District Fire Management Officer retires after 35 year career

SEELEY LAKE – The Bitterroot Hot Shots Fire Crew rolled up to their assignment on the edge of a fern farm. As they approached the property, they saw all kinds of trucks labeled "Red Neck Fire Brigade."

"It was like stepping into Deliverance. We didn't know what to expect," said Phil Shelmerdine, a squad boss on Hot Shots at the time.

By the end of the crew's time on the farm, the landowner named all the roads after the girls on the crew and hosted a barbecue for the crew at the beach during their days off.

This is just one story from Shelmerdine's 35 years working as a firefighter and in fire management. What started as a love for working outside, having the opportunity to do "fun forestry things with trees" and make money during the summer, turned into a career where he had the opportunity to shift resources where they were most needed and influence the next generation of Forest Service employees. After working as the Fire Management Officer (FMO) at the Seeley Lake Ranger District since fall of 2006, Shelmerdine is hanging up his fire boots and retiring at the end of the month.

"I still like coming to work for the people, the ones I work with all the time and the new ones coming in," said Shelmerdine. "I didn't think I'd ever be that guy in the seat as an [Assistant] FMO or FMO but you climb the ladder and end up driving a computer. As FMO [I got] more of an opportunity to shuffle pieces and see a bigger picture."

The community is invited to the Retirement Party and Roasting for Shelmerdine at 2 p.m. Saturday, June 25 at the Seeley Creek Pavilion, one mile east on Morrel Creek Road from Highway 83 across from the Seeley Creek Trails. Everyone is invited to bring stories, a dish to pass and their own beverages. Ribs will be provided.

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Shelmerdine got his first taste of the Forest Service as a junior in high school when he worked on the Lewis and Clark National Forest on the Rocky Mountain Ranger District near his hometown of Choteau, Montana.

After graduating in 1986, he attended University of Montana for Forest Resource Management graduating with his degree in 1992.

During the summer, Shelmerdine worked as a temporary firefighter on the Lewis and Clark and Bitterroot National Forests for minimum wage of $3 an hour. He also had the opportunity to detail with the Bitterroot Hot Shot Crew.

Shelmerdine joined the Bitterroot Hot Shots in 1991. He got his permanent appointment as a squad boss with the Hot Shots in 1995. He was also a saw boss on the crew, leading the sawyers on wildfire assignments.

The crew would roll on assignment for 21 days, take two days off in place and then extend for another roll.

In 1999 while still attached to the Hot Shot Crew, he detailed as a prevention technician on the Sula Ranger District on the Bitterroot National Forest.

"First it was just to get off the crew, not that the crew was bad, I just couldn't take it anymore," Shelmerdine said explaining the physical demands were challenging.

In the fall of 1999, Shelmerdine started as a fuels technician on the Silver Lake Ranger District in Oregon. The District was on the desert side of Oregon in the sand and sagebrush with six inches of rain annually on the District. He worked in that position until 2002 when the Fuels AFMO position opened up on the District.

"It wasn't until I got that fuels AFMO job that I realized I had a little more opportunity to control where things go and how things go," Shelmerdine said.

Shelmerdine said he appreciated the opportunity to do different things while working on a District.

"In the [Hot] Shot world, you could do a few different things like burning or maybe a fence project, but you were primarily fire and you always had to be within the two hour call back," Shelmerdine said. "The District stuff you had a lot more opportunity to go do other stuff. It was neat."

When the FMO job opened on the Seeley Lake Ranger District in 2006, Shelmerdine applied. Tim Love was the District Ranger at the time, someone he had met while working on the Lewis and Clark National Forest when he first started.

"It was new, something different," Shelmerdine said. "It was a good opportunity to get closer to home, back to Montana and back to water. It was a good next step."

Shelmerdine started as the Seeley Lake Ranger District FMO Aug. 19, 2006. In 2007, the Jocko Lakes fire threatened Seeley Lake from the west. While the fires was being managed by the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, it was burning on Federal land. Shelmerdine served as a District advisor. He said he leaned heavily on other District personnel for their expertise since he was so new.

There were several other fires and busy seasons but "2017 shook my world."

While Shelmerdine had dealt with loss in the fire, losing 19-year-old Trenton Johnson on the Florence fire July 19 was the one closest to home.

"That was probably the worst part of my career but it also brought out some of the best too," Shelmerdine said. "Just seeing how close not just the District but how close and tight knit the Forest was in general. The support that we and the Forest got from all over the place because of that... That was about the only good part of it."

Shelmerdine said once they got through the initial shock, everyone seemed to work tighter and a little closer. There was a deeper understanding of why they do some of the things they do.

"The crew paid a little more attention to the trainings," Shelmerdine said. "This is real world stuff."

When the Rice Ridge fire started just a week later, Shelmerdine knew the ground, the people, the process and the system.

"When things started to go to hell, I knew who to call and what questions to ask and what answers to give them," Shelmerdine said. "I had a better feel and I didn't care if they didn't like the answer. That is what they got."

Shelmerdine had 30 years of experience in fire, 10 of which were on the Seeley Lake Ranger District, to pull from.

