The Hotshot Wake Up

Idaho Wildfire Shooting Update: To support and subscribe: https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ The press conference has just finished, with new details on the incident. Two firefighter deaths were confirmed by the local sheriff, FBI en route, and SWAT on scene. Law enforcement says they are still actively taking fire from an unknown number of “well-prepared suspects.” The sheriff and firefighter...

On Today’s Show: 100% community supported, To Subscribe: https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ The public land sale proposal has been removed from the budget bill. Sen. Mike Lee said this morning that he may reintroduce the proposal, but will remove the sale of Forest Service land and significantly reduce the amount of Bureau of Land Management Land available for sale. A firefighter received seco...

On Today’s Show: To Support and Subscribe 👇https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ I cover the proposal to sell off up to 1.5% of public lands for housing developments. I am a firm believer that public lands are our greatest national treasure. I cover the full details of the plan, which expects to raise $10 billion, and further fund land management costs. But is it worth it? Full operational updat...

On Today’s Show: To Subscribe and Support 👇https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ Today, I welcome Dr. Carrick Detweiler, founder and CEO of  Drone Amplified . They have developed the quadcopter drone and software platform used by the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, State Agencies, and others for aerial ignitions on wildfires and prescribed burns. We discuss how these platforms are bei...

On Today’s Show: I am 100% subscriber-supported, Thank you. 🙏To Subscribe: https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ John Mills moved to California and quickly came to realize the harsh reality of living in the wildland-urban interface. More out of necessity than anything else, he began working on the Watch Duty platform, a wildfire-tracking app, with Co-founder David Merrit. John and I discuss the...

On today’s show: To support and subscribe👇https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ Yesterday, Secretary Rollins and Secretary Burgum received their 2025 wildfire briefing in the Forest Service offices and signed a joint wildfire memo afterward. Further, Secretary Rollins issued a memorandum directing the USDA and Forest Service to take immediate action on wildfire response. This includes new direct...

On Today’s Show: To subscribe and support 👇https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/With wildfire couples starting another season and enduring the struggles that come with that, I thought it would be a great time to have a conversation about exactly this. Brittany Culbertson is a mom of two boys (17 & 20) and a proud Wildland Fire wife for 23 years. She has lived in northern Nevada for 24 years...

On today’s show: To Support and Subscribe 👇https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ These last couple of weeks, listeners have been asking for an episode of the recent Timber Executive orders on Timber management in the National Forests. So, I invited Sharon Friedman on the show, who has a wealth of knowledge as the former Assistant Director of NEPA for the USDA in the D.C. office. Sharon Friedman...

On Today’s Show: To Subscribe and support: 👇https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ I welcome Jessie Thomas to discuss health and fitness through the fire season. Sometimes, you need to hack the system to make it work for you, as the food and nutrition provided are often subpar. So, Jessie provides solutions for how you make it through the year while maintaining your health and wellness. Jesse has...

On Today’s Show: To Subscribe and support the show 👇https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ With recent developments in Oregon, Idaho, and California regarding their use of wildfire risk maps, the skyrocketing cost of insurance, and the reality of living in the Wildland Urban Interface, Stanford scholar and lawyer Micheal Wara joins the show to provide insight on where this all stands today. Wara...

On today’s show: To subscribe 👇https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ There have been ongoing discussions about major changes in the wildfire world for some time now. As significant changes are ongoing across the government, we get our first look at a draft executive order regarding a national wildfire service and more. This includes aviation and contracting changes, dispatching changes, and ulti...

On Today’s Show: To Subscribe 👇 https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ Zeke Lunder is a Pyro-geographer. His parents fled the Bay Area for the hillbilly sticks of Northeastern California in the late 1970s, when the timber industry was still a major part of the local economy, and Zeke started working in the woods in high school on a Forest Service conservation crew. Zeke started his prescribed fir...

On Today’s Show: To Subscribe: 👇 https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ Today, I welcome Zeyn O’Leary, a 35-year veteran fire lookout who has staffed towers since 1991. Zeyn started in the Iron Mountain Lookout on the Willamette National Forest, staffed the Rose Peak Lookout in the Apache Sitgreaves National Forest, and currently staffs the Mt. Pisgah Lookout in the Ochoco National Forest in Cent...

