Best Collin Haffey Podcasts (2025)

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The Intricacies of Hotshot Culture, with Wildfire Days author Kelly Ramsey 1:26:11

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2M ago1:26:11

1:26:11

We're bringing you two, count em TWO, episodes with women and non-binary firefighters and writers who have written books about their experiences working both in fire and on hotshot crews more specifically. The first in this short series is with author Kelly Ramsey, whose book WILDFIRE DAYS was released in June. Kelly and I spoke about some of the e…

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The Social Contract of Managing Fire with Stephen Pyne 45:26

2M ago45:26

45:26

Welcome to our second episode with THE Stephen Pyne! Stephen is a renowned author and fire historian who, in addition to his academic life, also spent over a decade working on a fire crew on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon early in his career. Given this background, he seemed like quite possibly the perfect person to chat with about the recent Dr…

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Community Resilience Series Ep.3: Preparing for and Recovering From Megafires with Butte County Fire Safe Council Executive Director Taylor Nilsson 47:32

4M ago47:32

47:32

Welcome to the third and final episode of our Community Wildfire Resilience Series, supported by Fire Aside! In this episode, we spoke with Butte County Fire Safe Council Executive Director Taylor Nilsson. Butte County, CA has seen more catastrophic fire in the last eight years than most places in the West, possibly even the world. Starting with th…

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Community Resilience Series Episode 2: The Importance of Scaling Up Home Risk Assessments with Fire Aside CEO Jason Brooks 47:58

4M ago47:58

47:58

Welcome to the second episode in our series about community-level wildfire resilience, supported by Fire Aside! We spoke with Fire Aside CEO and co-founder Jason Brooks about how Fire Aside—a home assessment platform that allows agencies to have direct 1:1 engagement with residents on resilience actions they can take—fits into bigger picture policy…

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Community Resilience Series Ep. 1: California Wildfire Policy (And So Much More) with Former CAL FIRE Chief Deputy Director Chris Anthony 59:29

5M ago59:29

59:29

Welcome to the first episode in a three-part series about community wildfire resilience, sponsored by Fire Aside. This episode explores a number of big, meaty topics you've likely been hearing about in the wildfire space, from wildfire insurance to categorical exclusions to NEPA to wildfire resilience policy in the era of urban conflagrations like …

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After The Fire with Collin Haffey 43:30

6M ago43:30

43:30

Today's episode is all about post-fire—how to plan and prepare for post-fire challenges like debris flows and landslides, how to recover at a community and landscape scale, how to maintain a love of place after it's impacted by fire, and how we can reduce suffering in this often dynamic phase of wildfire response and recovery. Our guest on this top…

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How the Loss of Federal Workers Will Have A Massive Impact on Fire Operations This Fire Season, With Riva Duncan 18:03

7M ago18:03

18:03

There's been a lot of postulating about whether the firing of some 4400 (and counting) Forest Service and National Park employees on Friday will have an impact on fire operations this summer. We spoke with Riva Duncan, who has decades of experience in fire operations for the US Forest Service (before retiring with the agency), and her answer couldn…

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Fire in the Southwest Ep. 6: The Ebb and Flow of Public Trust Around Prescribed Fire, with New Mexico State Forester Lindsey Quam 37:22

11M ago37:22

37:22

In our sixth and final episode of the Fire in the Southwest Series—sponsored by the Southwest Fire Science Consortium and the Arizona Wildfire Initiative—we explore the complex, multicultural fire histories and management dynamics in New Mexico, with State Forester and Tribal Liaison Lindsey Quam. New Mexico's recent relationship with fire has been…

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Fire in the Southwest Ep. 5: Using Wildfire To Build Resilience at the Landscape Scale, with Dr. Jose (Pepe) Iniguez 49:50

11M ago49:50

49:50

For our fifth episode of the the Fire in the Southwest Series, we're talking managed wildfires, which has a number of alter egos depending on who you talk to in the wildfire world, some of which include "wildland fire use" or "managing wildfires for resource benefit". Dr. Jose "Pepe" Iniguez, a research ecologist at the Rocky Mountain Research Stat…

