By Eric Everson
This mentoring program connects a mentor and mentee with a shared birthday, and a common desire to help colleagues. The outcome was an online resource for the greater wildfire community.
I recently had the good fortune of taking part in the International Association of Wildland Fire’s mentoring program.
I was just a year into my role as science communications specialist with the North Atlantic Fire Science Exchange, which is part of the Joint Fire Science Program’s Fire Science Exchange Network.
I had mentored young professionals in my many years with the National Weather Service. In the IAWF mentoring program I was randomly paired with Max Levy, who at the time was working on a wildland fire hand crew for the state of Idaho.
This article is first published in Wildfire Magazine – read the full edition.
To help ensure this six-month mentor-mentee partnership would work for both of us, we were encouraged to have a get-to-know-each-other meeting. That meeting took place on May 29. You are probably wondering about the relevance of the date to the mentoring program and this story. Well, toward the end of our initial productive meeting, during which we agreed to work together over the next six months, I happened to mention that it was my birthday. Remarkably, Max said it was his birthday too. I said we couldn’t be twins because I already have a twin sister, but we could be triplets. And Max countered with the incredible fact that he too was a twin – having a twin brother. What are the odds we would be randomly paired, hold a meeting on our shared birthday, and find out we both had twin siblings? I remember saying we definitely had to work together. And that is exactly what we did.
In our initial meeting, Max indicated he was very interested in community preparedness and resilience. He already had a solid knowledge base on the topic but wanted to expand on it. He also wanted to learn, in general, about experiences others had on wildfires. I knew this was going to be one of my favorite aspects of the mentoring program because I would be learning just as much from Max as he would learn from me.
My background was not in community preparedness and resilience, but I did serve 22 years as an incident meteorologist working on wildfires across the United States. Another aspect of our partnership that I was excited about was that we agreed on the importance of helping other young professionals. One of the goals of the Joint Fire Science Program is to ensure we support the next generation with their growth and knowledge of the fire and forestry community. Even though I worked with the fire and forestry community in my roles with the North Atlantic Fire Science Exchange and the National Weather Service, my eyes were opened at a National Cohesive Strategy Workshop as to just how many entities are connected to this community. Max felt strongly we should ensure young professionals are aware of all that is out there for them as they decide on potential career paths. Thus, our goal was to create a resource document with relevant information for a variety of users by the end of our six-month commitment.
Max and I would typically meet once or twice a month, catch up on life and work, share wildfire stories, and talk about the resources we were adding to our document. The document was filled with relevant resources on several topics that would benefit the fire and forestry community, especially young professionals.
Our six months went by quickly and our document was complete. But the story does not end there, thanks to Max’s leadership. Max wanted to take our project to the next level and turn our resource document into an online web resource. And so, our partnership continued beyond the required six months.
Over the next four months, amongst life conversations and career advice, work was done to create the Wildland Fire Resources Library
The library is a centralized hub for the wildland fire community, providing access to valuable resources, opportunities, and information. The content focuses on building community resilience and providing a starting point for young professionals to gain further knowledge of the fire and forestry community. The core topics that can be found on the site include community resilience, fire information, smoke monitoring, climate and weather resources, student assistant programs, employment opportunities, wildfire training, and fire and forestry groups.
We welcome your thoughts about the resource we have put together.
I am grateful the IAWF offers the mentoring program. Young professionals, now more than ever, would greatly benefit from your leadership and guidance. And it will be a wonderful learning experience for you too.
Working with Max has helped in my role with the North Atlantic Fire Science Exchange. For that I am extremely lucky and glad I do not have to consider Max as a mentee, but rather a friend.
I am also happy to report Max worked on a helitack crew for the Washington Department of Natural Resources this season, and I look forward to hearing and sharing more wildfire stories with him.
Please check out the IAWF mentoring program and consider making a difference. It can be every bit as good as our May 29 experience!
Wildland Fire Resources Library
The IAWF has an open period for applications twice a year. After the applications are received and reviewed, the IAWF matches the mentors and mentees based on interests and geographic location. The program encourages both face to face mentoring and online remote mentoring, depending on the location of the participants, who can be anyway around the world. A mentoring opportunity is also offered during IAWF conferences.
Eric Evenson is the science communications specialist for the North Atlantic Fire Science Exchange. Evenson spent 33 years with the National Weather Service, which included stops in Maine, Montana, Missouri, Idaho, and Vermont. For 22 years, Everson served as an incident meteorologist, communicating critical fire weather information at large wildfire incidents. As an incident meteorologist, Evenson was part of the training cadre and mentored trainees. As a lead forecaster with the National Weather Service in Burlington, Vermont, Everson was part of the fire weather team communicating and coordinating with the local fire and forest community.
In addition, Everson served as the National Weather Service liaison to the fire science working team of the Northeast Forest Fire Protection Commission. Everson has always enjoyed sharing and communicating scientific information to the fire and forest community and is excited to continue that work by serving those in the North Atlantic Fire Science Exchange region.
No comment yet, add your voice below!