January 17, 2025
Fire-evolved
A conversation with Jordan Thomas on fire suppression and prescribed burning in the megafire era
The job parameters for wildland firefighters haven’t changed significantly since the 1980s. What has changed significantly since the ’80s is the climate. So essentially, they’re working with the job expectations, compensation, and health care packages of a planet in which they fight fires for maybe 10 percent of their time and spend the other 90 percent doing forest management projects. But now wildland firefighters spend at least 90 percent of their time fighting fires, if not 100 percent of their time. Their compensation hasn’t kept up with that, partly because it’s impossible to increase pay and benefits at the federal level when you need Republican congressional approval to do so.
