The Anchor Point Podcast

Today on the show: Chris Burch stops by and gives us the lowdown of the duties of the Planning Section Chief for an incident management team... Here is a little about Chris: "Chris Burch began his fire service career as a volunteer fire fighter in Riverside County, CA in 1992. He was hired as a seasonal firefighter in 1996 with the USFS, initially working on an engine crew and then as an El Cariso...

Smokey Generation award winner, Blake Toth, stops by the studio to talk about connecting veterans to wildland firefighting careers and the back story of starting his organization, "Veterans In Fire"... Blake is a former Marine door gunner who grew up in Maine. After his time in the Marines, he traveled around the country in his Ford Focus, where he discovered that he wanted to continue his passion...

Today on the show: We learn about some of the emerging technologies and situational awareness gathering tools being used to gather intel, detect new fire starts, and potentially save lives and property from Peter Vidmar... Peter is a former helitack crew member, turned captain and aircraft manager for the Colorado DFPC, with 10 years of fire experience under his belt. Here is a little more about P...

Today take a much less serious approach to the show - We sit down for a hilarious live reading of some of the passages from Charles Vaught's book, State of Fire... Here's what his book is all about: State of Fire "pulls back the curtain on the mysteries of those who go toe-to-toe in battles with Nature, exposing various overlooked aspects of what it means and takes to fight wildfire. From the raw...

EAP can be a joke... If you want real, quality, and culturally competent clinicians that specialize in the world of first responders; you're gonna have to search for it... Good thing for you?  You get to meet one of those folks today on the show as we talk all about the specialized nature of mental health with wildland firefighters and first responders. Shannon Mead is a local clinician here in Re...

Mike West has been in the wildland firefighting game for 17 years in various roles. He's done a little bit of everything from being a Hotshot, Type 2 IA crew member, engine crew member, to a dispatcher... Our community recognizes the fact that this line of work can be austere, physically demanding, and even more demanding on your mental health - And over the course of Mike's career, his mental hea...

Aaron Humphrey is not only a generational wildland firefighter, but also a wildland firefighter (forestry technician) with 25 years of experience in the game. He worked his way up from a seasonal forestry tech on an engine, all the way to Interagency Hotshot Superintendent with Eldorado Hotshots. He also served as the Hotshot Committee chairman during his time with Eldorado IHC... Today on the sho...

Having a record shouldn't discourage you from chasing your dreams part 2! Today on the show - We have Julianne Thomson, a former California Women's Inmate Firefighter, apprenticeship graduate, and all around badass on the show to tell her story about her experience and getting into wildland firefighting... Jules has a very inspiring story for those out there that may have had a similar past, and a...

This is one powerful episode... Everyone needs to hear this! Today on the show - 20 year Wildland Firefighter veteran and Hotshot Superintendent Ben Strahan sits down to talk about his experience in confronting and conquering his own mental health struggles over the course of his career, his philosophy of "need" vs. "desire", and his 9 tenants that he lives his life by to make it more purposeful a...

Having a record shouldn't discourage you from chasing your dreams - And, what better person to have on the show to talk about this, than Mando Perez... Mando has walked in those shoes, lived that life, stepped away, and stepped into the world of being a "Hotshot" Wildland Firefighter - The some of the most elite wildland firefighters in the United States... Today on the show, we listen to his stor...

Today on the show: We have Chris Ives with the San Juan Hotshots and Felipe León on the show to talk about how firefighting is done in Ensenada Mexico with the Comisión Nacional de Áreas Protegidas (CONAP) Brigade Forestal Sierra San Pedro... Chris Ives is a Squad Leader with the San Juan Interagency Hotshot Crew in Durango, CO. He grew up in Montgomery, New Jersey, and then attended King’s Colleg...

Today on the show - We sit down with former Fire Staff Officer, Riva Duncan, to talk about some of the experiences she has had over the course of her career... Here is a little about Riva: "Riva Duncan recently retired after 31 years in the US Forest Service. She worked on 7 national forests in 5 FS regions. Riva started as a forester trainee, but got bitten by the fire bug after her first T2IA cr...

