Helped with this fire with my have crew!

A great blend of story telling, reporting and science. A must listen for anyone from the northwest. I found this podcast during the 2020 fire season in Oregon. It really struck home listening to this with the sky filled with smoke and ash.

This was rough. How does an organization with the resources and networks of REI produce something so journalistic for a topic that’s so scientific and begging for something beyond the typical “story?” When the corporation’s former CEO was Secretary of the Interior, one can reasonably expect some hard-hitting interviews with the top experts - policy makers and scientists, practitioners and observers. Heck, I only bumped this up to 2 stars because the journalists managed to get a basic interview with Stephen Pine. This podcast is best for the REI customer awaiting her annual dividend. This is for the urban yuppie dipping his toe into the overly-visited hot spring off the washboarded forest road traveled by dust/covered Subaru’s who isn’t really interested in wildland fire that’s reasonably never going to impact his downtown flat. This podcast is not for wildland firefighters, especially seasonal feds who could teach this subject with expert-like perspective by the start of their third season, but could be for municipal firefighters who are unlikely to ever cut line. Here’s another thought: if I wanted to inform you about international reporting by major domestic news agencies, would you get the better perspective on that process by hearing from international bureau chiefs at The NY Times, WaPo, etc, or should I offer you the take of the Carson City-based Nevada Appeal? The Nevada Appeal reports international news, technically. Right? So if I wanted to inform you about wildland fire management and the incident command system, should I find a type 1 incident commander or information officer or operations chief from a national team or should I let you hear from a municipal fire captain on a local/state team to give you the overview of a process originated out of Southern California in the 1970s and refined by federal teams? Like I said, this isn’t a podcast for wildland firefighters (but kudos to that fire captain who hat tipped USFS handcrews - that guy gets it and knows what he does, and does not, want to do!). You can read the other reviews concerning editing, style, pronunciation, etc (I concur). For me, this missed the mark and reflects far too many cliche journalistic attempts to frame wildland fire as their own story when it never was/is in the first place. 👎

First season was fantastic. Informational and easier to listen to. However, second season trailer sounds like the narrator is trying to use a deeper voice than he naturally has. I dearly hope this isn’t how he’s going to sound the rest of the season.

Wow. This podcast is very well done. As a firefighter it is accurate. More people need to listen and understand that fire is good for our ecosystems. This gets into the science and the social side of things while highlighting a single (large) fire in Oregon. Thanks for another great podcast REI.

I finally started listening to this while on vacation. I was laying in my tent, on the side of a mountain, in the Peruvian Andes. The wind was blowing and nearby farmers were practicing their time old traditions of slash and burn. The air was filled with the smell of burning vegetation. Between the gentle howl of the wind, the smell of burning vegetation, and the storytelling I was immersed and hooked. However, you don’t need all your senses stimulated to thoroughly enjoy this series.

Provided all views of wilderness management and the ways forests have been managed and possibly ways to manage them in the future.

Other reviewers got it right with the comment that these guys really needed a better editor. I almost didn’t make it through the ridiculously long, melodramatic intro in the first episode, full of poor analogies and some weird part where they implied people are incredulous that fire doesn’t spare people and have more human feelings and decision making. It was so annoying and overdone. I think these guys think they are fantastic writers, but they aren’t. Things got mildly better, but I ultimately had to stop listening because the writing was just. so. bad. I’m giving it 2 stars because when they actually interviewed people it was interesting, but not enough to balance out the poor writing. And also, and now I’m just being petty, they kept using the British pronounciations of words like “integral” and “laboratory” which made no sense and just made them sound pretentious. I so wanted to love this podcast because of the topic, but no. I’ll gladly go back to Dirtbag Diaries where the writing is actually good.

When I saw the Ad for this podcast I was really excited, being that I have a fire background and currently working as a forestry technician. It is a good podcast for those who don’t have any background about wildfires but other than that this podcast was frustrating to listen to. Especially episode 2! They didn’t have to question whether or not wildfires are natural so many times once was enough. Also, heard of California that averages 50-100k acre fires every year even before this eagle creek fire started? I understand that PNW is close to home but 50k and it’s started by a kid which is controversial, but there’s other fires started by people all the time. If we’re talking acreage alone, since it’s so catastrophic, how about the camp fire 150k or the Wolsey fire that reached 54k over night and reached to almost 95k for its entire duration in a highly populated area! I’m really disappointed, I don’t think I can make it through the rest of the episodes.

