2023 Wildland Fire Jobs/ Firehire

Note: 2023 season hiring is over! If you’re clicking on this trying to get a job for summer 2024 check out this new blog post.

Hiring season has already started for 2023! Get your resumes ready and make sure to set alerts for wildland fire job postings on USAJobs.com so you can apply for next season’s jobs as they become available.

I go into depth about how to apply and what to look for on this page of the website. All information on this blog post is specific to 2023 while the info on the website page is more broad.

US Forest Service (USFS) Jobs

Careers in Wildland Fire | US Forest Service (usda.gov)

Hiring & Recruitment Events | US Forest Service (usda.gov)

Welcome to the Forest Service - New Hire Onboarding Guide | US Forest Service (usda.gov)

USFS Fire Hire dates

This is from an internal Forest Service (FS) email. So it’s not widespread knowledge yet. They are subject to change.

Within each Phase listed there are multiple Stages (6 Stages to be exact). The date blocks listed below are for Stage 2, which is described as “HRM creates vacancies and announcements open-close.” So, the dates the vacancies will be open will not be the entire date block listed, but will likely be a 2 week range within the date block listed.

Permanent positions include Wildland Firefighter Apprenticeship Program (WFAP) positions. See map below about where regions are (the R listed in the phases below). For more info on fire regions click here

Temporary Position Fire HirE Dates

9/2/2022 – 10/6/2022

Phase 3: R1/R2/R3/R4/R5/R6/R8/R9/R10    

12/19/2022 – 1/19/2023

Phase 4: R1/R2/R3/R4/R5/R6/R8/R9/R10    

Permanent position Fire HirE Dates

Centralized Fire Hires

*The C is for centralized and these are the only ones that will have backfill.

8/15/2022 – 9/28/2022

Phase 1C: R2/R8/R9 (GS 6 and below)         

8/15/2022 – 9/28/2022

R3 (GS 8 and below)                      

9/9/2022 – 10/17/2022

Phase 2C: R1/R4/R6 (GS 8 and below)         

8/12/2022 – 9/18/2022

Phase 3C: R5 (GS 9 and below)                      

Non-Centralized Fire Hire

*Only positions vacant at the time of these events will be filled (NO backfill).

11/28/2022 – 12/16/2022 

Phase 2: All Regions (GS 3 and above)      

3/28/2023 – 3/29/2023

Phase 3: All Regions (GS 3 and above)     

Other Federal Agency Jobs 

Bureau of Land Management (BLM)

Careers in Fire | Bureau of Land Management (blm.gov)

Careers in BLM | Bureau of Land Management Scroll down to the FIRE/ AVIATION Section

BLM Fire Contacts by State Super helpful page

National Park Service (NPS)

Wildland Fire Job Openings – US National Park Service

Working in Wildland Fire - Fire (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)

Jobs - Wildland Fire Program (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov) Current openings

Bureau of Indian Affiars (BIA)

Job Information | Indian Affairs (bia.gov)

Federal wildland firefighter jobs with BLM, NPS, and BIA will also be posted on USAJobs.

State Departments

CALFire Careers CALIFORNIA

Careers | Fire Prevention and Control (colorado.gov) COLORADO

Wildfire Seasonal Job Descriptions - Department of Lands (idaho.gov) IDAHO

Employment - SOUTHERN IDAHO TIMBER PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION (sitpa.org) SOUTHERN IDAHO

Wildland Firefighter Positions | Minnesota DNR (state.mn.us) MINNESOTA

Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation Fire Job Search (montana.gov) MONTANA

Wildland Fire Management : Jobs: Nevada Division of Forestry NEVADA

Apply to be a Wildland Firefighter - Forestry (nm.gov) NEW MEXICO

Oregon Department of Forestry : Jobs : About ODF : State of Oregon OREGON

Employment | Utah DNR – FFSL (Forestry, Fire and State Lands) UTAH

Join our Seasonal Firefighting Team | WA - DNR WASHINGTON

Wildland Firefighter Employment | | Wisconsin DNR WISCONSIN

Other ways to find jobs postings:

Outreach announcements

Outreach announcements are put out by each individual forest/national park/BLM zone/ etc. They usually come out once the jobs are posted in USAJobs. You can find numbers and emails for hiring officials by Googling “outreach notice 2023 summer wildland fire jobs" + whatever forest or national park or area you applied for. You may have to do some detective work to figure out which towns are in which areas, but it's not that hard to find out. I found lots of PDFs that had all the fire jobs broken down by crew type, location, and who to contact for each. As well as a timeframe for hiring and when to expect interest calls and when they are making hiring decisions.

Social Media

Follow @hotshotbrewery, @ushelitack, your local Forest, National Park, BLM, BIA, Fish and Wildlife, State Department, Department of Natural Resources, or specific crew you are trying to get on. Most crews have an Instagram account and they will post their job vacancies/ job announcements.

Most importantly, if you want a job CALL OR EMAIL!

Cold calls are part of the job process. Wildland fire positions can be competitive. You will stand out and put a personality to a name on their list and show you really want the job. If you are just starting out please do not call hotshot crews or smokejumping bases. They generally do not want to hire people with zero fire experience.