Thomas Wurm, Creator of Mountain Mind Tricks, stops by on the show today to talk about the relationship between the mind and body, total wellness, psychedelics, alternative healing, and peak human performance...   Thomas is a Wildland Firefighter, Master Practitioner in NLP, Hypnosis, and Mental Emotional Release®, Author, Coach, Fitness Trainer, and Athletic Nutritionist...  As you can see, he ha...

Today on the show, John Nores and I sit down and chat about the dangers of illegal marijuana grows on public lands and how they are  literally destroying and poisoning entire ecosystems... Not only are they just destructive to the environment - but they are also often littered with booby traps, extremely toxic carbofuran pesticides, and guarded with armed cartel members. This episode is also geare...

Today on the show -  We get a little history lesson and some behind the scenes storytelling from the man, the myth, the legend, Dana Gleason himself! Dana Gleason has been around the outdoor industry since the late 70's. Dana's first company, Kletterwerks, was just the start of a lineage of companies that would set the standard in the outdoors industry... After Kletterwerks, he then went on to cre...

Do your part and check in each other... And have a happy Thanksgiving! Stay safe, stay savage... Enjoy! .......................... Updates! We have received some unfortunate news regarding some injuries and complete losses of property with some of our folks in the field. Please check out our new landing page to help these firefighters get back on their feet again: https://anchorpointpodcast.com/he...

Today on the show: John Bachman, Lucas Mayfield, and I sit down and talk about everything that goes into the design process of Mystery Ranch fire packs and much more! The major component of this whole design process is you folks in the field... Thats right - without your feedback and suggestions, Mystery Ranch can't improve their designs... To find out more about the design process, visit: https:/...

Every wonder where all the fire packs get rounded up and shipped off to get repaired at the end of the season? Well, today on the show, we talk about just that! Brian Sanchez is the dude that is in charge of fixing all the broken, burned, and scuffed up fireline packs from you folks in the field! Brian has been at Mystery Ranch for damn near 10 years. He started out on the sewing floor, and now he...

Today on the show: Luke and I sit down at Mystery Ranch in Bozeman, MT to talk about some of the lessons learned with his wildland fire career, and how things don't have to remain as the "status quo" that we see now... We also go into detail about the Backbone Series and the 1039 Scholarship opportunities with Mystery Ranch! Luke spent 18 years fighting fire with various crews and finished his fir...

Lucas Mayfield is a jack of all trades (which is kind of necessary for a fire career)... Luke spent 18 years fighting fire with various crews and finished his fire career as the Assistant Superintendent of Rogue River Hotshots. After that, he went on to become the Fire Program Manager of Mystery Ranch... Here is a little about Lucas: "I grew up in Moscow, Idaho and went to The University of Montan...

Today on the show; lets talk about prescribed fire, fire management, helitack crews, and the AFE and SAFE programs! Lars Filson is a senior fire ecology and management major at the University of Idaho located in Moscow Idaho.  Aside from being a full-time student, Lars serves as the national president for the Student Assocation for Fire Ecology and works seasonally for the United States Forest Ser...

Pranay Manghrimalani... Veteran, former LEO, and now CaFire firefighter - You may have seen him on other podcasts such as the Free Range American Podcast or the Protectors... Today on the show, we talk about a wide variety of subjects including: what its like to be a CalFire Firefighter, the different mission and all risk nature of CalFire, how firefighting can become personal, and how federal cou...

Harry Walker is one of those rare breeds of individuals... He's a Marine, fitness junkie, firefighter, and the owner of his own fitness and fitness programming company, Warhorse Athletics... Today on the show; we talk about veteran fire crews, fitness, harassing other branches of the military, what life is like on the road, special forces selections, and much more... His company, Warhorse Athletic...

During the 2019/2020 Australian wildfire season, we witnessed borderline apocalyptic devastation with wildfires in Australia... These fires burned 13.5 million acres in New South Wales alone... Today on the show - Remote Area Firefighter team member , Darryl Luck, stops by to chat about the historic wildfires and what lessons the world can learn from these fires... If you have any questions, you c...

This episode is dedicated to all the chuckar hunters out there... Today on the show; Adam Stempeck and Damon Booth talk about the "Red Legged Devil" (AKA the Chuckar), conservation, the Martin Fire, and the Chuckar Chasers Foundation! Chucker Chasers is a community of outdoor enthusiast, sportsman, and women that stand to promote the great outdoors, wildlife, and recreational hunting. They emphasi...