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Pros, Cons and Misconceptions of Aerial Firefighting with Matt Lynde 31:11

1y ago31:11

31:11

If you've found yourself wondering "where the heck is the aircraft?" while watching a fire burn near you, this is the episode for you. Guest Matt Lynde—a helicopter operations specialist for the Forest Service's Regional Office in California—gave us a run-down on why some fires have huge airshows and others have almost none, and even tackled a few …

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Fire Tech and Improving Access to Wildfire Information, with Watch Duty Founder John Clarke Mills 51:58

1y ago51:58

51:58

With fire season escalating across the West this week, many people are downloading Watch Duty App for the first time. But what is Watch Duty all about? Why was it created? Where does their information come from? What do agency employees think about it? We spoke to Watch Duty CEO John Mills about the Watch Duty app as well as fire technology more br…

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Fire in the Southwest Ep. 4: The Shifting Role of the Forest Stewards Guild in an Era of Megafires, with Zander Evans 45:47

1+ y ago45:47

45:47

Welcome to episode four of our Fire in the Southwest Series, supported by the Southwest Fire Science Consortium as well as the Arizona Wildfire Initiative! Today's guest, Zander Evans, is the executive director of the Forest Stewards Guild, which has a mission of promoting ecologically-, economically-, and socially-responsible forestry as a means o…

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Fire in the Southwest Series, Ep. 3: Integrating Indigenous Knowledge into Western Fire Management with Jon Martin 37:32

1+ y ago37:32

37:32

Welcome to our third episode of our Fire in the Southwest series! In this episode, we spoke with Jon Martin, who is the Director of Native American Forest and Rangeland Management Programming at the Ecological Restoration Institute at Northern Arizona University. Jon spent three decades working in forestry before retiring, and now uses his extensiv…

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Fire in the Southwest Series, Ep.2: The Grassification of the Sonoran Desert with Ecologist Mary Lata 46:39

1+ y ago46:39

46:39

What is it like to watch vegetation type-conversion in real time? How are invasive grasses changing the ecology of the desert and broader Southwest? What's being done to protect and restore Southwest ponderosa pine forests? This episode with Tonto National Forest fire ecologist Mary Lata dives into the fire regimes of the Southwest, how they're cha…

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Fire in the Southwest Series, Ep. 1: Southwest Fire Regimes and Post-Fire Community Support with Mary Stuever 48:33

1+ y ago48:33

48:33

Welcome to the first part of our six-episode series all about the Southwest, sponsored by the Southwest Fire Science Consortium and the Arizona Wildfire Initiative! In this episode, which is serving as an introduction to the series, we spoke with Mary Stuever, who is the Cimarron District Forester for New Mexico Forestry Division. Mary has a breadt…

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THE BEAVER EPISODE (finally!) with Dr. Emily Fairfax and Dr. Sophie Gilbert 51:21

1+ y ago51:21

51:21

The long-awaited beaver episode! In this episode, we learn about how beavers are not only champions of wildfire resilience but are also sleeper endurance athletes (climbing mountains to find new watersheds), dedicated anti-capitalists (not giving a **** about the regulatory or material concerns of humans), expert engineers (casually restoring entir…

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Experiences of Wildfire in Montana, with Young Indigenous Storytellers and the Montana Media Lab 29:50

1+ y ago29:50

29:50

Today's episode is a special one. We collaborated with the Montana Media Lab—a program of the University of Montana's School of Journalism—to help support their winter "Youth Voices" workshop, which empowers young rural and Indigenous storytellers to learn more about audio storytelling while sharing stories from their communities. This episode feat…

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The Changing Fire Environment and Shifting Baseline Syndrome with "Fire Weather" Author John Vaillant 55:03

