What Makes a Situation Complex?
Gregory Vigneaux is a speaker, author, researcher, consultant, and wildland firefighter coach.
Finding C.A.L.M
Bequi Livingston was the first woman recruited by the New Mexico-based Smokey Bear Hotshots for its elite wildland firefighting crew. She was the Regional Fire Operations Health and Safety Specialist for the U.S. Forest Service in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Livingston is now a certified trauma specialist, trauma sensitive yoga teacher, integrative health coach and personal fitness trainer. Her business, BodySense Wellness, focuses on paying it forward to help wildland firefighters and first responders heal and deal with their traumatic stress.
Job Market Trends
As of 31 May 2025, the FireUp job board hosted 263 fire and forestry employers across ten industry types, with 1,615+ active job postings. In the past month, the job board received 2,532 unique visitors and 492 job clicks. The most job clicks were received on postings from the State of California (CAL FIRE), the Association for Fire Ecology, Firestorm Wildland Fire Suppression, Old Growth Tree Service, Rocky Mountain Youth Corps, State of Washington, Gridware, Western Fire Chiefs Association, Megafire Action, The Nature Conservancy, and Miller Timber, State of Washington, PG&E, Muon Space, Blue Forest, among others.
Job Market Trends
As of 27 April 2025, the FireUp job board hosts 264 fire and forestry employers across ten industry types, with 1,972+ active job postings. In the past month, federal agencies are back online, adding 300+ relevant roles to our job board. At 768 open positions, private companies still contribute the bulk of roles available on the FireUp job board, followed by nonprofits (329 jobs), state agencies (298 jobs), universities (162 jobs), and FireTech startups (76), among others.
Job Market Trends
As of 28 March 2025, the FireUp job board hosts 263 fire and forestry employers across ten industry types, with 2,332+ active job postings. In the past month, private companies have added 385 roles, making up the bulk of our new jobs. Private companies lead the job boards with 1221 jobs, followed by state agencies (347 jobs) and nonprofits (293 jobs).
Jenga Blocks of Wellness
Wellness has become a ‘buzzword’ in today’s society, which can make it confusing, especially in our fire and forestry world. Here, we take a common-sense approach to what wellness means in simple terms.
Job Market Trends
As of 28 February 2025, the FireUp job board hosts 263 fire and forestry employers across ten industry types, with 2,069+ active job postings. In February, state agencies added 214 jobs, while federal agencies removed 217 jobs, following the federal government funding freeze and mass layoffs. Read on for more on job and talent trends in our network.
Founder’s desk
In February, funding and hiring freezes, and mass layoffs, affected all fire and forestry related agencies as the Trump-Vance administration brings “workforce optimization” to the federal government’s functioning. Paradoxically, these Executive Orders come on the heels of one of America’s costliest disasters in modern history–the devastating LA County fires. It is clear that ongoing trends in wildfire impacts necessitate an expanded, cross-trained, and year-round fire and forestry workforce across all levels of partnership.
Get in the DIRT: Notes on Leadership
Mark is a master mitigator and innovation instigator, who blends 20+ years of broad public safety
and wildland fire management experience with a lifetime of human factors nerdiness to create
custom collaborative solutions for Fire, Law Enforcement, and Emergency Management. He
started his career in 2005 with Kings County (CA) FD as a volunteer, in 2008 was accepted to the
Wildland Fire Apprenticeship Program on Sequoia NF, then held progressive Fire Management
positions until 2021. In the Fall of 2021, Mark left the U.S. Forest Service and founded Grounded
Truths LLC dealing in Wildland Fire, Prescribed Fire, Emergency Management, and unusual events
(e.g. Total Solar Eclipse) planning, preparedness, and response.
Job Market Trends
As of 31 January 2025, the FireUp job board hosts 261 fire and forestry employers across ten industry types, with 1,770+ active job postings. The western United States continues to have the highest concentration of active employers and jobs. The January 2025 LA disaster has likely further contributed to this trend as both public and private companies respond to the wildfires and assist communities with recovery.
Founder’s desk
In the first weeks of 2025, Los Angeles County, California, experienced catastrophic impacts from multiple wildfires, estimated to be the most devastating and costliest disaster in America’s modern history. Our thoughts and prayers are with the affected communities, first responders, and frontline crews tirelessly working to respond, recover, and rebuild homes and lives devastated by these fires.
Fire Safe Communities: What will it take?
Ryan has worked in the Fire Service for both federal and local agencies over the past 15+ years. He has led agency wildland divisions and crews as a Captain and coordinated with state and national agencies to acquire grants for wildland fire safety work and fuels reduction. He has mentored new firefighters, and developed training and education programs, including as a current part time instructor at a community college in the Flagstaff, Arizona. His true passion lies in helping others and he is very happy to now be a member of the FireUp team helping coach the next generation of fire and forestry professionals.
Wildfire Smoke and Exercise: To run or not to run?
Patricia is a computational Ph.D. student researching wildfire smoke transport modeling and an aspiring science communicator. Passionate about disaster modeling and air quality, she draws inspiration from her childhood moments watching National Geographic to raise awareness of the various angles of disasters like wildfires through storytelling and promote resilience. Connect with her on the FireUp community platform to learn more!
Job market trends
As of December, the FireUp job board hosts 257 fire and forestry employers across ten industry types, with 1,500 active job postings daily. The western United States reflects the highest concentration of active employers and jobs. 144 job applications were submitted through the FireUp job board in November, with the greatest number of applications going to jobs in California. The top employers to receive applications from FireUp’s job board this month were the County of Los Angeles, followed by the Northwest Youth Corps, California Conservation Corps, Conservation Legacy, Western Fire Chiefs Association, Gridware, the Bureau of Land Management, and the State of Washington.
Founder’s desk
As the new administration takes office in 2025, fire and forestry work faces both challenges and opportunities. In recent years, the twin crises of escalating wildfire impacts and workforce retention have exposed critical gaps in our nation’s wildfire mitigation and land management systems. To meet these challenges, a bold policy agenda must prioritize system-wide workforce expansion, cross-training, and modernization. The Trump-Vance administration must democratize access to whole-person development, lifelong learning, and career mobility with more opportunities for upskilling and pathways for non-degree credentials. This revitalization of the fire and forestry workforce system must be implemented through private and non-profit partnerships already leading the way in ensuring that fire and forestry careers are dignified, sustainable, and capable of securing a future for all American workers.
Job market trends
In October, we celebrated some significant milestones. The FireUp job board now hosts 255 fire and forestry employersacross ten industry types, we’ve surpassed 10,000 page visits, and enabled at least 350 applications from the FireUp Job Board!
Opinion
Vance Russell, Principal at 3point.xyz shares his thoughts on why we need to be leveraging forest restoration funds to increase capacity and scale implementation.
Workforce Trends
FireUp’s emerging talent pool includes diverse professionals across a variety of job fields and career stages, who can meet various organizational needs across the fire, forestry, and land management sectors. Read about workforce trends we’re seeing from our growing talent network here.
Job description templates
FireUp’s Job Description Templates make it easy for you to customize and post jobs that align with talent’s interest and career objectives!
Resume help is here!
FireUp’s Resume Template can make it easy for you to apply for a range of jobs. We hope the builder/parser tool will help you create a well-rounded resume that can be conveniently parsed by employers and Applicant Tracking Systems.

