Casey’s Story: How Wildland Firefighters Assist Communities in Crisis

Today’s story is brought to you by Casey Jennings a former seasonal employee of the US Forest Service. His story focuses on his time working with the timber program and as a wildland firefighter. We hope you enjoy reading his story!

Many federal employees make significant and positive contributions to their local community and to the nation. I am a former seasonal employee of the United States Forest Service. I worked in timber and fire. In both programs I know I contributed to people in very significant and positive ways. When I worked on the Hiawatha National Forest in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, for example, I helped mark a firewood cutting area as part of the timber program. This was for the local Native American tribe in the Bay Mills community, in order to assist them with the cost of heating their homes in the long winters. We marked several acres of timber that was very poor in terms of lumber quality but excellent in terms of being firewood. This provided many, many cords of firewood for people who were struggling with a poor local economy, the high cost of fuels, and limited availability of hardwoods in an area with poor soils.

There are so many examples from my time spent as a wildland firefighter of helping local communities dealing with a disaster in their backyards. One that stands out the most to me was on the Moose Peak Fire on the Kootenai National Forest in Montana in 2017. This fire was threatening many local homes that adjoin the national forest. Our fire camp was in a meadow owned by a local rancher, who provided the space for free because he was so happy to be getting help with a fire that threatened his ranch’s survival. He even allowed us to take showers in one of his bunkhouses until a shower trailer was brought to camp. We spent many days on that trip setting up sprinklers and pumps on the houses in the area to protect them from the fire. This brought us into contact with homeowners who had not yet evacuated.

One of the houses we set up sprinklers at was owned by a firefighter who was away at another fire. His wife was struggling to pack up some of their belongings to leave. Our presence and setting up sprinklers to protect her home comforted her a great deal. At one other house, the local sheriff met our crew on the road. He warned us that this one individual was very anti-government, and he wanted to escort us for our protection. This made us nervous. It turned out, however, that the man was very friendly towards us. He may not like the government much, but he was overjoyed to see us there as he was fearing the worst. His home was one of the oldest in the area, an original frontier-era homestead with the original log cabin. It was really quite stunning that someone who so hated the government that the sheriff feared for our safety, was in fact happy to see federal employees, because he knew we were there to do whatever we could to save his home. We succeeded at saving his home and others. It was one of the most memorable experiences from my federal career.