Excellent podcast. Always interesting, very informative, and presented with a clear reverence for both nature and for the people who cared for this land long before Europeans came to it.

Why did you have to make it all sensational with that stupid music and overly dramatic dialogue. Couldn’t make it through the second episode. Felt like I was watching a Fox News story on wildfire.

By not discussing an important problem—folks being permitted to build and live in dense forestland—you have failed to tell the complete story of wildfires. While I understand the firefighters risking their lives to save other lives, I do not understand their risking their lives to save the property of others who are testing the odds by settling in locations where fire is part of Nature’s land management plan.

As a recently retired firefighter, after 34 years, I had high hopes this would help others understand wildfire. Unfortunately it was just another opportunity to get folks agitated by emotional descriptions instead of educating with factual descriptions. I understand the need for the emotive in story telling, but that was 98% of this podcast's content. And the other 2% was only about half correct. The epilogue episode was the most correct, although still not completely. The rest, really just someone who doesn't really understand the subject telling stories to others who don't know the difference.

Preface: I’m a forester and a scientist who works with prescribed fire. This podcast is fine. They do a decent job representing wildlife in the Pacific Northwest, but they fall into the same trap that most people talking about fire fall into: they assume that everything that applies in Pacific Northwest applies to whole of the US. The creators point to fire suppression happening across the USA, but that’s not correct. The Southeast has never stopped burning. More acres of forest are burned in prescribed fire in the Southeast then burn in the Pacific Northwest. The Midwest had some serious fires following land clearance, but since that time there have been almost no fires. Also, the peat lands in Northern Canada have just started burning, and that’s some really serious stuff that should have been discussed if the creators want to claim to be covering fire in the whole of North America. The creators should have spent a little more time talking to foresters. They kept looking for terms like that exist like succession, reseting succession, disturbance, fire-dependent, and silviculture. They also fall into the trope “Indians know Mother Nature”. Not to take away from the First Nations, but foresters have know they need to burn. I point to the Southeast where they never stopped burning, and the writings of various scientists from the early 1900’s. Overall, an alright series, but they needed to do some more broad research if they’d like to claim to be talking about fire across North America.

I wanted to learn about the Eagle Creek fire but this series is not the way to do it. Lazy and inaccurate writing abounds in every episode. There are so many cliches, unsubstantiated conclusions, and factual errors that just can’t be overlooked. As another reviewer mentioned, it sounds like a freshman research paper that needed to be sent back for more work. Guys: next time hire a good editor.

I wanted to love this podcast, but it’s really inaccurate. A little bit of review could have fixed a lot of it, but it seems like they were more interested in a compelling story than a quality podcast. I finally had to quit listening during “Incident Command” in which they butchered nearly every term, definition and description. A lot of the personal stories of the responders were pretty over the top as well. Overall, the story sounds great but it seems like they did a pretty good job of not let facts get in the way of the drama.

It’s hard to listen to. The content is great but had I not been such a big fan of REI I would have shut it off almost immediately. The degree of vocal fry makes it very hard to listen to Graham. I love his passion though and in every other way I think he did a decent job.

I understand the beauty and serenity of this location. Having visited we were awe struck with it’s beauty. Such a production for 50k acres in 3 months. In 3 days here in the southwest we have over 122,000 acres gone. Something to ponder.

Informative,multilayered,clear,thought provoking.i found it inspiring & enlightened.your recommendations re how to view the fire & all humans involved really are a general prescription for a meaningful life.

Need more episodes!

This is an informative podcast fo me as I don’t know much about wildfire in North America. The interviews range from people who were personally affected by the fire, to professional fire fighters and experts in the field. Hope REI does more in depth podcasts.

I thought it was well made and I enjoy the fact that you took the position that fire is good for forest ecology, rather than the negativity that many people view it as. However I’m critical of episode 6 when you discuss then fact that poor forest management has led to this fire. First and foremost, the gorge is a national scenic area, to be treated like a Wilderness area. You can’t log, thin, or prescribe burn in it. Leave it as is. You also mentioned it was overdue to burn? Douglas fir dominated forests can go many centuries without a necessary burn. The last burn in eagle creek was the Yacolt burn in 1902 (started by kids of course). This forest potentially had many more years ahead of it, and it was started unnaturally. Forests west of the cascades work very differently than those in the east where dry forests must have fires. Fires in the west are naturally large and catastrophic, prior to European arrival. It’s about finding the balance between human civilization and wildfire.

