As a resource assistant, I am prohibited from being a firefighter. However, I can play a support role for those crazy fire folks and starting in February 2023, I started training in Critical Incident Stress Management or CISM. Like all first responders, wildland firefighters experience above average rates of traumatic stress from shocking incidents. CISM is psychological first aid to reduce the long-term psychological damage from exposure to critical incidents. Stress builds up over time and CISM gives first responders the opportunity to process the complex emotions associated with high stress professions while they are fresh and has proven to decrease the chances of developing Post Traumatic Stress disorders. Now I am a trained peer supporter. Luckily, I have not had to make use of that training yet, but it is gratifying knowing I can help others. Following that class, I took the advanced CISM class, for which I got to travel to Coeur d’Alene, ID for four days of emotionally intense training. I also trained to serve as a hospital and family liaison in Missoula, MT. These classes were hugely enlightening, and I got to meet people from across the region, see things I had never seen, and visit places I had never been. I learned how dedicated and supportive of holistic wellbeing and safety, including mental health, the Forest Service is. They don’t just talk about it; the agency acts on it and has processes in place to support the people carrying out the mission of caring for the land and serving people.  Although I won’t be swinging a Pulaski anytime soon, those folks on the line will not stand alone. This training was just the tip of the iceberg that is the Forest Service’s fire program and I look forward to exploring more opportunities; at the forest service people wear a variety of hats.

I have also put a serious eye toward a permanent role in the Forest Service, I genuinely love it and everything I have done. People wear many hats, and I can support fire and start a career in special uses, which I have grown to love. I get to work on such a wide variety of projects in varying stages of completion, I can’t imagine leaving my work. It is a program that benefits from consistency and familiarity. On our forest alone there are more than 500 special use permits across 3 million acres.