TEA Turns 1!

This past year at The Ember Alliance (TEA) reminded me of my early career as a smoke jumper. Smoke jumping operations, while highly variable and complex, can be broken into a series of processes with specifically timed actions: high pass, low pass, flight pattern, streamers away, jumpers away, air to ground commo is good, para-cargo away. This lingo describes steps in getting smoke jumpers and their gear from the plane to the ground. It doesn’t take long for these to become embedded into a jumper’s memory. But it’s not the process that sticks with me. It’s the adrenaline in my veins, the stomach-dropping sensation of in-flight turbulence, the sharp, sweet smell of Jet-A diesel fumes, the scent of fire gear tinged with smoke and sweat, the sound of webbing banging on metal, the sweat pouring off brows, and sensation that the tweaks to the wings of the plane created as we sat ready for THE SLAP on the back, the signal to leap into the openness beyond the safety of the plane. Those experiences are crisp in my memory, if not more refined now, than they were when they occurred.  

This month, The Ember Alliance is one year old. Getting here has been a lot like those turbulent, occasionally still, often loud, and usually bumpy flights. While there is an element of serenity to the operation it’s often punctuated by decisions and action. Although TEA may not be equipped with aircraft, I liken us to flying our own ship, encountering our own challenges and turbulence. 

Looking back, what TEA has accomplished in a single year is amazing. We have been nimble, flexible, and quick to solve problems. Our programs have grown to meet the needs of community wildfire protection planning, prescribed burn planning, providing research, and implementing prescribed fire. These accomplishments, our team, all of you and our shared mission to create a fire resilient society that supports people, landscapes, and the planet deserves to be celebrated. Bravo! 

Looking ahead, I remain grounded in our successes but humbled by the obstacles. We lack adequate, committed funding to support our diversity, equity, and inclusion work, needs that are broad and complex. We endeavor to lead the way in identifying recruitment pathways for underserved and underrepresented communities throughout the United States. We face limited training and recruitment pathways to demonstrate a more equitable hiring experience. Our employees and students encounter challenges in the continuity of opportunity to gain experiences that will secure their places in the wildland fire job market. We want to do fire management better and it is going to take everyone’s help. 

As we pilot our ship into our second year, TEA continues to take on the challenges and barriers that oft give way to opportunity. We believe in steering the future of wildfire, planning, prescribed fire, and strategy, we are passionate about it, and we are committed to it. Getting to this point has been a turbulent, sometimes a stomach-dropping experience, that required digging deep for the courage to keep going. It is these kinds of times that require a team and a community that believes in what we are doing; a community that shares our message, grows our vision, increases our impact, and provides support. Thank you for being our community, a part of our team, and for supporting us through the turbulence. Cheers to a year of accomplishments and another year of tackling challenges! 

-Gabe Donaldson – Director of Business Operations