This past June at Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge (CMR) in Montana, I took our fire crew on a “staff ride,” a training technique that is relatively new to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The field-trip-technique is a continuation of efforts to improve fire safety training for Service employees on refuges.

Staff rides are on-the-ground case studies of high-risk incidents resulting in tragedy that have been used in military training since the 1970s. I took my first staff ride at a leadership course at the Battle of Gettysburg, where I walked in the steps of soldiers through the battlefield. The wildland fire community adopted the practice in 2006 to study fires where fatalities had occurred. The staff ride at CMR was first-ever sponsored by the Service, as far as I know.

But I’m curious: Have other refuges considered using staff rides to augment training for fire crews or perhaps law enforcement crews? Are the Conserving the Future implementation teams aware of staff rides, and are they considering recommending wider use of them?

Here’s how the staff ride went in June at CMR.

Our fire crew traveled by boat to the site of the Mann Gulch Fire, where 13 firefighters lost their lives in 1949. After reviewing the sequence of events, the staff-ride crew hiked to five key locations and decision points. At each stop, the crew analyzed information and weighed options that had been available at the time of the fire, which received national media attention.

The Mann Gulch Fire also inspired a 1952 feature-length movie and was recounted in the book Young Men and Fire. Much controversy surrounded decisions made and firefighting tactics used in that fire. Scientific study of the fire resulted in better methods to predict fire danger and train firefighters.

The staff-ride concept, which builds on such studies, is the best leadership training I have experienced. It can be useful in any program area where critical decisions need to be made.

During the CMR staff ride, three names were on my mind, those of the only firefighters to die on national wildlife refuges – Richard Bolt in 1979 at Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in Georgia, and Beau Sauselein and Scott Maness in 1981 at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in Florida.

As we strive to prevent similar casualties among refuge fire crews, I think we should make staff rides a regular part of our training.

— This blog was written by Mike Granger, a 29-year firefighting veteran and the fire management officer at Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge.