Struggles: Understanding Wildland Firefighter Mental Health: Wildland firefighters are disproportionately affected by depression, anxiety, PTSD, suicide and other mental health struggles. There are a number of reasons for this, but the biggest are quite simple: wildland firefighting is a high-stress job that takes firefighters away from their families for months at a time and often doesn't come with appropriate pay or benefits given the sacrifices that these folks make every summer. With that lack of benefits comes a severe lack of mental health resources and care for laid-off firefighters, resulting in something of a mental health epidemic for a seasonal workforce that grows more essential—and more exhausted—by the year. This episode dives into what these struggles look like from the perspective of currently laid-off seasonal firefighters, who each spoke about their individual challenges with mental health and wellness in their off seasons. Firefighters included in this e by Life with Fire

40 min listen

Why The "Labor Day Firestorm," Was So Historic, with Fire Meteorologist Nick Nauslar: On this episode, guest Nick Nauslar—a fire meteorologist at the National Interagency Fire Center—explains what contributed to the so-called "Labor Day Firestorm," that devastated the Northwest and Northern California on the week of September 6. Nick discussed all the factors that made this conflagration so historic, and also discussed how climate change—which took a lot of the blame in national media—played only a small part in what became one of the worst weeks of fire in US history. by Life with Fire

23 min listen

Learning to Live in "The Pyrocene," With Stephen Pyne: If you’ve ever worked in fire, there’s a good chance a few of Stephen Pyne’s fire books were laying around the station or office where you worked. Pyne is without a doubt the foremost expert of fire history in the US—in this episode we spoke about his concept of a “pyrocene,” about the evolution of fire management in the US since the Big Burns of 1910, and about how we can prepare to live in landscapes where fires—not humans—set the terms. by Life with Fire

38 min listen

The Prescribed Fire Revolution with Jeremy Bailey: Jeremy Bailey is a prescribed fire manager with the Nature Conservancy, and the brains behind the Prescribed Fire Training Exchange or TREX. On this episode, we talk about his inspiration for starting the TREX program, about how firefighters, homeowners, Indigenous peoples and communities have used prescribed fire to manage the landscapes around them, and about how prescribed fire is a critical tool for adapting ourselves to wildfire. by Life with Fire

23 min listen

Achieving Diversity Through Prescribed Burning With Lenya Quinn-Davidson: Lenya Quinn-Davidson has committed her career to changing the ways we think about prescribed fire. She also started the Women in Prescribed Fire Training Exchange program, or WTREX, which empowers women and people of color to gain experience as firefighters, mentors and leaders in fire management through the use of prescribed fire. We spoke about the importance of diversity in the fire world, and about how we can do better in mentoring, empowering and retaining women and BIPOC in positions in wildland fire. by Life with Fire

26 min listen

Building Fire-Resilient Communities with Annie Schmidt: In this episode, we talk to Annie Schmidt, who works for the Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network. Through her position at the Fire Adapted network, Annie has committed herself to helping communities build their fire-resiliency and, quite literally, learn to better live with fire. Annie offers some great perspective on how and why fire prevention work should be prioritized just as much as fire suppression, while also providing a few suggestions for other people who want to improve fire resiliency in their communities. One of the most interesting parts of Annie’s work is her commitment to bringing different voices to the table and empowering people with a variety of backgrounds to take greater authority over their land. You can listen, subscribe or review Living With Fire on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts. by Life with Fire

28 min listen

Exploring Fire Impacts on Wildlife with Kendall Calhoun: After a bit of a fire-season-chaos break, we're back with an episode on probably our most requested topic—how wildfires impact animals. For this episode, we brought on Kendall Calhoun, who is pursuing a PhD at US Berkeley and does a majority of his research on how shifting fire regimes in California are impacting native wildlife species. Kendall studies how certain species like deer and coyotes have adapted to wildfire and how they continue to adapt to fires that burn more severely and more frequently than historical norms. His field work is done primarily in Northern California, and he has a particular love of/interest in the oak woodland ecosystems in the region. Above that, Kendall has a clear passion for this work which is reflected in his energy while talking about it. Check out our social media channels for nerdy wildfire content as well as insights from fire practitioners, fire organizations and scientists in the wildfir by Life with Fire

