JFSP Governing Board Members
Joint Fire Science Program Governing Board and Program Office staff join researchers and managers from the US Forest Service Southern Research Station and Southern Region, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, and Clemson University at the Green River Fire-Fire Surrogate site, May 2006.
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Nate Benson has worked for the National Park Service for more than fifteen years in a variety of positions. He started his NPS fire career as a fire effects monitor at Glacier National Park, and then moved to Yellowstone and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks as a Fire Use Module Leader. More recently he was the Prescribed Fire Specialist at Everglades National Park. He is currently at the NPS Fire Management Program Center as the National Fire Ecology Program Lead. Nate has a Master of Science - Land Resources degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Institute for Environmental Studies. |
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John joined the Forest Service in 2001 after 25 years as a research scientist with Boyce Thompson Institute and a member of the graduate faculty of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. During his tenure at Boyce Thompson, John studied the effects of biotic and abiotic stress on plant growth and development, ecophysiology of forest trees, and the response of forests to air pollution and climate change at stand, landscape, and regional scales. Over the years, he taught a number of graduate seminars, freshman composition in Cornell’s John S. Knight Writing Program, and wilderness canoeing for Outward Bound. John also spent 3 years on an assignment with the EPA’s Western Ecology Division of the National Health and Environmental Research Laboratory where he led a program to simulate the effects of air pollution on forests. John earned a B. S. in Forest Science at the Pennsylvania State University and an M. S. and Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from the University of Minnesota. His personal interests include travel, gardening, and photographing movie marquees with his wife, Nancy Flynn. |
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Bud received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Forestry from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, with a range management option from Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas. He started his career for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as a Range and Forestry Technician at the Arizona Strip District and then went on to be a Range Conservationist for the Malta District and the Lewistown District in Montana. From there he moved to Escalante, Utah and worked for the Cedar City District. Bud became a Supervisory Range Conservationist for the Montrose District in Gunnison Colorado and then became an Area Manager and then an Assistant District Manager for the Winnemucca District in Winnemucca Nevada. He then moved onto the BLM Headquarters Office in Washington DC to become the Senior Wild Horse and Burro Specialist After that he was temporarily the Acting Group Manager there for the Wild Horse and Burro Program. Bud then worked in the Washington DC office of United States Senator Larry E. Craig of Idaho as a BLM Legislative Fellow. After that he became a Natural Resource Advisor in the BLM Headquarters Office and then Division Chief, Rangeland Resources in the office of the Assistant Director for Renewal Resources and Planning. Bud is currently the Acting State Director for the BLM Idaho State Office in beautiful Boise, Idaho. |
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Mike Hilbruner |
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(biography not yet available) |
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Sue began her fire ecology career as a research scientist with the USGS for seven years following her graduate studies at Louisiana State University. As a research scientist, she has studied the effects of fire on native plant species and impacts of fire in natural ecosystems of the southeastern US. Specifically her research interests include fire effects on longleaf pine, carnivorous plants, wiregrass and invasive species. On a plant community level, she has studied the components of community structure and fuel loadings, fire behavior, impacts of fuel treatments, and species response within communities. Sue has served as a Regional Fire Ecologist since December 2001 for the Fish and Wildlife Service. In this role, she has helped develop fire effects monitoring programs for many National Wildlife Refuges. On a national level she serves as a board member for the Joint Fire Science Program and as a Steering Committee Member for Fire in Ecosystem Management. In addition, she participates on national fire incidents as a red-carded fire fighter (FFT2, FFT1(T), FEMO and is working towards her FOBS and LTAN task books. Sue has a PhD and MS in Botany from Louisiana State University (NCAA National Champions 2003) and has published scientific papers on plant and fire ecology of the Southeastern US. |
