Thinking about joining the US Forest Service?

With all that's going on within the Forest Service, with cut backs and shortage of personnel. You can now add to the list of problems for them.
Not for sure how long the link will last... http://www.msnbc.com/news/336683.asp?cp1=1#BODY

Basics of story.. from Nevada...
U.S. Forest Service workers here fear for their safety partly because federal prosecutors aren’t going after criminals who break laws and threaten them, according to an internal law enforcement memo.
Tensions have been heightened in Nevada since a series of bombings aimed at conservation workers in the mid-1990s, including one bomb that exploded on the roof of the Bureau of Land Management’s Reno offices and another that blew up a Forest Service ranger’s van outside his home.

Unfortunately we may have a repeat of Storm King soon if they dont get their act together.

Its of course the bureaucrats that are responsible. The ground pounders are doing an excellant job as usual.

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Shadow

Hi Captian Hickman. You are right that Forest Service of old is gone and I dont think that it will ever be the same. My father worked for the Forest Service for about 35 years, now you deal with the drug people who are in the forest and all of the people who dont want the trees cut down and the people who want to cut them down, and the things that they do to each other. Natemarshall is right the ground personal are very good but the way the upper level people do there jobs effect the way they do there jobs. I would not like to do the firefighting that they do but someone has to and they do it very well. Sorry about rambling on but this is a very touchey subject to me.

Have a good day and be safe.

Joe
Local 3905

ps. hey captain hickman are the people of mo trying to burn up the state or what.

Everyone wants to move to the country. When I started fire suppression, in the mid 1960's, life was good. Sometimes, even the chow. We had one primary objective, to put the fire out. Now we have to read a primer on explosives, booby-traps for people on foot as well as helicopters, meth labs, illegal fireworks factorys, and the militants. It has now turned into a job. What used to be fun is now stressful, and you increase your insurance, and be sure you will is properly made and filed. As a firefighter on a "very rural" vfd, we have to consider many of the same things. Times have changed, the basics have generally stayed the same, but now we have added more to the basics just survive.

Captain Hickam

I just read the article from your link. From my understand on this subject, the person who had written the memo has been embroiled in a fight over a road closure in northeastern nevada. Its a common belief that when she started to lose the fight with the Elko County Commission, she started to shoot off accusations about threats and crimes against USFS personel. From what I know and what I have gathered from the local papers, these accusations were investigated, and other than some minor problems, were unfounded. In this state, there is a movement to have the USFS and the BLM reduce their presence, but this stems from grazing issues and public usage of the land. So the characterization that the people of Nevada are a bunch of militant fed-bashing crazies is a little off base. We are only a little militant, and the only fed bashing I do is try to beat their units on scene.

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