Sue Husari: A Life in Fire, Leadership, and Care — Women’s History Month Spotlight
In a field long defined by grit, endurance, and tradition, Sue Husari has spent nearly five decades helping shape what wildland fire can be, both on the fireline and within the culture surrounding it.
Sue’s career began in 1975, when she took a summer job in fire while in college. What started as a practical decision quickly became a calling. She stayed for the people, for the purpose, and for the deep connection to land that fire work demands.
Firefighter Safety Means More Than Surviving the Flames
When people think about firefighter safety, they usually imagine the obvious dangers such as flames, falling trees, aircraft accidents, or thick smoke. But many of the most serious threats to wildland firefighters are far less visible. Firefighters already face enormous physical and mental stress from long seasons, low wages, time away from family, and exposure to traumatic scenes. On top of that, research is revealing a disturbing truth: the gear they wear and the food they eat on the job may also be exposing them to toxic chemicals linked to cancer and other serious illnesses.
Women’s History Month Spotlight: Wildland Firefighter Jess Hamner
For U.S. Forest Service squad boss Jess Hamner, wildfire isn’t just a job, it’s a way of connecting to the land and the people around her. Now in her fifth season on a Type 2IA hand crew in Utah, Jess says what she loves most about fire is the chance to travel to places few people ever see, build deep relationships with her crew, and feel rooted in the landscapes she helps protect. “When you live with 23 people on a truck for a summer,” she says, “that’s family.”
Firefighter Safety is the #1 Priority: Safety Risks Include Physical and Mental Health Hazards
The majority of wildland firefighters are a super exploited seasonal labor force with abysmal wages and horrible working conditions. The job has inherent dangers from numerous environmental and occupational safety risks and health hazards. Crews suffer often in silence from chronic social and environmental stresses that impact their mental health.
Ringing in the New Year at FUSEE's firefighter mindfulness retreat at Tassajara
I come from an older generation of wildland firefighters who had to uphold a can-do attitude for every suppression assignment no matter how dumb, dangerous, destructive, or delusional it was. We had to suck it up and dutifully carry out whatever we were told to do no matter the physical, mental, or emotional toll from those orders. Of course, in the glorious days of my youth I believed I was indestructible, even immortal. Yes, there were some years that it took months to recover my sense of smell and taste after suffering from hideously smoky incidents, but I didn't smoke tobacco and believed that my lungs would recover eventually. Now I feel the diminished lung capacity from all the smoking forests I inhaled. The chronic pain afflicting my knees, ankles, and back are not just the inevitable markers of aging but can also be traced to specific injuries suffered on the firelines. But these ailments I can admit to my friends. After all, they're the sacrifices made by "heroes," right?
New Year Wildland Firefighter Retreat at Tassajara Zen Center
Wildland firefighters from across the country expressed profound gratitude for the rest refuge and renewal offered at the annual Tassajara Wildland Firefighter Retreat, 12/28/25-1/2/26.
The retreats began in 2020 when wildland firefighters who had helped defend Tassajara from encroaching fires, and who knew the ever-increasing stressors, risks and intensity of the firefighter’s work, approached SFZC to ask if Zen Center might be able to offer mindfulness and meditation tools and support for the firefighter community.
Building a Tender Box: A Renewal of Cultural Burning
Cultural burns are central to the restoration and protection of our shared land and waterscapes. The Native-led Traditional Ecological Inquiry Program (TEIP) rebuilds our relationships with each other, the land, and fire by amplifying Indigenous voices and traditional ecological knowledge in environmental education and stewardship.
A Powerful Week of Healing at the November Wellness Retreat
I am honored to share a glimpse into the profound experience that unfolded at our recent Firefighter Wellness Retreat at Wellspring Spa and Retreat in Ashford, Washington. This gathering brought together 21 wildland firefighters from across the West, from Washington to Alaska, Oregon to Colorado, including smokejumpers, hotshots, early-career firefighters, and others nearing retirement.