29 min listen

From Incarcerated Firefighter to Full-Time Hotshot with Mando Perez: Mando Perez spent around six years fighting fire while incarcerated as a young man. Upon his release in 2010, he began the arduous transition into a position with a federal firefighting agency, and now works as a senior firefighter for the El Dorado Hotshots. In this episode, he shares his experiences of working on an inmate fire crew and details how he transitioned to a full-time fire career after his release. He also talks about why he continues to pursue fire as a career, what he loves about the job, and offers some suggestions for people who may be on a path similar to his. Follow the link below to watch the Vice News short documentary on the El Dorado Hotshots (which I mentioned in this episode): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6T9R-cjXc0&t=312s To learn more about California Assembly Bill 2147—which allows formerly incarcerated firefighters to have their records expunged in order to gain employment more easi by Life with Fire

62 min listen

Firefighter Safety and The History of Hotshots With John Maclean: In this episode, we talk with renowned author John Maclean about the decades he's spent investigating and writing about fatality wildfires in the West, as well as his latest project, a book about hotshot history and the Yarnell Hill Fire. We also touched on the influence his father—Norman Maclean, the preeminent voice of wildfire fatalities with his book Young Men and Fire—had on his early writing career, and even got a short cameo from the squirrel who lives in John's attic/workspace. by Life with Fire

45 min listen

Exploitation, Transformation and the Paradox of Incarcerated Firefighting with Dr. Lindsey Feldman: In this episode, we speak with anthropologist Dr. Lindsey Raisa Feldman about her research on incarcerated fire crews in Arizona. Lindsey actually worked on the ground with these crews—and despite her assertion that she wasn't a very good firefighter, she did come away with some important insights about the nature of incarcerated firefighting, as well as a few profound experiences of her own. Lindsey's work can be found on her website: https://www.lindseyraisa.com/ Follow Life with Fire! Find us at @lwf_pod on Twitter or @lifewithfirepod on Instagram. And if you enjoy the podcast, we'd be honored if you shared it or left a review for us on Apple Podcasts. Life with Fire is made possible with donations! If you dig the podcast, please consider donating to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lifewithfirepod by Life with Fire

55 min listen

Wildfire Perceptions and Misconceptions with Crystal Kolden: In this episode, we spoke with wildfire research extraordinaire Crystal Kolden, who is an assistant professor at UC-Merced. Crystal has a breadth of interests and areas of expertise, and is probably one of our favorite follows on "Wildfire" Twitter. We discussed her humanities background and what led her to an interest in wildfire, the wildfire misconceptions that most irk her and how we can better talk about wildfire impacts and wildfire topics in general. For more information on Crystal and her research, check out her Twitter @pyrogeog or her website, www.pyrogeographer.com. Life with Fire Podcast can be found on Twitter at @lifewithfirepod or on Instagram at @lifewithfirepod. To support Life with Fire Podcast, check out our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/lifewithfirepod. by Life with Fire

51 min listen

Fire Ecology 101, with Dr. Susan Prichard: In this episode, I enlisted the help of Dr. Susan Prichard—who has a PhD in fire ecology—to share a few of the foundational ideas of fire science and how fire is fundamental to the landscapes in the Western US, specifically. She told me a bit about her ongoing research and projects, one of which models how fires would have burned and affected the landscape through the last century if they hadn’t been suppressed. Susan has also done extensive research on (and shared some insights on) how climate change influences fire and whether or not the high-severity fires we're seeing more of lately have any historical precedent in the US. by Life with Fire

32 min listen

The Reality of Burning 50 Million Acres in 10 Years with Michael Wara: 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? by Life with Fire

32 min listen

Creating Connections Through Community Forests with Jay McLaughlin: 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'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'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. by Life with Fire

34 min listen

Wildfire Technology, Trauma and Other Tidbits, With Zeke Lunder: In this episode we spoke with Zeke Lunder, a pyrogeographer with a background in GIS and mapping on wildfires, and more recently with helping out on prescribed burns all over the West. We spoke about how the advancement of mapping and technology for use in fire suppression is misguided—and how those tech solutions would be better used as a way to get more prescribed fire on the ground. Zeke is from Chico, California, so we also spoke about the impacts of the Camp Fire and the North Complex/Bear Fire on his community, and how repetitive large fires re-traumatize communities like his. You can check us out on Twitter at @lwf_pod, or on Instagram at @lifewithfirepod. And as promised in the episode, here is the link for our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lifewithfirepod. Thanks for all of your continued support, shares, subscribes etc—every little bit of listener support helps us and our goal of educating folks about wil by Life with Fire

49 min listen

All Things Cultural Burning with Karuk Tribal Member Bill Tripp: In this episode, we explore one of the topics that is most requested by Life with Fire listeners—cultural burning. We spoke with Karuk tribal member Bill Tripp about his early experiences of cultural burning, and how those experiences reflect in his current work as Director of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy for the Karuk Tribe. We spoke at length about California's Senate Bill 332 (which was signed into law by Gavin Newsom just after Bill and I spoke back in September) and how it would benefit cultural burning practices, as well as how the Karuk Tribe is engaging its youth to return to traditional tribal practices like burning. Information about California Senate Bill 332 and what it means for cultural burners can be found here: https://www.siskiyoudaily.com/story/news/2021/09/16/these-two-new-california-bills-help-tribes-complete-prescribed-burn-projects/8363483002/ For those interested in donating to the by Life with Fire

48 min listen

A Life Of Fire as a Trans Woman, with Bobbie Scopa: Bobbie Scopa has had quite a long and storied fire career—she recently retired after 45 years working in both wildland and municipal fire, during which she worked her way into the Chief position and into numerous leadership positions over her career with the Forest Service. Notably, she was present on the Dude Fire in 1990, where six firefighters were tragically killed, and even served at Ground Zero after 9/11. But Bobbie's story doesn't start and end with firefighting. She's also a trans woman, and has experienced the fire world as both a man and woman, having transitioned to female between fire seasons in the late 1980s. This gives Bobbie an exceedingly rare perspective on gender dynamics on the fireline—perspectives that she now shares widely through her podcast, Bobbie on Fire, as well as her new book, Both Sides of the Fireline, which is available for pre-order and will be released this fall. Through it all, Bobbie maintains an by Life with Fire

50 min listen

Scientists Respond to the New "All Fires Out," Forest Service Directive, With Matt Hurteau: In this episode, we explore the new Forest Service directive requiring all new fire starts to be suppressed immediately. Fire scientist Matt Hurteau is our guide on this journey, as he discusses the directive itself, as well as the precedent it sets and its widespread criticism. He and dozens of other fire scientists voiced these criticisms in a letter to Forest Service Chief Randy Moore, which can be found here: http://www.hurteaulab.org/.../chief_moore_letter... To follow Life with Fire, check out our Instagram (@lifewithfirepod) or our Twitter (@lwf_pod). To support our Patreon, please visit www.patreon.com/lifewithfirepod. by Life with Fire

18 min listen

Is Suppressing Wildfire Actually More Of A Liability Than Prescribed Burning? With Will Harling: In this episode we spoke with Will Harling about his work with the Mid-Klamath Watershed Council, as well as his experiences of growing up in Northern California on the banks of the Salmon and Klamath Rivers. Will had some fantastic insights on how prescribed fires are burdened with immense liability, restrictions and permitting, while wildfires are not treated the same—despite that modern wildfires are more severe because of human behaviors like full suppression firefighting and climate change. Will argues that modern wildfires are no longer an act of God, and that things like managing wildfires for prescriptive purposes could be a good step towards meeting forest management objectives. For more information on the Mid-Klamath Watershed Council—which Will is the executive director of—check out their website: http://www.mkwc.org/ by Life with Fire

29 min listen

Land Use Mini-Series: Planning Developments for Fire Resilience with Molly Mowery: For the first episode of our mini-series on land use planning for fire resilience, we spoke with Molly Mowery about her background as a land use planner with a specific interest in preparing communities for wildfires, as well as about her work with the Community Planning Assistance for Wildfire program. Listen in for some perspectives on community wildfire resilience, and stay tuned for the rest of the mini series, which will include interviews with other planners, builders and architects. As always, you can follow us on Twitter at @lwf_pod, or on Instagram at @lifewithfirepod. For those interested in supporting the podcast financially, our Patreon can be found at https://www.patreon.com/lifewithfirepod. by Life with Fire

27 min listen

The Tim Hart Act and Channeling Grief with Michelle Hart: When smokejumper Tim Hart died from injuries sustained during a hard landing in New Mexico in May, his wife Michelle Hart quickly realized that she needed a way to channel her grief. She also realized she was in a unique position to draw attention to the needs of wildland firefighters—she had a personal connection to the issues facing them, and as a lobbyist, she also had the legislative chops to make legitimate change at a congressional level. This all culminated in the creation of the Tim Hart Wildland Firefighter Classification and Pay Parity Act, which addresses firefighter compensation, benefits, access to mental health resources and availability of housing for firefighters, among other provisions. We spoke with Michelle about the bill and the grief that influenced its creation back in November. They've continued garnering support for the bill, though not much as changed with the bill since when we chatted with Michelle. by Life with Fire

22 min listen

Michael Wara Part 2: Sustainability of the Suppression Workforce + Lots More: 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. by Life with Fire

