Wildfire Tech Meets Wildfire Operators: The Wildfire Technology Summit With Chief Mark Niemeyer. The Summit takes place next week in Salt Lake City.

You know, I'm, I'm sitting back as just a, a casual observer, and I'm hearing all the language around consolidation of, you know, and they started calling it unification.

It doesn't matter what you call it.

Of the Forest Service and U.S. Wildland Fire Service.

Sure, yeah.

And, you know, full disclosure, I'm a, I'm a consolidation guy.

I remember before, you know, when the executive order came out saying, "Hey, we're gonna consolidate DOI," and I was over at NIFC, and, and I was sitting there chatting over a cup of coffee with Grant Beebe, right? Grant's a great guy.

Uh, and, and being a Boise fire chief, I had access to NIFC and the folks over there, Chris Wilcox and others.

And Grant and I were just talking about some joint work Boise Fire and BLM were doing, and we started talking about consolidation.

And, and, you know, at, at the time, the, the executive order had just started coming out, and, you know, Grant's a proud BLM guy, right?

Mm-hmm.

He should be.

And he was kinda apprehensive about it, like, "Wait, what are we doing, and why are we doing it, and why d- why is this gonna be better?" And, you know, I had a different opinion, and, and I think I shocked Grant because he said, "Well, Mark, if, if all of a sudden I told you tomorrow that Boise Fire has to consolidate with all the other fire departments in the valley and become the, you know, the Treasure Valley Fire Department, how would you feel?" And I think I shocked him 'cause I said, "I'd love it." And, and what I meant by that is there's so many efficiencies I think you can gain.

Now, the, the challenge is you're removing one patch and putting on another, right? And it's the culture, and it's the history, and so I get it, and I got it.

But I think now you look at, you know, U.S. Wildland Fire Service, and man, those guys are running, right? They, they quickly came together.

They kinda align now under one mission, and they're, they're cruising, right? And I think everybody's pretty happy.

So I, I hear all the consolidation talk, and I hear all the passion, both sides, right? Which, Tim, I think you and I talk about this.

I, I chuckle whenever I hear the folks say land management won't be important anymore.

Yeah.

They, they've k- they've kind of-- And b-by they, it's like, like you said, th-there are very passionate people out there.

I-

Yes

...

I talk to them.

I can put my-- I can put myself in their shoes.

I understand their passion.