We Cannot Stand Alone: Human-caused Fires Call for Human Collaboration

by Jay Stalnacker

Fire management has changed substantially from the days when I was seasonally employed as a smoke jumper. Back then, a lightning storm would move across the open wilderness of the Idaho panhandle dropping flashes of nature’s magic. Sometimes, hundreds of fires would be started from these storms.

IGNITE: Remembering Our Fallen on Memorial Day

In memory of many, in honor of all. Thank You
Happy Memorial Day

[Photo credit: Nicole Oke]

IGNITE: Bring Your Best

Bring your best every day.

[Photo credit: Alex Galt, USFWS]

Scott Anderson Honored for Lead by Example Award for Motivation and Vision

Scott Anderson
BLM Training Specialist (NWCG)
National Interagency Fire Center
Honored for Motivation and Vision

Scott Anderson has been selected as one of the recipients for the 2016 Paul Gleason Lead by Example award. Three individuals and two groups from across the wildland fire service have been chosen to receive this national award.

IGNITE: The True Spirit of Conversation

The true spirit of conversation consists in building on another person's observation, not overturning it. - Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton

[Photo credit: Cedar Fire (2016)]

Diego Mendiola Receives Lead by Example Award for Mentoring and Teamwork

Diego Mendiola

Hotshot Superintendent
Zigzag Ranger District, USFS
Honored for Mentoring and Teamwork

Diego Mendiola has been selected as one of the recipients for the 2016 Paul Gleason Lead by Example award. Three individuals and two groups from across the wildland fire service have been chosen to receive this national award.

IGNITE: Ripple Effects of Leadership

A leader's accomplishments are measured in lifetimes. Our character, decisions, and actions create powerful ripple effects that continue to influence people and organizations long after we are gone. - Leading in the Wildland Fire Service, p. 67

Share through your spheres of influence.

[Photo credit: Seedskadee and Cokeville Meadows Nation Wildlife Refuge/Tom Koerner]

Anatomy of Trust

Cottrell and Myers Earn Lead by Example Award for Mentoring and Teamwork

Dan Cottrell, Smokejumper Foreman
Debbie Myers, Program Support Assistant
Aerial Fire Depot, Region 1, US Forest Service

Honored for Mentoring and Teamwork

Edmund Ward (who brought Deb and Dan into the Smokejumper program), Bill Miller, Tory Kendrick (Acting Missoula Smokejumper Base Manager receiving the award on behalf of Dan Cottrell, who is on fire assignment in the Southeast), Deb Myers (Currently working with the Anaconda Job Corps program) and Paul Chamberlin (previous Gleason Award recipient from the Northern Rockies)

Dan Cottrell and Debbie Myers have been selected as one of the recipients for the 2016 Paul Gleason Lead by Example award. Three individuals and two groups from across the wildland fire service have been chosen to receive this national award.

IGNITE: Synergy!

Teamwork requires that everyone's efforts flow in a single direction. - Pat Riley

Share through your sphere of influence.

[Photo credit: Kari Greer/USFS]

IGNITE: Leadership is Learning

Leadership is not an expertise. 

Leadership is a constant education. - Simon Sinek

[Photo credit: Captain Bryan Hoverman, San Bernadino County FD]

South Puget Sound Wildland Team Earns Lead by Example Award for Initiative and Innovation

Left to right: Hilary Franz, Washington State Commissioner of Public Lands; Matt Caldwell; Terry Jewell; Kevin Dohnam, previous LBE recipient; Sean Kibbe; Don Melton, SPS Fire District Manager; Bryan Scholz, past LBE recipient; Charley Burns; Brian Looper; Mark Stanford, NWCG Leadership Subcommittee

South Puget Sound Wildland Team

Washington Department of Natural Resources
South Puget Sound Region
Honored for Initiative and Innovation

The South Puget Sound Wildland Team has been selected as one of the recipients for the 2016 Paul Gleason Lead by Example award. Three individuals and two groups from across the wildland fire service have been chosen to receive this national award.

IGNITE: Doing the Right Things

Efficiency is doing things right effectiveness is doing the right things. - Peter Drucker

[Photo source: Jupiter Images]