NWSA Timber Faller Chapter Launched!

The National Wildfire Suppression Association approved formation of the NWSA Timber Faller Chapter.

The NWSA Timber Faller chapter will be addressing issues facing Faller Module Vendors and hazard tree fallers on wildland fires.

The website established for the NWSA Timber Faller Chapter will be the location for information about the chapter, its activities, its member companies, Steering Committee, and the Faller Module Program.

Chapter membership is open to ALL Faller Module companies nationwide that currently hold a Faller Module operating agreement in any participating region. Membership is also open to potential cutting contractors interested in seeking a Faller Module operating agreement in the future, as well as individual fallers interested in hazard tree felling employment on the fireline.

Why we do what we do

The Kaizen Road

We've been working for almost a decade to create a better system for Timber Fallers working on the fireline. We were committed to creating a system which functioned efficiently for state and federal agencies and was fair and equitable for fallers. It's been a long, laborious and politically bloody battle. The sad part is, it really didn't need to be.

It made sense to us that the state and federal agencies that relied on commercial timber fallers to cut hazard trees on wildland fire would want to work with us to create such a system. We thought they'd welcome the opportunity to create a system that put the most qualified fallers on wildland fire incidents, create consistent standards for experience and equipment, and make sure these fallers were fairly paid, and had injury and fatality coverage.

Unfortunately, it took us the bulk of this past decade to really understand the complex political structure of this interagency dragon's lair. In the process, while we have successfully realized our goal of manifesting a new, more efficient, exceedingly more fair and equitable, faller hiring process, for the most part, the agencies as a bureaucratic organizational entity(ies) really aren't interested in fairness and equity. They're really not interested in whether or not fallers have injury or fatality coverage when they're cutting burning hazard trees out on wildland fires. And they're REALLY not interested in implementing any change that upsets their organizational status quo.

We are.

The desire for change is what has driven us as a company, and me personally, to stay engaged in the process even in the face of extreme political brutality and cruelty on the part of state and federal procurement personnel.

The Kaizen Approach
Without really intending to, we utilized an age-old Japanese path toward implementing positive change. This process is called Kaizen.

(The Implementation Cycle - from Wikipedia...)

The cycle of kaizen activity can be defined as:

• standardize an operation →
• measure the standardized operation (find cycle time and amount of in-process inventory) →
• gauge measurements against requirements →
• innovate to meet requirements and increase productivity →
• standardize the new, improved operations →
• continue cycle ad infinitum.

I'll be exploring this topic more in depth in the book project I'm working on - "Dragon Dialogues." Now THAT should be a riot, eh?

The NWSA
When we first started this effort in 2000 we joined the National Wildfire Suppression Association and I began to meet other wildland fire contractors who were operating in the same realm as we were - wildland firefighting. I found many wise and helpful mentors in the NWSA. Conversely, I also came across people I'd rather not be in the same room with. But, that's the way it is in any industry trade association. You can't get along with everyone.

Back to the point I was intending to make...At a particular meeting of the NWSA R-6 group we made an initial presentation explaining what it was that we wanted to do - create consistent standards and a fair and equitable hiring system for commercial timber fallers on wildland fires. We've received good, sound advice at that meeting and many others.

It was also at that meeting that one of the other female contractors snapped up the paperwork we brought to share and snarled at me "You just better not make anyone mad."

At first that snarly comment pissed me off. But, after almost a decade doing battle (and it has been a costly and exhausting battle) with the state and federal agencies involved, I've personally found that, while initially I thought the woman was simply grouchy and negative, her comment came from experience. And while I have no illusion that she was actually trying to help me, in retrospect, even her rude, snappy comment inherently contained accurate advice from her perspective.

Doing business with the state and federal land management agencies is much like swimming in cold molasses in January. ...And then they put the pot on the bon fire and we all get the Joan of Arc treatment. Oh what a glorious revelation...(And the angels descend in chorus...)

In my experience with government agencies - even if what we are proposing is ethically well founded, economically sound, logistically and systemically fluid and efficient (i.e. Kaizen generated and oriented), the government procurement system disdains change. Change is annoying and scary to them. And anyone or anything behind suggesting or moving to implement change, is attacked and demonized - even if the change makes sense.

I obviously didn't abide by that scowly woman's advice when she spewed it, and I don't intend to in the forseeable future. In the course of this journey I've made a lot of people mad. I believe at the core anger is rooted in fear. We all know fear. The difference lies in how we each deal with it.

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear" ~ Mark Twain

Change is scary. It's natural to get scared when we face the unknown, even if the status quo is destructive, unethical and harmful. Change makes most people angry and unsettled. And fear is fundamentally what leads to good and intelligent people making poor decisions...

My personal prediction is that, as we move further along this path, our efforts to improve the safety, professionalism and performance of fallers on the fireline will most likely continue to "make people mad." That's simply not going to change because our objectives and efforts are based on rock solid intent. Our steadfast committment to this road won't change because the change we're seeking affects the lives of many hardworking people and their families.

My personal approach to seeking meaningful and lasting change will not waiver because I have no intention of abandoning the progress we've made so far. There are many reasons for this...which I'll do my best to explain via "Dragon Dialogues," a book project underway. For now, we'll just keep doing what we do.

...Following the Kaizen Road.