1+ y ago55:03

55:03

In this episode, we had a chance to sit down with author John Vaillant, who recently published a new book about the 2016 Fort McMurray fires in Northern Alberta. The book, Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World, is an in-depth exploration of the fires, which released in June 2023. We not only spoke about his reporting process in the afterma…

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Fire Technology, Emergency Management and Building Resilience at Scale With Dr. Jessica McCarty 46:12

1+ y ago46:12

46:12

In this episode, we spoke with Dr. Jessica McCarty—the branch chief for the Biospheric Sciences branch at NASA's Ames Research Center—about her career, her work on fire in boreal and arctic ecosystems (within the context of the Canadian wildfires last summer), her perspectives on fire technology (spoiler: she's a big fan of predictive modeling) and…

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Rapid Fire Episode with Mystery Ranch Backbone Scholarship Winner Riston Bullock 21:09

1+ y ago21:09

21:09

In our second Backbone Scholarship episode—sponsored by Mystery Ranch and the American Wildfire Experience—we chatted with Nez Perce wildland firefighter Riston Bullock, who spoke about his experiences working in fire over the last decade, about the challenges that have come up as he has gotten older and become a father, as well as the challenges o…

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Rapid Fire Episode with Mystery Ranch Backbone Scholarship Winner Junior Lazaro 17:31

2y ago17:31

17:31

Life with Fire Podcast, Mystery Ranch Backpacks and the American Wildfire Experience (AWE) have joined forces to bring you this episode with Junior Lazaro—a wildland firefighter who received a Backbone Scholarship from AWE to share his experiences of fire through the Mystery Ranch Backbone Series and Life with Fire Podcast. Junior is a young wildla…

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Fire For the People With the Nature Conservancy's Marek Smith 32:39

2y ago32:39

32:39

Well we finally got a chance to speak with Marek Smith, who is the North American Fire Director for the Nature Conservancy and the co-director of the Fire Networks, which houses the Fire Adapted Learning Network, the Prescribed Fire Training Exchange (TREX), The Indigenous Peoples Burning Network and the Fire Learning Networks. Before I get too far…

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The Wildfire Commission Report with Kelly Martin 25:00

2y ago25:00

25:00

The Wildfire Mitigation and Management Commission, established in 2022 at the behest of Congress following the 2021 Infrastructure Act, recently released a substantial report highlighting recommendations that will shape the future of wildfire policy and action in the US. Fifty commission members were charged with creating the recommendations, one o…

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Humble Fire and Traditional Ecological Practices with Cultural Fire Scholar, Dr. Melinda Adams 45:16

2y ago45:16

45:16

You've probably heard of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) but how about Traditional Ecological *Practices*? In this episode, we spoke with Dr. Melinda Adams of the N’dee San Carlos Apache Tribe about translating Indigenous knowledge into Indigenous-led action—which means giving Indigenous practitioners the "space, opportunity and action" to s…

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Community-Informed Wildfire Communications, With Isabeau Ottolini 35:19

2y ago35:19

35:19

Isabeau Ottolini is one of the foremost experts on imbuing risk communications with values that are informed by communities themselves. As a PhD candidate on community-based communications at the Open University of Catalonia in Spain, Isabeau spends a significant amount of time thinking about how we can best reach those most at risk of wildfire's i…

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Expanding Prescribed Fire Capacity in Washington State, with Lucas King 28:46

2y ago28:46

28:46

We're big fans of the Mt. Adams Resource Stewards here at Life with Fire. You may recall our episode with the organization's Executive Director back in 2022 (episode 28), but we're back today with an episode with MARS' Stewardship Crew Lead, Lucas King, who shared his thoughts on expanding capacity for more burning and fuels reduction from the grou…

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Life after Wildland Firefighting with Luke Mayfield 37:50

2+ y ago37:50

37:50

What can life after wildland firefighting look like? With the issues facing wildland firefighters these days (including but not limited to: abysmal pay, nonexistent benefits and perpetually being let down by elected officials who suggest they might actually do something about it etc) many in this essential but overworked workforce are likely consid…

