 You would think that with record wildfires in places like Texas, California, and Hawaii, the federal government would be doing more to retain wildland firefighters, right? Well, the US is losing wildland firefighters left and right, and I mean a lot. Here are some of the shocking details ProPublica uncovered about the reasons why. Wildland firefighters are highly specialized folks who prevents forest fires from spreading by doing things like parachuting into remote areas to fight them, like Ben Elkent, a former smoke jumper I'll tell you about in a sec. Wildland firefighters work for one of five federal agencies, but the US Forest Service is the biggest one. Wildland firefighters are different from structure firefighters, which deal with building and house fires, among other things. They work you around, but wildland firefighters are temporary and are laid off at the end of the season. And the pay starts set about what a fast food server makes. Ben Elkent was one of about 450 smoke dumpers in the whole country, and he loved his job. But can you guess how much he made in 2021? About $43,000. And that was after about 700 hours of overtime and hazard pay that season. And these are modest hours compared to others. Even permitted employees at the Forest Service are at $15 an hour. And that's a recent increase. To earn promotions and reach even higher pay grades, firefighters usually have to move among the agency's nine regions or earn a master's degree in forestry and leave the fire line. The low pay and dangerous work has physical, mental and relational consequences. During a training session for a new parachute, Elkent lost control after a wind picked up. He free fell and crashed his left leg through his pelvis and eventually got three plates and 12 screws in his hip. He didn't file for workers comp because he said it was hard to reach his case worker and because the Forest Service offered him a temporary office job, which was helpful. But in Oregon's housing market and with a young family to take care of, it was still tough to make ends meet. So his co-workers started a GoFundMe campaign that raised $50,000. Elkent was later diagnosed with thyroid cancer. There's no family history, so he assumed it was from a smoke inhalation. Even though officials have long expressed concern, the fire service finally acknowledged an explicit link between cancer and wildland firefighters in 2022. All of this can really take a toll on a firefighter's mental health. A 2018 survey of 2,600 wildland firefighters found that one fit had experienced suicidal thoughts and nearly 14% screened positive for probable PTSD, four times the rate of the general population. In this extents beyond the firefighters themselves, a recent survey of spouses of wildland firefighters found that almost half had considered leaving their relationships because of the job. Elkent went back to smoke jumping in 2023, but left his position in 2024 to become an assistant captain in a hand crew. As much as he'd loved his job, he said it feels irresponsible to stay with a family. There's a lot more about the difficulties of being a wildland firefighter and what the government is and isn't doing to address these issues at the Lincoln Biome.