The U. S. Forest Service and the NWCG have have established a web site called “Firefighter Math“, which is odd because the USFS does not admit to having any firefighters, only “Forestry Technicians”.
According to the USFS, the site is:
…for the guidance of employees of the Forest Service, USDA, its contractors, and cooperating Federal and State agencies.
The Table of Contents is shown on the right.
The site has a bunch of exercises, quizzes, and a final exam. It starts out with very basic, simple principles, such as how to add and subtract fractions, stuff you were exposed to in the fifth grade but might be a little rusty on. But then it gets into firefighter-specific topics like how to calculate friction loss in a hose lay and rate of spread.
The site could be a good training tool for the young firefighter forestry technician, and a good review for those that have already taken the fire behavior courses.
John, After doing a little background research, it appears that the "math website" was probably approved and funded by the Forest Service via a contract for services rendered. It is actually a pretty useful and user friendly website… even for us firefighters needing some math tutoring.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Website Owner: Systems for Environmental Management (SEM)Website Location: Missoula, MT.Also known as "Fire.Org" (Contracted Webhost for many Forest Service and USDI web applications),About SEMSEM was founded in Missoula, MT in 1977 as a nonprofit research and educational organization. Our mission is to perform basic and applied research on topics concerning wildland fire behavior, fuels, weather, and fire effects.While the results of our work are freely available to all via scientific publications, informal papers, and public domain simulation and analystical software, our target clientele is the community of professional fire and land managers and planners.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"The USDA Non-Discrimination Notice" on the first page was a dead giveaway that it was a USDA Forest Service approved and authorized website being hosted by an outside source.It still is a pretty darn good learning and refreshment tool, and tailored for us fire folks to address "real world" uses in the field.Ken
We did not say "this is a U.S. Forest Service website". We said "the U.S. Forest service has established a web site… "The front page of the web site says:"Information contained in this document has been developed for the guidance of employees of the Forest Service, USDA…"
What makes you believe this is a U.S. Forest Service website? Where does it say that? Where is their emblem?