Veterans’ skills parlay success reaching fire management goals for the National Park Service

The 2022 pilot training program was made up of veterans from the Army and Marine Corps

NPS

As a part of the Veterans Fire Corps (VFC) initiative, the NPS conducted a pilot training program from January through April 2022, built around providing training and experience to recent-era veterans. The VFC is a collaborative initiative of the Conservation Legacy program that works to connect veterans with opportunities to acquire skills in fire management and remediation. Working with a wide range of state and federal agencies, including the US Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, AmeriCorps, and the National Park Service (NPS), the VFC has successfully engaged over 400 veterans, completed work on over 10,000 acres and contributed over 50,000 work hours towards fire-related protection and preservation since 2009.

Work completed by the Veterans Fire Crew included a fuel reduction project around park historic structures.

NPS

The 2022 veteran fire crew, composed of veterans from the Army and Marine Corps, worked across much of New River Gorge National Park and Preserve in West Virginia and contributed to fire management at Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio. The team completed work on 250 acres of land, performing a variety of tasks that included historical land restoration, invasive species treatment, fuels reduction and burn preparation.

These preventive measures allow natural processes to take place without irreparable damage. "We want to allow for these areas to be preserved like we're doing here in Nuttallburg, creating fire breaks and such, to allow for natural processes to happen, but within a controlled setting. Which, to me, takes a lot of the fear out of the fire, and allows us to change our relationship with fire from something that is seen as bad, to something that is seen as a natural part of a healthy ecosystem," crew leader, Timothy Cannon, stated.

The Veterans in Fire Management at the Allegheny FMZ story map provides more details about the program, the work commpleted, and includes interviews with crewmembers.