WEST VIRGINIA – As the Forest Service invests even more in prescribed fire to moderate the threat of catastrophic fire, the Harpers Ferry Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center’s Potomac River Fire Crew has strategically positioned itself as powerful training partner. The crew’s primary mission is to train CCC students as wildland firefighters and its leadership has acquired extensive experience in conducting Rx fuels treatments across diverse fuel types.

The Forest Service Job Corps Program has fielded Rx prescribed burn modules on national forest and grasslands since 2016. In 2021, fully self-sufficient with equipment and a type-6 engine, the Potomac River Fire Crew traveled across the Eastern and Southern Regions to the Croatan, Chattahoochee, Uwharrie, White Mountains, Monongahela, Hoosier, Chippewa and Superior National Forests. Fifteen employees from the Southern, Eastern and Pacific Northwest Regions trained with the crew. Not only did they gain experience throughout diverse fuel types, but staff also had opportunities to complete task book assignments that qualify them as crew boss, engine boss, burn and/or firing boss.

“What’s unique about the Potomac River Crew is that we can provide training opportunities in different fuel types across a broad geographic range,” says Monongahela National Forest Assistant Fire Management Officer Phillip Brass. “Last summer we traveled from George to Maine to the Carolina Coast and then the Boundary Waters of Minnesota. Some of those places burn thousands of acres and some units are just getting started.”

Brass says that as the Forest Service became leaner in the past 20 years, it lost the credential staff needed to conduct prescribed burns; without that staff, crews cannot be deployed. The Potomac River Fire Crew has benefited from its geographic location because, unlike the west, communities throughout the East and Southeast have a higher level of comfort with prescribed fire which makes burning easier.

“Prescribed burns not only reduce the threat of catastrophic fire; they also help restore fire-adapted ecosystems and improves forest health,” says Brass. “We conduct largescale burns on the landscape. We teach how wind, landscape conditions and fire interact. Burning techniques needed to remove ladder fuels throughout a timber stand are different from the needs of a biological burn mimicking a more intense, natural burn to benefit a particular wildlife species.”

The Potomac River Fire Crew’s eastern season winds down just as the western fire season heats up. It’s perfect timing for the crew to head west and the crew is in its fourth year of supporting the Pacific Northwest Region with a Type 2 Initial Attack Crew (Type 2 IA). As fires in the West slow down, Potomac River’s leadership brings firefighters to the East to build up the knowledge base of Western prescribed burn programs. Collaborating and sharing resources results in year-round training opportunities for firefighters throughout the agency.

This past year, the Potomac River Type 2 IA Crew supported the Bruler Fire on the Willamette National Forest and completed multiple, consecutive assignments on the Middle Fork Complex on the Willamette National Forest. The crew’s final severity assignment focused on assisting the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service on a prescribed burn.

Although the crew’s core leadership positions were held by Job Corps staff, it would have been impossible to field successive crews without cooperation and support of the Eastern, Southern and Pacific Northwest Regions, along with the National Park Service.

The two-pronged approach of spring prescribed fire season and wildland firefighting as a Type 2 IA crew helps ensure that Job Corps students have a well-rounded training experience. “We realized pretty quickly that our spring season provides some experience, but not the necessary crew experience that guarantees assignments for our students,” says Brass. “A Type 2 IA crew must be built. Students, along with staff, work on task books and gain leadership experience. This also benefits the timber technicians, biologists and other staff positions who form the backbone of Forest Service militia.”

Brass’ networking provides an array of benefits to Job Corps students. They earn Public Lands Corps certification hours while gaining valuable experience while working on hazardous fuels project work and other non-suppression activities. Just as important, they benefit from the mentoring of career wildland firefighters.

Potomac River Fire Crew partnerships allow young firefighters to meet a mixed bag of staff from across the U.S. and expose the traditional Forest Service to the Job Corps program. A conversation with a seasoned western firefighter often results in a student, who might not have ventured out west, to consider it as a possibility. “Students who perform well gain references they can use as they pursue career positions,” says Brass. “Firefighting staff return to their home units and when a student’s resume comes across their desk, they know who they are. I’ve had fire management staff ask for students to fill out crews that were short-staffed.”

Salmon-Challis National Forestry Aid Emmanual Oladipo, a Harpers Ferry Job Corps graduate, can personally attest to the impact the Potomac River Fire Crew and Job Corps had on the trajectory of his career. “Job Corps changed my life. Young people should go to Job Corps and see what the fire program is about,” says Oladipo. “Having Gabe Templeton and Phillip Brass believe in me was huge and its why I’m here now.”

Brass notes that trained Job Corps graduates who have pursued career opportunities outside the agency can be an important, seasonal resource. Harpers Ferry Job Corps graduate Alexander Bonilla is currently pursuing a career as an independent insurance contractor. However, he enjoys returning during the summer months to work as a Type 2 IA wildland firefighter. “Good things came out of being part of the fire program,” says Bonilla. “It allowed me to save money I needed to cover expenses I’m responsible for like tools, a truck and general liability and workman’s compensation insurance.” As a former student himself, Bonilla advice and leadership resonates with current students who benefit from his presence.

The success of the Harpers Ferry Job Corps Potomac River Fire Crew is the result of a team effort by Forest Service personnel coast-to-coast. Some of the Job Corps students who pass through the program may very well become the next generation of federal wildland fire managers. The hazardous fuels project work it supports provides translates into an approximately 60% cost reduction for the host forests it serves.

The efforts of the Job Corps Fire Program directly support the agency’s strategic goal of sustaining our nation’s forests and grasslands and delivering benefits to the public. If your forest or region would like to learn more about training opportunities available with the Potomac River Fire Crew, contact Monongahela National Forest Assistant Fire Management Officer Phillip Brass at 540-881-0063 or philip.s.brass@usda.gov.