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Forest Resilience Policy at the State Level with Hilary Franz 57:44

2+ y ago57:44

57:44

We'll be honest—we've been hoping to talk to Washington State Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz since this podcast's inception. Franz is responsible for the management of over six millions acres of public lands and the state's wildland firefighting workforce, so we were pretty excited to finally have the opportunity to have a conversation w…

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Fire in the Pine Barrens of the Northeast with Emily Dolhansky 32:11

2+ y ago32:11

32:11

Our 50th episode! In today's episode, we spoke to professional forester Emily Dolhansky about the fire-adapted ecosystems of her home state of New Jersey. Perhaps you've seen some footage of the Jimmy's Waterhole Fire (pretty good fire name tbh) in southern New Jersey—as of this writing, it's sitting at nearly 4,000 acres and 75% containment after …

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The Psychology of Fire and Innovating without Ego with Dr. Natasha Stavros 45:18

2+ y ago45:18

45:18

As indicated by the title of this episode, we covered some SERIOUS ground in our conversation with Dr. Natasha Stavros, Director of the Earth Lab at CU Boulder. Natasha's background in the academic realm combined with personal experiences with wildfire (being evacuated from one of California's first megafires back in the early 2000s, and most recen…

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The Philosophy of Fire with Amanda Rau, Part Two 40:28

2+ y ago40:28

40:28

In our second episode with Oregon Prescribed Fire Council found Amanda Rau, we discuss how she has connected the dots between her philosophy degree and her fire career, what other agencies and jobs she is interested in pursuing, the Oregon Certified Burn Manager Course and her vision for getting fire in the hands of more people in Oregon and beyond…

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Making Your Own Spark, with Amanda Rau (Part One) 34:26

2+ y ago34:26

34:26

This week's guest Amanda Rau has worked for nearly every fire-adjacent agency or organization that exists in the state of Oregon. From the Forest Service to a contract crew to the Nature Conservancy and a current role with the Oregon Department of Lands, Amanda has had a hand in just about every side of the Oregon fire world that you can get. Natur…

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Prescribed Fire, Managed Fire and Community Engagement in Oregon, with Christopher Adlam 43:30

2+ y ago43:30

43:30

Hello again! After a hefty mid-winter break, Life with Fire is back with our first episode of 2023. This episode was recorded from the road last fall, with guest Christopher Adlam. Chris is the regional fire specialist for the Southwest Oregon region of Oregon State's Fire Extension, and had some great insights on community and individual fire resi…

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Community Resilience with Firesmart Canada Program Manager Magda Zachara 17:56

3y ago17:56

17:56

In our third and final episode from the International Association of Wildland Fire conference in Edmonton, Alberta, we spoke with FireSmart program manager Magda Zachara about Firesmart's objective to build scalable wildfire prevention and mitigation programming across Canada. Magda spoke about Firesmart's programming and the ways they've build mor…

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Utilizing Traditional First Nations Values in Land Management, with Francis Johnson Jr. 19:29

3y ago19:29

19:29

You've probably heard of the Land Back movement, but an essential ingredient of Land Back initiatives will also be Fire Back—that is, returning land stewardship and burning authority to First Nations and Indigenous communities across North America and the world. We've spoken to a few guests who have highlighted the importance of Indigenous authorit…

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Paradoxes and Solutions In Wildfire Smoke Exposure, with Sarah Henderson 18:38

3y ago18:38

18:38

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 scientif…

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Tracking The Economic Impacts of Wildfire, with Environmental Economist Jude Bayham 32:44

3y ago32:44

32:44

In our final episode sponsored by Protect Our Winters, we explored the economics of wildfire (both it's suppression and it's community and recreational impacts) with Jude Bayham, an environmental and resource economist at Colorado State University. Jude told us about some of his upcoming research, which he's hoping will utilize Strava data to deter…

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How Do Wildfires Impact Snowpack? With Andrew Schwartz 27:03