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As Branch Chief for Fuels and Fire Ecology, Paul has program leadership responsibility for fuels management and fire use programs on National Forests and Grasslands lands in Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas. Paul is a 1977 graduate of the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, where he received a B. S. in Resources Management. His Forest Service career began in 1977 as a seasonal employee with the White River National Forest in Colorado. Since then, he has served as a resource technician on the Helena National Forest, in Montana, District Silviculturist and Timber Staff on the Kaibab National Forest in Arizona, Forest Silviculturist on the Lincoln National Forest in New Mexico and Zone Timber and Fire Management Staff on the Arapaho Roosevelt National Forest in Colorado. Paul is a certified silviculturist and a graduate of Technical Fire Management. Paul is actively involved with integrating fire management issues into the land management planning process, and in the development of processes and procedures for the analysis of the effects of fuels treatments. |
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As Forest Supervisor, Mary has line responsibility for all natural resource activities conducted on agency administered land within the proclamation boundary of the Wayne National Forest, located in southeastern Ohio. Mary is a 1979 graduate of New Mexico State University, College of Agriculture, where she received a B. S. in Agricultural Economics. Her Natural Resources career began in 1977 as a co-operative educational student with the Bureau of Land Management, in the Las Cruces District located in Las Cruces, NM. Since then, she has served as a planning and NEPA specialist, EIS team leader as well as a Recreation Specialist on the Las Cruces District. She served in the Nevada State Office of the BLM in Reno, Nevada. She was an Area Manager for Shoshone-Eureka Resource Area in the Battle Mountain District, NV and served in the BLM Washington Office in the Lands, Planning and Budget program areas. Mary joined the Forest Service in 1992 on the Ecosystem Management Coordination Staff, served in the Allegheny National Forest as Acting Forest Supervisor and is currently the Forest Supervisor for the Wayne National Forest. |
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Tom Remus |
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(biography not yet available) |
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Tim worked seasonally as a survey aid, fire and fuels crew member, and crewboss on the Shasta-Trinity National Forest in Northern California from 1970 through 1974. He accepted a Regional Reinforcement Crew Boss position at Wind River Ranger District, on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in 1975. From 1976 to 1978 he served as a Fire Operations Technician with the BLM at the Boise Interagency Fire Center. In 1978 Tim moved to the Umpqua National Forest in southwest Oregon serving as Assistant Fire Management Officer and later as District Fuels Specialist on the Glide Ranger District. In 1981, Tim was selected as the Superintendent of the Redmond Hotshot Crew. He led the transformation of this crew into an experienced-based training program for developing fire managers of the future. In 1986 he accepted the District Fire Management Officer position at Chiloquin Ranger District on the Winema National Forest in south central Oregon. During this time Tim served on Incident Management Teams as Logistics Chief, Fire Behavior Analyst and Operations Section Chief. In 1998, Tim transferred to the National Park Service as Wildland Fire Specialist for the NPS Intermountain Region in Denver, Colorado. While in Colorado, Tim served as Type II Incident Commander for one of the Rocky Mountain Region Incident Management Teams. In 1999, Tim moved to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) in Boise, Idaho accepting a position with NPS as the National Fire Ecologist. In 2003, Tim accepted his current assignment as Fire Use Program Manager for the US Forest Service at NIFC. During these last six years at NIFC, Tim served as Deputy Incident Commander and then Incident Commander of a Great Basin Type I Incident Management Team. Tim earned a B.A. in History from Boise State University and an M.S. in Fire Ecology from Oregon State University. His personal interests include photography, skiing, reading, hunting, fishing and woodworking. |
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Although a native of California, Dr. van Wagtendonk grew up in Indiana, where he began his study of forestry at Purdue University. Summer seasonal work as a smoke jumper for the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management convinced him to finish his undergraduate work at Oregon State University, where he received his B. S. in Forest Management in 1963. After serving four and a half years as an officer in the U.S. Army with the 101st Airborne Division and as an advisor to the Vietnamese army, he entered graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley. There Dr. van Wagtendonk obtained his M. S. in Range Management in 1968 and his Ph.D. in Wildland Resource Science with a specialty in fire ecology in 1972. From 1972 through 1993 he was employed as a research scientist with the National Park Service at Yosemite National Park. Since 1994, Dr. van Wagtendonk has been employed as a research scientist with the U. S. Geological Survey at Yosemite. His areas of research have included prescriptions for burning in wildland ecosystems, recreational impacts in wilderness, and the application of geographic information systems to resources management. His work currently focuses on the role of fire in Sierra Nevada ecosystems. |
