Wildfires, History, and the Simple Pleasure of Bullshit Stories.

I sat down with Jim Klump, veteran wildland firefighter, old-school Redding Smokejumper, and District Fire Management Officer on the Plumas National Forest for 25 years. We talked about the intersection of fire and forestry, land management, people, leadership, and history.

We also talked about PTSD, firefighting tactics, landscape-scale backfiring operations, climate change, immigration, the culture of the Forest Service in the 1960-present, and prospects for the survival of our wildfire-threatened rural communities.

This multimedia video features Google Earth map animations, historic aerial photos, historic photos from UC Davis and CSU, Chico, and aerial video from the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center.