7 minute read
A Cut Above, Field Experience for Students
ISU alum and engine boss Ryan Harr is a regular instructor of S-130 Federal Firefighter Training. He finds creative ways to engage current Iowa State students in this hands-on training.
A CUT ABOVE
Field experience equips students for career advancement
Story by Melea Reicks Licht Images by Matt Van Winkle and Melea Reicks Licht
“Hold! Clean up your line,” Ryan Harr shouts into the wooded hillside. “Make sure you’re leaving six to ten feet between each other to allow a safe distance to swing your tools.” The group of 21 Iowa State University students look to the left and right and adjust spacing as they align themselves beneath the colorful fall foliage of the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge near Prairie City, Iowa. The students are attending S-130 Federal Firefighter Training. Harr (‘00 animal ecology, MS ‘05), a special projects wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and engine boss with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is their instructor. “It’s tougher to make a straight line than you think,” he quips. “This exercise is all about communication.” The group is learning to grid search. In this exercise they’re searching for fire, but the technique can be useful in a number of situations ranging from searching for missing persons to cleaning up plane crash sites. “If you find the fire, you get to keep it,” Harr calls out with a smile. The students carefully advance through the thick brush clearing a path with rakes and hoes as needed. “Fire!” The team surrounds the location of the spotter and digs a quick and complete circle isolating the area. A student raises a 20-ounce Mountain Dew tied with bright orange plastic strips above his head. The “fire” has been contained. While the mood is lighthearted, the learning is serious business. This field day introduces students to the basics such as learning the names and uses of hand tools, operating water pumps, digging fire lines, and other techniques like the grid search. Once completed, this certification will help these Iowa Staters successfully compete for careers within federal agencies including the Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, and National Forest Service.
Caleb Postol (‘21 forestry) is one of more than 250 Iowa Staters who have completed wildland firefighting certification during their undergraduate studies through a partnership with state and federal agencies.
Students practice using various hand tools to dig a fire line as part of a S-130 certification field day. For natural resources ecology and management graduates, federal certifications give them an advantage when applying for jobs. The S-130 certification offered via the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service builds upon the in-class education students receive at Iowa State in the Fire Ecology and Management 390 undergraduate course. Taught by Tom Isenhart, professor of natural resource ecology and management, the course covers the characteristics and role of fire in forest ecosystems. Isenhart (‘83 botany & environmental studies, MS ‘88 water resources, PhD ‘92) draws largely on recent fire events for classroom discussion to emphasize the relevance and importance of what they’re learning. Major topics include fuels, fire weather, fire behavior, fire danger rating systems, fire control, prescribed burning, and fire dynamics in major ecosystem types. Federal certification is a voluntary add-on to Isenhart’s course. Students who opt in work with Isenhart to complete the prerequisite, S-190 Introduction to Wildland Fire Behavior, a 40-hour online course. Then he helps students get signed up for the S-130 field day. They follow up on scheduling their own pack test. Once they demonstrate ability to walk three miles in less than 45 minutes carrying a 45-pound pack they are awarded their “red cards” and certified to respond to a wildland fire incident. “Students are building skills and resumes,” Isenhart says. “Some students want to fight fires as a summer job, and some want to do it as a career. Others recognize the certifications mean greater job eligibility, regardless of their interest in actually fighting fires.” This collaborative training for Iowa State students, offered since the early 2010s, has helped more than 250 students get certified for wildland firefighting. Chloe Proffitt, a senior in forestry, says certification helps her stand out among tough competition for much-sought-after federal jobs. “I want to work in natural resources – probably a tech position,” Proffit says. “I appreciate the in-person, hands-on experience of today’s field day. It’s the real deal. It’s so different than in the classroom or online.”
TEACHING FROM EXPERIENCE
Following the grid exercise, Harr arranges the students along a ridge of fescue to dig a fire line. One student digs a shallow trench for three feet, then another student joins the line digging, then another, and another. “Work for 15 minutes, rest for five,” Harr says. “This demonstrates that you need to learn to work smarter, not harder. You have to always be thinking, ‘How can I reserve some energy in case I need to evacuate in a hurry?’” With a background as a reserve wildland firefighter, Harr speaks with authority on how these skills will serve students well in the event of an active fire. Harr has been a wildland firefighter for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for 15 years. He began as a volunteer to gain experience while working as an assistant scientist at Iowa State. “We’d received federal grant funding to study fire and cattle grazing across southern Iowa. I thought it best to get experience in how the federal government manages fire in the Midwest, so I volunteered to help here at Neal Smith – and my fire career grew from there.”
ISU students practice isolating flames to prevent the spread of fire. Wildland firefighting certification includes 40 hours of online training and completion of a field day such as this before “pack testing” to demonstrate fitness while carrying a 45-pound pack.
As he’s gained experience, Harr has performed prescribed fires across thousands of acres of Iowa, and has been tapped to fight wildfires with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Oregon, Tennessee, Colorado, and elsewhere. Over the years, he’s risen through the ranks to become an instructor for the federal government. Harr draws on this experience to create scenarios for the students to trouble-shoot and shares stories from his past fire runs. After this field day, some undergrads will choose to go on to pursue other wildland fire training certifications. The S-212 Wildland Fire Chainsaws course is offered through a similar partnership for Iowa State students. It covers the function, maintenance, and use of internal combustion engine powered chainsaws and their tactical wildland fire application, culminating with a field day in the spring. It’s another way Iowa Staters can further their qualifications for top jobs and prepare for a career protecting natural resources and structures from wildland fires. It’s working for Liam Bell. He graduates with degrees in forestry and animal ecology this May. He says having the certifications is a huge advantage entering the job market. “My certifications helped me land an internship working in Montana in the Kootenai National Forest on the Three Rivers Ranger District fire crew. I ended up coming back for two more summers,” Bell says. “One summer was pretty quiet. We did a lot of project work helping trails and recreation clear trails and underbrush. The summer of 2021 we were on a fire all but one week.” The son of a career firefighter, Bell’s interest in working on a fire crew deepened after his experience at Iowa State University’s Rod and Connie French Conservation Camp near Missoula, Montana. He also credits his coursework in the Department of Natural Resource
Ecology and Management for giving him a leg up. “Having the forestry background from silviculture and dendrology, being able to ID trees, knowing about the structure of wood, ladder fuels – it all helps me understand fire behavior,” says Bell. Whether fighting wildland fires, or rejuvenating native species and reducing fuel loads through managed fire, Bell plans to continue his connection to fire science through work in natural resources management. ONLINE EXTRAS: Visit www.ISUalum.org/VISIONS or scan this QR code to experience hands-on learning alongside these Iowa Staters in a video online.
