Russell M Stark
Montrose,United States
Summary
I have worked in fire management for over 25 years with multiple federal agencies, excelling in wildland fire management and planning. I have a proven track record in resource allocation and budget management, by successfully leading wildland fire response and fuels reduction projects with firefighter/public safety, environmental sustainability and local values as a top priority while fostering strong interagency relationships. This experience has made me adept at strategic decision-making and effective communication. Skilled in long term strategic planning, operational management, and leadership development. Excel at communication, problem-solving, adaptable, and promote team cohesion. Committed to leveraging these skills to provide best level of service to local community in time of crisis.
Overview
9
9
years of professional experience
Work History
District Fire Management Officer
Bureau of Land Management
Montrose, United States
03.2021 - Current
- Company Overview: This is a federal job
- Primary duty as the District Fire Management Officer is to ensure that wildland fire management activities are conducted in a safe and efficient manner with the safety of firefighters and safety of the pubic as the highest priority
- I am the authorized representative on a variety of fire operations and coordination groups for the Bureau of Land Management, within the BLM Colorado’s Southwest District, and as such work with the group setting priorities and allocating resources for fire emergencies with interagency partners (Federal, State, and Local Governments) within 13 counties of southwestern Colorado
- I Coordinate with the BLM line officers to perform analysis and issue decisions on individual wildland fires using the Wildland Fire Decision Support System
- Manage and implement BLM fiscal, administrative, and operational decisions pertaining to the Southwest district fire and fuels program
- Develop and implement internal BLM fire operations and emergency response plans and procedures in support of the SWD Fire and Fuels Program
- I Supervise the Montrose Interagency Dispatch Center Manager, who oversees operation of the interagency Dispatch Center on behalf of the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, and The United States Forest Service
- It is my responsibility to ensure that all personnel assigned to Wildland fire operations within the Southwest District are properly trained and qualified to perform their duties as Wildland Firefighters
- I coordinate, preposition, send and order fire and aviation resources in response to current and anticipate fire conditions within the Southwest District
- I establish BLM procedures, implement decisions and facilitate priority setting on multiple fire situations and effectively allocate and reallocate BLM fire suppression resources affecting lands and personnel according to values at risk
- Establish and maintain agreements with local cooperators and adjacent federal units to facilitate mutual aid assistance in prevention, detection, training, pre-suppression and suppression and fuels management activities
- Develop fire operations plans for the line officer approval that establishes procedures or commit funds, personnel, and equipment in support of local cooperative agreements and memorandums of understanding
- I Request, track and expend emergency funding to increase capacity to respond to local fires as conditions merit
- Oversee fire prevention, mitigation and education program
- Oversee the implementation and management of the Hazardous fuels program
- Develop briefings for higher level management on any items that may be of concern
- Implement our Human Resources policy, request formal investigations on conduct issues, claims of discrimination and or harassment
- This is a federal job
Deputy Fire Management Officer
Bureau of Land Management
Montrose, United States
03.2021 - Current
- Company Overview: This is a federal job
- Serve as Deputy Fire Management Officer in Southwest District Fire and Aviation Management Unit
- In this capacity I coordinate Initial and extended attack response to wildland fires across BLM Colorado’s Southwest District
- This position has given me the opportunity to interact with and work within the communities in Southwest Colorado continuing to strengthen and solidify relations ships with cooperating agencies and communities that we serve
- Assist Fire Management Officer in all facets of implementation of fire management program
- Responsible for directing fire response on BLM lands including three field offices, three NCA’s and initial attack responsibility on two NPS units through delegation of authority in South Western Colorado
- Manage and communicate with the U.S
- Forest Service to perform initial attack responsibilities in one of the field offices that have daily supervisory responsibility over two BLM pieces of equipment and one module
