Teton Interagency Fire

Great Basin Seasonal Outlook for February - May 2025

The town of Kemmerer – along with the neighboring towns of Diamondville and Frontier – makes up the small community located at 6927 feet about sea level, in the rolling hills of Southwestern Wyoming. The community is rooted along the Hams Fork River – which is part of the Green River watershed – and has a population of approximately 3,126 people. The area offers a plenitude of fishing, hunting, hiking, wildlife watching, and in the winter, snowmobiling. During the warmer times of the year, golfers also enjoy a challenging nine-hole golf course set near and along the Hams Fork River. Kemmerer also hosts two music festivals, for all ages, during the month of July - Fossil Fest and Oyster Ridge Music Festival.

The Kemmerer area also offers an abundance of cultural and natural history opportunities alike. One may explore nearby Fossil Butte National Monument, an 8,198 acre natural area that was established in 1972. In addition, the area has a rich historical significant with many trails and cut-off trails associated with the western movement of wagons and people along the Oregon, Mormon, and California Trails.

The 286,186 acre Kemmerer RD and the 438,883 acre Greys River RD make up the 725,069 acre West Zone Fire Management area of the Bridger-Teton National Forest. The West Zone Fire organization is comprised of one Fuels AFMO, one Operations AFMO and one Type 4 Engine, located Kemmerer, WY; one Zone FMO, one Fire Prevention Technician, and one Type 6 Engine located in Afton, WY, the district office for the Greys River RD.

The engine modules consist of three permanent staff - Supervisory Fire Engine Operator, Assistant Fire Engine Operator, and a Lead Fire Fighter – along with two to four summer seasonal crewmembers.

Government housing for summer seasonal employees may be available.

Other resources commonly used on the zone and across the Bridger-Teton NF include Teton Interagency Helitack out of Jackson, WY, the Teton Interagency Type 2 IA Hand Crew, and other Type 4 and Type 6 Engines from the forest on neighboring districts and zones. A good working relationship exists with Lincoln County Volunteer Fire Departments, the National Park Service, and the local Bureau of Land Management office to assist with any fires they have as well.

A normal fire season for western Wyoming is late July through September. Fires on the West Zone have been reported as early as May and as late as December. Seasonal crewmembers can expect to start employment in mid-May to early June and work into October.

Expectations for the engine crews are high. Being physically fit, having a positive attitude, having an eye for detail, and being self-motivated are encouraged and appreciated.

Assignments for engine crewmembers include fire Initial Attacks on district, forest, and neighboring BLM land, off district and off forest engine assignments, going out on assignment with the Teton Type 2IA hand crew, and if qualified, assisting with Teton Helitack. When not assigned to a fire, the fire crews assist with district project work, preparing prescribed fire burn units, or assisting with fuels reduction treatments on the district and zone.

For further information, please contact Cody McFarland, Engine Captain in Kemmerer, WY at 307-828-5124 or by email at cmcfarland@fs.fed.us.

The Forest

BRIDGER-TETON NATIONAL FOREST

The Bridger-Teton National Forest (BTNF) is part of the largest intact ecosystem in the lower 48 states. The 3.4 million acres stretch from the southern border of Yellowstone National Park, covering the eastern portion of Grand Teton National Park, arching around Jackson Hole, to the prairies of southwest Wyoming. The Forest includes headwaters of three nationally significant rivers the Yellowstone, Snake and Green.

Recreation opportunities and scenic quality are internationally renowned. The Kemmerer Ranger District offers some of the nations best opportunities for summer and winter outdoor activities. Residents enjoy trout fishing, hunting, camping, hiking, golfing, snowmobiling, wildlife viewing, horseback riding, boating, downhill and cross-country skiing. A short drive to the north are two of the United States top National Park destinations, Grand Teton and Yellowstone.

The Community

For information on the town of Kemmerer: kemmerer.org

The duty station for Engine 4 is Colter Bay Village, a community within Grand Teton National Park located on the north shore of Jackson Lake. It features two restaurants, a marina, the Colter Bay Visitor Center & Indian Museum, a small grocery store, trail rides, direct access to Jackson Lake, with close, easy access to the Snake River for great fishing and float trips. Colter Bay is 15 miles south of the south gate to Yellowstone National Park, 12 miles northwest of Moran and 45 miles from Jackson. Employee housing is provided within the Colter Bay Village.

