Bill has been asked to be the guest for a live recording of an internet radio show Tuesday night, September 6. It will be on Preparedness Radio and the show is called The Berkey Guy Show with Jeff Gleason. They will produce a podcast from tonight’s show which can be downloaded later, but anyone can tune in live tonight. You will be able to phone in your comments and questions or type your comments in a chat room.
The topics are going to be rather wide-ranging, covering wildland fire, the history of WildfireToday.com, the fires in Texas, the state of fire management, unusual requests we receive at WildfireToday.com, and the topics brought forward by the callers and chat room audience.
- When: Tuesday September 6 at 5:00 p.m. PT, 6:00 MT, 7:00 CT, 8:00 ET
- Where: Blogtalkradio
See you there.
Thanks for coming on our show, I apologize about the end of the show, as we had a technical glitch, and I was not able to end the show the way I wanted to. Thanks for the great information you shared in relation to being prepared for a fire, I really appreciate it.
Best wishes in all you do,
Jeff Gleason
http://www.goberkey.com
Not exactly a preparedness question, but could Bill discuss the USFS air tanker problem. I am curious why Ag doesn’t have transferred to it from DOD all of the mothballed C-130s at Davis-Monthan in Tucson and convert those to a USFS run tanker fleet? Besides money.
The USFS has been dithering about how to reconstitute the large air tanker fleet since the fleet was reduced by 60% following the two crashes in 2002. There are many options to choose from, but nobody has made a decision. Money is a huge obstacle to overcome, but an even larger one is the analysis paralysis.
The USFS first needs to define the problem. Then make a decision about what capabilities are needed in fire aviation. How many small, medium, large, and very large air tankers and helicopters do they need and what platforms are suitable. Then figure out the sources of the platforms, who will convert them, own them, maintain them, and operate them. Then find the money and procure them.
A piece of cake, right? The USFS and the other federal land management agencies are finding that it’s easier to not make these decisions, and hope no one will notice that they are not doing their jobs. That has been the mantra since 2002, and no one has been fired yet. It will be really sad if we reach the 10-year anniversary of those crashes and we still have not done anything. Sort of like the hole at the former site of the World Trade Center.