29 min listen

From Fashion Week to the Fireline with Celilo Miles: There's a chance you've seen Nez Perce wildland firefighter and model Celilo Miles in a recent advertisement for Victoria's Secret—in it, she wears Nomex pants and holds her hard hat, emblazoned with the Nez Perce Tribe'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. by Life with Fire

24 min listen

Prescribed Fire Management in Banff National Park with Jane Park: 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. by Life with Fire

32 min listen

Homes as Fuel with Zeke Lunder, Yana Valochovic and Eric Knapp: Our first guest-hosted (an in-person) episode is live! In this episode, Zeke Lunder of "The Lookout" cameos as host of Life with Fire, and sits down with fire researchers Yana Valochovic and Eric Knapp at his office in Chico, CA. They spoke about Valochovic and Knapp's research on the Camp Fire, which deeply impacted the town of Paradise, CA three years ago this week. Their research explores how homes are arranged and built, and how these factors can impact their susceptibility to ignition during wildfires. This is an essential conversation on home resilience, defensible space and what factors contribute to home ignitions in wildfires. Call it "Building in The WUI 101," if you will, but you won't want to miss the invaluable insight, tips and lessons learned from Knapp and Valochovic's extensive research and work in the aftermath of the Camp Fire. by Life with Fire

38 min listen

IAWF Conference Mini-Episodes: Paradoxes and Solutions In Wildfire Smoke Exposure, with Sarah Henderson: We're in Canada at the International Association of Wildland Fire Conference this week, and will be pulling some folks aside for some quick conversations about the conference themes and the research being presented and discussed. Our first "rapid fire" episode guest is Sarah Henderson, who works for the BC Centre for Disease Control as the scientific director of Environmental Health Services. Sarah has some fascinating insights into our perceptions of wildfire smoke, some common paradoxes that come up in the ways we talk and think about smoke, as well as some legitimate, scalable solutions for reducing the impacts of wildfire smoke, especially on susceptible populations like those experiencing homelessness, those who don't have the financial means of improving indoor air quality and those with preexisting health conditions that make them particularly vulnerable to smoke's impacts. T by Life with Fire

19 min listen

Building a Community of Land Stewards, With Sasha Berleman: In this episode we speak with Sasha Berleman, who has a whole lot of irons in the...prescribed fire? Sasha has a doctorate from UC Berkeley, is the founder and director of the Fire Forward Program through Audubon Canyon Ranch, is a founding member of the Bay Area Prescribed Fire Council and much, much more. Oh, and a former hotshot. We've wanted to get Sasha on the show for a while now, and we were excited to talk about her community work and dedication of building up land stewards, regardless of their backgrounds. You can see more about Sasha on her website, https://www.firepoppyconsulting.com/, or by following her on social media (@thefirepoppy). by Life with Fire

26 min listen

Climate Change Impacts on High Severity, Low Frequency Fire Regimes with Phil Higuera: We covered such a broad range of subjects with guest Phil Higuera in this episode that it was hard to nail down a title. Nonetheless, Phil's expansive research background lended well to a conversation that covered paleoecology, how lake sediment is used to determine events that happened 13,000 years ago, how forests are changing with a warming climate and how we humans can choose to respond to those changes. Our main objective with the conversation was to discuss Phil's research in Western Washington's San Juan Islands (host Amanda's backyard) while getting his Master's degree at the University of Washington; the work he did there is part of a limited pool of research on fire history in Western Washington, and we wanted to see if Phil might have some perspective on the risk of a large, high-severity conflagration in this area, particularly with the 2020 Labor Day Fires as a pertinent reminder of what by Life with Fire

57 min listen

Land Use Series Episode Two: Resilient and Sustainable Development, with Liz Foster and Molly McCabe: Liz Foster and Molly McCabe join us in this episode—the second of our Land Use and Resilience Series—to talk about fire-resilient communities and infrastructure, including the inherent inequities of disaster prevention, preparation, response and recovery. Liz is the former senior manager of Urban Resilience at the Urban Land Institute, which explores the wildland urban interface resilience to disasters like wildfires. Molly McCabe is owner of HaydenTanner, where she works in real estate finance and property development with an eye to sustainability and disaster resilience. This episode is chock full of great insights about hardening our communities to the threat of destructive wildfires, from two women who have been working in and thinking about disaster resilience for decades. This episode is a must-listen if you’re interested in learning more about the dynamic web of issues related by Life with Fire

64 min listen

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From Incarcerated Firefighter to Full-Time Hotshot with Mando Perez

From Incarcerated Firefighter to Full-Time Hotshot with Mando Perez

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