The crew consists of:

• an engine boss (engine boss and ICT5 minimum qualifications);
• assistant engine boss (squad boss, ICT5, engine operator);
• firefighter 1 crew member (squad boss and ICT5 trainee, engine operator);
• and a firefighter 2 crewmember (S-130/190 qualified).

All four personnel are National Park Service employees, but the crew works closely with the neighboring Bridger-Teton National Forest fire modules and staff. Engine 4 is a type 6 engine, developed for off-road wildland fire suppression activities. It is a 2007 Ford F550 Super Cab, which holds 5 personnel and almost 300 gallons of water.

In addition to responding to both local wildfires and prescribed burns within the park and the forest, Engine 4 crew members typically have opportunities to travel on assignments to large fires with either the engine, the Teton Interagency 20-person handcrew or with other modules. The Engine module may also assist with motor vehicles accidents, search and rescues and other all-hazard emergency responses. Firefighters are offered several fire-related trainings locally throughout the month of June. The Engine 4 module also has an aggressive and fun physical training program that takes advantage of the many hiking trails within the park, as well as the exercise gym within walking distance of the fire cache.

Pinedale, Wyo., December 11, 2024—The Bridger-Teton National Forest plans to conduct a tree thinning project designed to reduce hazardous wildfire fuels near the Big Sandy trailhead in the southern Wind River Range. The project area, approximately 25 miles southeast of Boulder, WY, contains high levels of dead and down fuels due to historic fire suppression, blowdown events, lodgepole pine mortality from mountain pine beetle, and a large number of trees infested with western dwarf mistletoe. Work would begin in the summer of 2025.

A combination of prescribed pile-burning (Thin-Pile-Burn) and mechanical timber harvesting are planned to remove ladder fuels, blown-down timber and increase canopy spacing on Forest Service lands within the Wildland Urban Interface. These treatments will help mitigate the potential for high intensity wildfire and improve emergency travel to the many homes, special use permitted areas, and Forest Service sites adjacent to the Big Sandy trailhead. Conifer trees encroaching on aspen communities will also be removed to promote aspen regeneration for the benefit of wildlife.

The Big Sandy Hazardous Fuels Reduction Project has been reviewed and discussed publicly and is being conducted with support from the Sublette County Forest Collaborative. Those interested can access and review the project decision documents here: https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/btnf/?project=64704

For more information about the Bridger-Teton National Forest on our website at https://www.usda.gov/btnf/or by following us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/BridgerTetonNFor Twitter X https://twitter.com/BridgerTetonNF 

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Pinedale, Wyo., December 19, 2024—The Bridger-Teton National Forest is currently seeking comments on the Pinedale Ranger District's East Rim Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) Vegetation Management Project near the Hoback Rim northwest of Pinedale.

This project aims to reduce excessive wildfire fuels on the landscape by removing dead trees and woody debris, thinning live trees, and removing diseased trees in forested stands on up to 3,000 acres. Fuels reduction will be achieved through a variety of timber management activities and prescribed burning.

The benefits of forest thinning and burning include improving landscape resilience to climate change and other disturbances by reducing wildfire risk, decreasing fuel loading, improving forest stand health, and increasing the age class and species diversity of trees. All proposed activities are consistent with the current Forest Plan (USDA 1990, as amended).

The East Rim WUI project is located approximately 25 miles northwest of Pinedale and 10 miles east of Bondurant on the north side of U.S. Highway 189, adjacent to the Packer-Miner Creek Road.

Comments should be submitted through the public participation portal on the project webpage: https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/btnf/?project=67357. Submit comments using the web form on the project webpage select “Comment on Project” under “Get Connected” on the right side of the project’s webpage. This scoping period will run for 20 days. Comments are requested by January 6, 2025. Written comments may also be submitted by mail or hand delivered to:

Kate Olsen, District Ranger
Pinedale Ranger District
29 East Fremont Lake Road, PO Box 220
Pinedale, WY 82941

The office business hours for those submitting hand-delivered comments are: 8:00 am to 4:30 pm Monday through Friday, excluding holidays.
For more information about the Bridger-Teton National Forest on our website at https://www.usda.gov/btnf/ or by following us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/BridgerTetonNF or Twitter X https://twitter.com/BridgerTetonNF