- In addition to Fire response on BLM and NPS lands I coordinate initial attack on fires with Forest Service lands, State and local fire protection districts and emergency managers to ensure that suppression operations are conducted in a safe, efficient, manner that meets the objectives for the agency responsible for the incident
- In addition to fire response I prepare reports or briefings for program updates for all aspects of the fire management unit for annual, monthly and sometimes weekly meetings and conference calls
- I have been responsible for assisting with preparation of briefings or developing talking points for the BLM Colorado State Director to deliver to the Governor of the State of Colorado
- I have several direct reports that I am responsible for completing performance monitoring and IDP’s
- Have oversight of up to twenty permanent staff and additional 12-20 seasonal staff depending on budget year, five firefighting resources and associated equipment when fully staffed
- I participate in all aspects of hiring from solicitation of advertisement to NIFC HR, application reviews and selection to on-boarding and off-boarding
- Successful in hiring one wildland fire intern through the 100 inters program who will start this summer
- As part of my current position I have had to communicate with HR the need to remove employees from service or make corrective actions on underperforming or employees with conduct issues
- I review and certify time
- Complete IQCS documentation as necessary
- Administer all aspects of the medical standards program
- Review oversee and approve purchases in the federal credit card purchase on fleet, purchase, travel, crew chief credit cards on close to 50 different credit cards on a monthly basis
- Schedule meetings with interagency partners, develop agendas
- Oversee maintenance and operation of fire facilities at two locations
- Coordinate response to OSHA inquiries and ensure that corrective actions are taken on any deficient findings
- Manage the Local RFR program turning ownership of 4 fire engines to local rural fire protection districts to ensure they have the capability to assist and perform initial attack operations in their districts
- Manage operational budget for purchasing cache items, travel and training budget, maintenance of vehicles and fire equipment
- Ensure that staffing of fire response resources are in agreement with the fire danger operating plan, order additional resources to ensure resources are available according to indices
- Participate in the re-write of the district fire management plan
- Oversee and update plans and guides to ensure they are up to date and meet national standards
- Act as collateral duty aviation officer this entails being the local point of contact for all BLM aviation related questions and policy
- Participate and communicate to State and national office employees on Fire and Aviation related topics, by attending conference calls, webinars and meetings
- This is a federal job
Fire Management Specialist
Colorado BLM Southwest District
Montrose, United States
02.2016 - 03.2021
- Company Overview: This is a federal job
- Serve as Fire Management Specialist for Colorado BLM Southwest District in the Uncompahgre Field Office
- Work with community members, public, special interest groups, other governmental agencies, local fire protection districts to plan and implement fuels reduction projects
- Serve on NEPA inter disciplinary team
- Act as duty officer for the BLM unit when necessary
- Serve as contributing staff to land use plan revision
- Prepare and develop environmental assessments
- Contributing staff member for RMP rewrite for UFO of Fire and Fuels program
- Plan and implement fuels reduction projects
- Hold public meeting for upcoming projects
- Serve as project inspector for BLM contracts
- Develop statement of work for contracts
- Manage budget for fuels program to ensure funds are spent and appropriated according to national direction
- Coordinate with Forest Service to write and assist with cross boundary/interagency treatments
- Work with State smoke officials to obtain smoke permits and do annual smoke reporting
- Serve as Burn Boss on prescribed Fires
- Perform technical review of burn plans
- Work on local Type 3 teams as operations, Division, ICT3
- Participate in local and nation wide suppression operations by taking assignments
- Input accomplishments and project planning in NFPORS
- Coordinate with local dispatch
- Work with state and other entities-non-profits, and local fire protection districts to identify project areas and treatment methodologies
- Establish monitoring plots for fuels projects
- Assist Dispatch when short staffed
- Act as both lead and unit instruction on local, state and regional level trainings
- Assist with hiring for the nfmas program as well as hire seasonal and permanent staff for the fuels program
- Currently Detailed into state fuels operations specialist-GS-12
