10 AM policy, over suppression instead of fire management, and terrible wages/no benefits causing skilled/knowledgeable workers to leave the field has crippled federal wildland firefighting. Once again fix the money. The people making the money are no where close to doing the dirty work. I’m biased of course but contractors, Calfire, structure firefighters (who just sit on their ass and do nothing every wildland fire incident) all get paid more than the guys putting in 16 hours or more for 14-21 days at a time. The guys who know how to properly manage a fire and not over suppress it causing a ticking time bomb. The guys who sleep on the dirt and not in hotels every other day losing tactical oversight on the fire’s behavior. The guys who can be fully self sufficient for 72 hours in the absolute middle of nowhere. This is the result you get when you pay $15 dollars an hour with no benefits to the guys with the highest suicide rates amongst any job and a lottery ticket that’s 40-60% likely to payout with heart & lung cancer. Not to mention they have one of the highest divorce rates due to being gone from their families for 6 months out of the year only to come back to a broken home with little to nothing to show for it. This, this is the reward you get for being a Hotshot. nostr:note14xmvdls4a6uemr04mmhvmkgw22npv0quv2amumkq74mkt98c5x3s5x7mct