We were surprised when the U.S. Forest Service appointed a person with no on-the-ground fire experience to be Deputy Regional Forester for Fire and Aviation Management in the California Region. That trend is continuing, but at a higher level.
Robert Baird has accepted the position of Deputy Director of Fire and Aviation Management in Washington, D.C. for the U.S. Forest Service. Mr. Baird is currently the Branch Head, Center for Irregular Warfare, US Marine Corps, in Quantico, Virginia.
Jennifer Jones, a spokesperson for the USFS, told us that in his new position Mr. Baird will supervise the following functions:
- Washington Office-State and Private Forestry / Fire and Aviation Management Assistant Director for Fire Operations located at the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) in Boise, Idaho;
- Washington Office-S&PF/FAM Assistant Director for Risk Management located at NIFC;
- Washington Office-S&PF/FAM Assistant Director for Aviation located in Washington, D.C.
Mr.Baird will report to WO-S&PF/FAM Director Tom Harbour.
HERE is a link to the organizational chart for USFS Fire and Aviation Management in the Washington Office. (If it is sideways, in Adobe Reader, click View/Rotate.) The chart was current as of May 11, 2011 and shows Rich Kvale in the Deputy Director position, who is being replaced by Mr. Baird.
On his Linkedin page, Mr. Baird describes his present duties as: “Explore, Develop, Coordinate, Plan, and Integrate IW Concepts for the Marine Corps”. From a brief bio that was provided for an event in 2010, his experience included:
- Planner in Afghanistan for special operations integration and implementation
- Planner in Iraq to establish initial Iraqi police capability in one province
- Director of Operations for the Marine Corps University/Education Command
- Lead planner for I Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF) rapid response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita
- Chief of Plans for I MEF
- He obtained a Masters of Operational Studies from Marine Corps University
Mr. Baird is also a former seasonal police officer for Ocean City, Maryland.
He has written a paper titled Profiles in Pyroterrorism: Convergence of crime, terrorism and wildfire unleash as a weapon on population. Wildfire comes up another time in his profile on Linkedin where he said he “Planned for Wildland Fire Fighting contingency mission, served in MCB Emergency Ops Center, and personally supported displacement of Div Cmd Post due to wildfire.”
We very much support the concept of hiring veterans and have highlighted such programs in the past, but we would be more comfortable if the person who is second in command in USFS Fire and Aviation Management had more wildland fire experience and knowledge than we have seen listed for Mr. Baird.
Thanks go out to Dick