The “No Man’s Yellow” Fire Shirt Project
FUSEE had the pleasure of displaying non-toxic firefighter uniforms (“yellows”) at our 2025 Fall Fire Festival. Sasha White, the creator of “No Man’s Yellow,” uses silk noil fabric and natural dyes, focusing on a fit that works better for female bodies as opposed to standard issued Nomex that has been found to contain PFAS and caters to male bodies.
Fire Consolidation as Creative Destruction? Trump's Proposed U.S. Wildland Fire Service
Secretarial Orders from the DOI and USDA were released on September 15th announcing steps they will take to implement Trump's Executive Order #14308 that mandated consolidation of all federal fire management programs. Issued last June, Trump demanded that this radical restructuring of federal fire programs be accomplished within 90 days--essentially, during peak wildfire season in the west!
Samson’s Bet
Incendiary Imbeciles #9
Hazing can be a heuristic teaching method for beginning wildland firefighters. If inclusive and genteel, hazing helps shrink hubris, arrogance, and exaggerated self-confidence. New and unexpected dangers lurk on any wildfire. Best to keep that sense of humbleness handy. But sometimes that humility must be kicked into the head of the hazer.
Political Maneuvering in Federal Land Management: Analyzing the USDA's July 2025 Reorganization
Introduction
The USDA's July 25th memorandum ordering a comprehensive reorganization of the $203 billion agency raises serious questions about the true motivations behind this restructuring. While framed in terms of efficiency and customer service, the proposed changes appear to represent a strategic power shift that could undermine effective federal land management and scientific forestry practices.
Prescription for Safety
Prescription for Safety (P4S) is a community led group located in the Little Applegate in Southern Oregon, focused on implementing fuels treatments along critical evacuation routes in the area.
Fly with Eagles
Incendiary Imbeciles #7
“Pride comes before the fall.” Hubris can be something that some wildland fire workers have opportunities to experience every day and yet some will never learn.
Fly with eagles, fall like a Fool Hen.
We thought we were miss-spotted, doomed to tree-up. Treeing-up can be very humiliating. It invites chortles of disapproval from your buddies and bequeaths a reputation of being a “tree frog.” First, there will be an announcement from the spotter on the plane over the radio for the whole world to know.
Rodeo Clowns
Incendiary Imbeciles #6
Wildland fire workers stay united even when sometimes safety-challenged on the fireline, or at times ecologically-challenged following orders, and occasionally ethically-challenged after work.
Planning Smokey Bear’s Retirement
Animal mascots are effective for engaging information with children. Animal mascots are relatable to children and are engaging to a child's imagination and creativity, and helps to draw their attention to playful characters that can emphasize the retention of learning the material being presented.
National Parks Need More Employees, not Less
Politicians who want to conceal their actions often do things on Friday afternoon to avoid the attention of the media. Last Friday, the Trump regime fired hundreds of people in agencies that protect our environment. The Environmental Protection Agency, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the US Forest Service and the National Park Service all saw staff fired.
Leather Hinges
Incendiary Imbeciles #5
Blow-up conditions, fire-freed rocks blasting downhill, and stealthy snags falling without warning remain dangerous on all fires and keep ethical wildland firefighters vigilant for safety. But the privilege of being there often allows intimate observation of rudimentary ecosystem change.
Grizzly Bear territory in the past, no doubt. Will it become Grizzly territory again? Right now in this area, young subalpine fir and a lot of lodgepole pine seem to be crowding out the white bark pine that Grizzlies favor as food sources.
The Helpers
We are the helpers, the healers, the hands, Racing through fire and drought-shattered lands.
We rush to the breach, through smoke and flame, To burn where needed to mend the earth’s pain.
Others feed the hungry, and mend the weak, Showing no fear when the sirens speak.
Colorado Condensate
Incendiary Imbeciles #4
Lots of wildland fire workers enjoy being a part of the virtuous fire cycle and pridefully protect human structures. But many times unknown circumstances compromise their safety.
From the air, we got a good look of the millions of years old interplay of wildland fires’ creative destruction and promise of rebirth, renewal and vibrant growth on this landscape of piñon, juniper, and sagebrush. We also saw the encroaching fossil fuel infrastructure that sprawled as gigantic spider webs of pipelines binding derelict carcasses of rusting storage tanks and decaying pump jacks.