"The longer you have been in, the more models you have seen and how either right or wrong they are," Shelmerdine said. "Being on one District for a while, [I had] that local knowledge."

However the Rice Ridge fire was different.

"Normally our north and east faces were heat sinks. They weren't. The first big run we had off of Rice Ridge down that east face and across Morrell Creek when normally it wouldn't," Shelmerdine said. "It crossed Morrell Creek and we figured it would go ripping up Pyramid but it burned up a third of the way up the slope on a dry, west face and it stayed there for a month. It was like, something is not right here...at that point we knew it was out of our hands."

Shelmerdine again became the District advisor. He tied in with the operations and planning and sometimes into logistics to help the teams as much as he could.

Shelmerdine's top qualifications in his career were a Type III Incident Commander and Division Supervisor. He also had the highest sawyer certification available known as a Faller C, now Faller 1. He never wanted to climb the ladder any higher.

"Type III and Division are still where the rubber meets the road, they are still ground-level folks," Shelmerdine said. "As a Type III you are still [answering the phone and going to meetings] but you are in the field, making decisions in the field. As a Division Supervisor, you are in the field, you are out with the crews [and] have a piece of ground you are responsible for. Once you bump up into operations, you are in a tent somewhere filling out forms. Worked fine for me. I was happy there."

After stepping into the FMO position, Shelmerdine enjoyed watching members of the fire crew grow as individuals, try new things and find their career path. He has had crew members move into silviculture, engineering, law enforcement, go into the military, move onto other careers or just pay for college.

"The District is a stepping stone," Shelmerdine said. "Giving them a little experience then let them try the Hot Shot world or the helicopter world and help them move along. It's just fun watching kids grow up."

Shelmerdine said this year they have three students from Seeley-Swan High School working on the District. Incoming seniors Cora Stone and Emily Maughan are working as volunteers and recent graduate Walker McDonald is on the fire crew. McDonald left on a roll to New Mexico June 23.

"Getting local kids is really cool. We've got all this stuff going on in the backyard and we just haven't had the interest until now," Shelmerdine said. "Seeing that excitement, something new, that nervous first time out sort of a thing, is kind of cool."

Shelmerdine has been involved in the Blackfoot Fire Protection Association, DNRC Task Force and the Seeley-Swan Fuels Mitigation Task Force. He felt these groups were great for networking and getting work done in the community.

Shelmerdine feels the Seeley-Swan Fuels Mitigation Task Force has done a great job outreaching to get fuels work done on private land. Shelmerdine played a role in developing the Community Fire Protection Plan and making sure it was within the realm of what was capable within the Federal government.

"That is a good program. They have done a lot of good work there," Shelmerdine said.

When Shelmerdine started in the 1980s "it was all about the loggin'. The only real fuels mitigation stuff was burning the units so you could plant them."

While logging is still a tool for fuels mitigation, Shelmerdine feels like there are a lot more tools managers use to meet objectives.

"There are a lot of tools in the toolbox, you just have to explore it for whatever reasons you've got – soils impacts, weeds, air quality or wildlife," Shelmerdine said. "There are a lot of different options, you just need to figure out which one is best and the most cost efficient."

Shelmerdine said some of the biggest changes in his career have been in the administration and paperwork.

"It is just making sure we have thought about all the things and different impacts," Shelmerdine said. "Newer line officers want to see that we are doing our due diligence."

Since fire planning has broadened from the Forest level to a larger zone plan, Shelmerdine said this requires more coordination with adjacent agencies.

Since the 1990s, Shelmerdine noticed the length of the fire season has extended by about a month. When he was with the Hot Shots, the fire season would wrap up in September. Now the season ending rain does not happen until the end of October. While this has offered the Seeley Lake Ranger District more opportunities to prescribe burn into the fall, this affects the fire budget since the Fiscal Year starts Oct. 1.

"We only get so much budget and we are burning that up in the fall," Shelmerdine said.

Shelmerdine said the biggest challenge in his career is the shift into the electronic world.

"You used to be able to lean over a [truck] hood with a map and now everyone has it on their phone. In the old days all you knew was a compass," Shelmerdine said. "For an old guy like me it is learning [the technology]."

Shelmerdine said while the crew still has to know how to use a map and compass, the younger generation is quick to embrace the technology.

"We've done a lot of good work in the fuels world and all the District stuff. I use 'we' liberally, really it is the crew," Shelmerdine said. "They don't get all the credit they deserve. I just find the projects and point and a lot of it is on them."

Shelmerdine said he has worked for a lot of great supervisors in the past and appreciates what he has learned from them.

"I couldn't point to any one individual," he said. "I take a little bit from each. It was fun."

In retirement, Shelmerdine said he probably will find a job locally and looks forward to traveling to see his son play football for Dakota State University this fall.

"I'm going to take a few days off and enjoy the Fourth of July for once in 30 years," Shelmerdine said.

District AFMO Adam Carr started as the District FMO Monday, June 20.

"It has been a fun run but it is time," Shelmerdine said. "It just feels right...and it is time to do something different."