Very well produced podcast. Interesting and kept my attention.

As a former wildland firefighter, I'm happy to give any podcasts on wildfire a go. Sadly, this one follows in the footsteps of most podcasts by non-firefighters. I would have given it a pass had they solely focused on the Eagle Creek fire, but if your purpose is to give the history and future of "wildfire", why are you concentrating on forests? There is currently a MASSIVE change happening in the rangeland and grasslands of the western US, thanks to hundreds of thousands of acres burning across the Great Basin and beyond. By focusing only on forest fires, you're helping perpetuate the myth that we don't need to worry about the fires changing the landscape and flora in NV/UT/ID and the eastern PNW. Also, while I'm sure the Bend fire captain is correct in his description from a structure/emergency management standpoint, a Type I wildland incident does not necessarily impact "multiple states". I would have loved to hear the description of the ICS from someone at NIFC or with a federal agency dealing specifically with wildland fire (since that's the focus of the podcast).

I couldn’t get past the hyperbole descriptors. As a resident that endured the eagle creek fire I found this opening an assault. The fact that REI contributes to this fanatical attempt of a docu-podcast is shameful. Gross!!!! Simply gross!! We continue to live with the aftermath of the fire among other factors that contribute to poor ecological conditions and behavior. You don’t need to dumb it down.

I really wanted to like this podcast. The topic is interesting and I love the area, but I’m done after episode 1. The undergrad term paper pacing and cliche-riddled writing is too much from me.

Others have mentioned the over-dramatization, stilted reading, and misidentification of terms such as overhead. However, the liberal misuse of words like boot camp to describe shot crew training , deployment for fire assignments , cavalry, as well as calling smokejumper training skydiving exercises are evidence of either very poor editing and/or poor understanding of firefighting/research on the part of the writers. While these may seem like meaningless distinctions to the uninitiated, they make the well intentioned podcast seem like a poorly researched and over fluffed high school report. If the public is ever to understand wildfire you’ve got to get away from the dramatization and demonization of fire.

As a lifer in the Gorge I like the local aspect of story. A few technical demerits; Latourelle was pronounced correctly by your guests but not the host; the A in FEMA is for Agency, not Association; in Wild Fire & ICS “overhead” means Support-Logistics, food, shelter, etc, not aircraft; the locals refer to Multnomah Falls Lodge (not Multnomah Lodge), long ago there was a Multnomah Lodge located just 1 mile west of today’s lodge. I’ll continue to listen!

Love it. Please do more series like this, REI. My only gripe (very minor) is that the two hosts sound identical, which is sometimes a little confusing.

If you live in a community east of the Cascades the topics covered in this podcast will be extremely familiar. However this is a great comprehensive introductory podcast on wildfires. I do get a bit annoyed with the podcast hosts who feel the need to talk through their outline for the episode and future episodes multiple times throughout the episode, it seems very unnecessary.

I like the idea of this podcast but unfortunately the writing is predictable and unnecessarily dramatized. The long music pauses just highlight the failure of the writing to draw the listener in. They’re meant to give you pause to digest the metaphors but instead just leave you wondering why every climber thinks he/she is the second coming of Aldo.

I love REI, the store. But this podcast is pretty clunky. So obvious that this guy is reading off of a page. Halting and awkward, like a kid reading the bullet points of his report in front of a classroom. Sounds like a bad powerpoint presentation.

Why do they open with soap opera drama that erroneously portrays fire as an evil force? It’s irresponsible and inaccurate. We need smart reporting to destigmatize fire. “Devouring trees ... and wildlife that might have been napping in a glade.” LOL, are you serious? I hope the series offers more nuance as the season progresses. Fire is an intrinsic part of forest ecology and always has been. Even local biologists in the Gorge declared it as healthy a fire as could be hoped for. The forest was overdue for a burn.

The eagle creek fire was what made me start firefighting, and I really enjoyed getting to hear the depth of the story even years later. I can’t wait for the next episode!

I am so excited for this podcast! I grew up in Hood River and was absolutely heart broken to see this fire wipe out so much beautiful land. Flash forward to 2018, I now live in Utah and experienced a late season wildfire nearly wipe out the city of Woodland Hills and Elkridge, UT. We housed firefighters from out of state and sat at the edge of our seats while praying they could fight it back in time. No homes were lost but so much of our beautiful canyon is now gone.

This story is very gripping and reminds me of the yarnell Fire. Thank you to rei for promoting this podcast. Rei should do more podcasts.