- Communicated with BLM National Office about upcoming possible funding for fuels program
- Discussed short term priorities for fuels program-FTEM and PTA for the state of Colorado
- Run NFPORS reports to determine if fuels accomplishments were being completed and FBMS reports to determine if funds were being spent
- Managed grants and agreements that were held at the State Office level-communicated with awarded entities to determine if funding was adequate or if they were going to be able to spend funds before agreements and grants would expire
- Developed strategies for committing unspent dollars before the end of the FY to ensure that we would spend budget down to national direction
- Communicate with State Office Staff from other resource areas to determine how Fire and Fuels can assist with planning and work to meet priorities from other resource emphasis areas
- Communicate with district fuels program managers to ensure that fuels dollars were being spent to meet national priorities and targets were being met
- Attended State Office fire and fuels staff planning meetings
- Co-ordinated with the mitigation education and prevention specialist for community assistance budgeting from the fuels appropriations
- Communicated with State office fire planner on fuels planning issues
- Developed directives for State of Colorado Fuels program
- Determined budget distribution to districts from funds distributed from national office
- Communicated need to prioritize unfunded projects for additional distribution funds from the national office
- This is a federal job
Education
Some college (no degree) -
Mesa State College
Grand Junction, CO, United States06.2008
Technical or occupational certificate -
Red Rocks Community College
Denver, CO, United States12.1999
Bachelor's degree - Recreation, Biology, Buisness
Western State College
Gunnison, CO, United States05.1998
Skills
- Wildland fire management
- Emergency response planning
- Resource allocation
- Fire operations coordination
- Budget management
- Fuels reduction projects
Day Phone
970-596-7597
References
- Jeremy Spetter, BLM Upper Colorado River Interagency Fire, Fuels Program Manager, 970-250-9526, jspetter@blm.gov
- Casey Boesflug, Alaska BLM, State Fuels Lead BLM Alaska, (907) 356-5859, cboespflug@blm.gov
- Charles Lanoue, Colorado Department of Fire Prevention and Control, District Fire Management Officer, 970-379-8139, charles.lanoue@state.co.us
Availability
Permanent, Full-time
Additional Information - Qualifications
- Incident Commander Type 3
- Division Group Supervisor
- Task Force Leader
- Prescribed Fire Burn Boss
- Type 2 Faller Class B
- Firing Boss
- Single Resource Crew Boss
- Single Resource Incident Commander Type 4
- ATV Operator
- Engine Boss
- Single Resource Fire Fighter Type 1
- Expanded Dispatch Recorder
- Fixed wind Parking Tender
- Aircraft Time Recorder (T)
Job Related Training
- I-100 Introduction to ICS, 06/13/98
- D-110 Dispatch recorder with intro to ross, 12/2007
- S-130 Basic Wildland Firefighter, 06/13/98
- S-190 Basic Wildland Fire Behavior, 06/13/98
- S-131 Advanced Firefighter, 01/02
- S-200 Initial Attack IC, 01/01
- I-200 Basic ICS, 02/03
- FI-210 Fire Investigation, 06/06
- S-211 Pumps and water use, 04/98
- S-212 Wildland power saws, 05/01
- S-215 Fire Operations in the urban interface, 06/02
- S-216 Driving for the fire service, 05/07
- S-217 Interagency Helicopter Training, 08/02
- S-230 Single Resource Boss, 06/02
- S-231 Engine Boss, 10/98
- S-234 Ignition operations, 12/03
- S-244 Field Observer, 06/05
- S-260 Interagency Incident Business Management, 12/02
- S-270 Basic Air Operations, 12/02
- S-273 Single Engine Airtanker Manager, 06/14
- S-281 Supervisory Concepts and Techniques, 01/02
- S-290 Intermediate Wildland Fire Behavior, 01/02
- Rx-300 Burn Boss, 03/07
- I-300 Intermediate Incident Command System, 06/03
- S-300 Extended Attack Incident Commander, 03/13
- Rx-310 Introduction to fire Effects, 01/06
- S-330 Task Force/Strike Team Leader, 01/04
- S-336 Tactical Decision Making in Wildland Fire, 01/10
- S-339 Division Group Supervisor, 01/12
- S-372 Helicopter Manager, 03/09
- L-381 Incident Leadership, 11/07
- S-390 Intro to Fire Behavior Calculations, 01/06
- Rx-410 Smoke Management, 12/06
- M-410 Facilitative Instructor, 12/08
- PMS-419 Engine Operator, 04/07
- S-490 Advanced Fire Behavior Calculations, 02/09
- S-491 NFDRS, 04/2014
- M-581 Fire Program Management Fuels Analysis Techniques, 12/10
- Rx-510 Advanced Fire Effects
Timeline
District Fire Management Officer
Bureau of Land Management
03.2021 - Current
Deputy Fire Management Officer
Bureau of Land Management
03.2021 - Current
Fire Management Specialist
Colorado BLM Southwest District
02.2016 - 03.2021
Some college (no degree) -
Mesa State College
Technical or occupational certificate -
Red Rocks Community College
Bachelor's degree - Recreation, Biology, Buisness
Western State College