3y ago27:03

27:03

In the fourth episode of our series sponsored by Protect our Winters, we spoke with self-proclaimed snow nerd Andrew Schwartz about his work as the lead scientist at the the UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab, where he explores all sorts of snowpack-related science but also how wildfires are impacting that snowpack. From less canopy to protect the…

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Building Trails in Burn Areas, with Dillon Osleger 43:22

3y ago43:22

43:22

Today we're talking trails! What do trails have to do with wildfire, you ask? Well, ask any trail builder that question and they'll tell you that they're kind of a pain to rebuild (and cut out) after wildfires. Today's guest Dillon Osleger is a trail builder, an environmental advocate, scientist and Executive Director of the Sage Trail Alliance, an…

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How Wildfires Are Impacting Outdoor Recreation, with Jamie Ervin 31:01

3y ago31:01

31:01

Welcome to the first episode of our four-part series discussing the impacts of wildfire on recreation, sponsored by Protect Our Winters! For this episode, Jamie Ervin of the Outdoor Alliance walked us through the myriad ways that wildfires create barriers to recreation access and enjoying the outdoors. From air quality impacts to forest closures, J…

1
Hotshot Crew to Grad School, with Harrison Raine 47:00

3y ago47:00

47:00

Have you seen that C̶o̶l̶l̶e̶g̶e̶ Hotshot shirt from Hotshot Brewery (you can look at it here if you're unfamiliar)? This episode's guest Harrison Raine walks us through doing both of those things at once—and shares why he thinks more firefighters should pursue fire-adjacent degrees and careers that can make use of that invaluable, on-the-ground fi…

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Underdiscussed, Poorly Understood: Prescribed Fire Liability Insurance with Daniel Godwin 46:34

3y ago46:34

46:34

Listen—we know that prescribed fire liability insurance is a big, scary topic. But we encourage you to check out this episode, because while liability insurance is one of the bigger challenges in getting more "good fire" on the ground, it's also one of the least understood and more infrequently talked about challenges, likely because it is such a c…

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Indigenous-Led Fire Stewardship with Amy Cardinal-Christianson 47:02

3+ y ago47:02

47:02

How can First Nation and Indigenous communities regain power over their long-honed land stewardship and cultural burning practices? How can these practices be done without the influence of Westernized practices, which includes prescribed burning? Today's guest Amy Cardinal Christianson, a Métis woman and Fire Social Scientist for the Canadian Fores…

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How Can Fire Culture Become More Inclusive? with Triss Seemiller 43:05

3+ y ago43:05

43:05

Triss Seemiller is a trans woman who started gender-affirming hormone therapy when she was on a shot crew in California. She transitioned soon after she left the crew. She has occasionally felt uneasy about sharing her identity with coworkers since transitioning, and in this episodes walks us through her breadth of experiences on different crews to…

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A Life Of Fire as a Trans Woman, with Bobbie Scopa 50:27

3+ y ago50:27

50:27

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 w…

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Diversity in Fire with Jane Park (Part Two) 37:43

3+ y ago37:43

37:43

In the second half of our conversation with Jane Park, we spoke about some of the diversity initiatives that Jane has spearheaded within Banff National Park and Parks Canada as a whole. We also spoke about Jane's experiences of working in fire as a Korean-Canadian woman and type 1 incident commander, and why she thinks it's imperative to bring more…

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Prescribed Fire Management in Banff National Park with Jane Park 31:56

3+ y ago31:56

31:56

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 …

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From Fashion Week to the Fireline with Celilo Miles 23:44

3+ y ago23:44

23:44

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 ch…

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Creating Connections Through Community Forests with Jay McLaughlin 33:41

3+ y ago33:41

33:41

The Mt. Adams Resource Stewards in Washington State is an excellent example of a hyper-local solution 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. J…

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Michael Wara Part 2: Sustainability of the Suppression Workforce + Lots More 29:26

3+ y ago29:26

29:26

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…