On Today’s Show: To Subscribe 👇 https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ With less than 48 hours to pass the Continuing Resolution that locks in base wage increases for wildland firefighters, I welcome Senator Tim Sheehy of Montana to discuss where we are. The House passed the Bill this week, and the Senate is expected to vote on it imminently. Will it pass the Senate? If not, we will see a governm...

On Today’s Show: To Subscribe 👇 https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ I welcome Justin DeMoss, current Golden Eagles Hotshot and of Hotshot Wellness. Justin is a dedicated humanitarian with a passion for improving physical, mental, and spiritual health. His mission is to help individuals achieve a better quality of life through holistic wellness. He earned a Master’s in Exercise Science from Lon...

On Today’s Show: To Subscribe 👇 https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ The last time JJ was on the show, we discussed his study on fire lunches and their effects on the wildland firefighters’ bodies. Since then, he has been working with Hotshot Crews and other fire resources to set them up with the optimal plan to maintain nutrition and health pre, post, and during the fire season. After high sch...

On Today’s Show: To Subscribe 👇 https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ Today, I welcome back Dr. Ludie Bond to discuss the already active Florida Fire season. Conditions across Florida are abnormally dry, and forests are starting to see fire activity they would typically see in March. The recent hurricanes also have impacted fuels, with large swaths of blowdown across Florida counties. We cover t...

On Today’s Show: To Subscribe 👇 https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ Nearly 7,000 probationary employees were terminated in the last 48 hours across the land management agencies and park service. This included researchers at the Missoula Fire Lab, trails crews, biologists, and others. The agencies have yet to communicate on the terminations that have occurred and any actions planned in the futu...

On today’s show: To Subscribe 👇 https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ I have a conversation with Eddie Goldberg, Vice Chairman Of Perimeter Solutions. Perimeter Solutions holds the sole contract with the Forest Service for retardants and has operations around the globe. We discuss the testing that retardants undergo, their composition, the safety studies that have been conducted, and the company...

On Today’s Show: To Subscribe 👇 https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ I cover the proposal for the new National Wildfire Fire Service. This has been discussed for decades, and an effort to finally streamline the wildfire bureaucracy now has bipartisan support. It would consolidate all fire agencies under one umbrella. The USDA sent out a policy email stating that wildland firefighters are not ex...

On today’s show: To Subscribe 👇 https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ Today, I cover all the wild reforms inside the wildfire agencies over the last week, how they happened, and why. It’s been a whirlwind of policy changes, website deletions, and top-level control of all IT and servers across the Departments. I even got a sneak peek at the current number of resignations sent in since mass resign...

On today’s show: To Subscribe 👇 https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ I cover the President’s visit to the California wildfires, then dive into the Fix Our Forests Act, which passed the House this week and will likely pass the Senate. Inside this Act is a provision to determine if the Forest Service should be moved to a Western state out of Washington D.C.; they have a 1-year timeline to decide....

On Today’s Show: To Subscribe 👇 https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ I speak with John Gould, one of the most respected voices in the wildfire industry. John’s career spans the wildfire world, including being a longtime Alaska Smokejumper, chair of the Federal Fire and Aviation Safety Team, head of Air Operations for the Bureau of Land Management, manager of the Alaska Fire Service, and CEO of...

On Today’s Show: To Subscribe 👇 https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ I spoke with Orange County Fire Chief Brian Fennessy about the recent fires in California and the changes needed in the aftermath. Chief Fennessy is the Chair of the  Firescope Advisory Committee,  which will meet next week to make recommendations to improve the current system and have a panel discussion on the 2025 California...

On Today’s Show: To Subscribe 👇 https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ With the tragedy of the Palisades and Eaton Fires in California over the last week, I sat down with Senator Tim Sheehy to discuss what needs to be done to ensure that this tragedy never happens again and make certain our wildland firefighters are supported. The Senator and I have discussed these issues for years, and due to th...