Andrea Bustos holds a drip torch and lights a grassy hillside. She is wearing a yellow hard-hat with goggle on top, a fire shroud, long-sleeve Nomex jacket and pants, and leather gloves. Smoke rises behind her.

Andrea Bustos - Prescribed Fire training Specialist

As a Prescribed Fire Training Specialist at the WRTC, Andrea’s focus is on prescribed fire and land management. During her professional career she has found that landscape interaction comprehension is needed to reduce fire risk in fire and landscape management actions.

Andrea is an enthusiastic, self-motivated, progress-driven fire practitioner and Spanish native speaker with a developed background in this profession. In the most recent years of her career she has developed and implemented burn plans and has designed, planned, supported, and implemented training programs, community prevention projects ('escuelas de campo'), environmental education, institutional relationship strategies, national regulations, budget and funding management, and skills that she knows will bring value to the WRTC, CalPBAs and CAL-TREX events.

In this short journey in the fire world, Andrea has found out that this natural element is not only a powerful tool for land management, but also an incredible means for social assertion and defense for people and their landscapes. Right now, she is working with inspiring professionals that share her passion of nature and all of its intricate relationships. Here at the WRTC, there is no limit to continuing motivating, learning, and sharing knowledge.

Andrea is a fire practitioner, a passionate geographer, and has a Master’s degree in Remote Sensing.

Email Andrea: abustos@thewatershedcenter.com

 

Ellen McGehee - Fire Operations Specialist

As a Fire Operations Specialist, Ellen works to implement prescribed fire in Trinity County. Ellen has lived in Hyampom since 2008 - as a land steward, homesteader, community member, and volunteer firefighter with her local department. She is excited to be in reciprocity with her ecosystem by working toward a more fire-adapted landscape. When not at work for the Watershed Center you might find her playing classical violin with the Trinity Alps Chamber Music Festival, of which she is co-founder and host, sailing (and fixing sailboats) in the tropics, or backpacking remote mountain ranges.

Email Ellen: fireoperations@thewatershedcenter.com

 

Erin Banwell - Co-Director of Fire Management

Erin is the Co-Director of Fire Management for The Watershed Research and Training Center. Her main duties include cooperative prescribed fire planning, capacity building, and prescribed fire implementation. She works on burn planning, fostering partnerships, and providing mentorship and technical assistance to a wide range of partner organizations, landowners, and fire service agencies. She is also a Prescribed Fire Training Exchange (TREX) Coach and has attended TREX events all across the United States (CA, CO, NM, KS, NE, OK, SD, FL) and in Portugal.

Erin has a diverse mixture of work experience from a variety of natural resource jobs, including work as an environmental NEPA planner, researcher, prescribed fire and fuels specialist, and ecologist in the academic, private, non-profit, and governmental sectors. Erin obtained Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from Humboldt State University in Forestry and Natural Resources, with emphases in Fire Ecology and Wildland Fire Management.

Erin is currently qualified as CARX, PSC3, RXB3, ENGB, FIRB, ICT5, FEMO, READ, and REAF. She is actively working on her ICT4. Erin loves burning in new ecosystems, gardening, fermenting food, hiking, and exploring beautiful Trinity County with her husband and son.

Email Erin: firemanagement@thewatershedcenter.com

 
Ethan Vayman smiles at the camera. He has short, dark brown hair and wears a long-sleeve grey Grizzly Corps shirt.

Ethan Vayman - GrizzlyCorps Rural Climate Fellow

Ethan is a GrizzlyCorps Rural Climate Fellow who will be serving with The Fire Management Program this year. GrizzlyCorps, an AmeriCorps program run by the Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment at UC Berkeley, aims to connect recent graduates with opportunities to build climate resiliency in rural communities. During his time with The Watershed Center he will assist the Fire Management Team as they continue to strengthen partnerships with landowners, organizations, and agencies, lead and support fire-related trainings, and implement prescribed fire projects.

Ethan holds a bachelor’s degree in Natural Resources Conservation from The University of British Columbia (UBC) and a Certificate in Wilderness Skills from Bellevue College. His passion for fire began as a child when he learned to use a bow drill, and he has been captivated ever since. At UBC, Ethan worked in the Tree Ring Lab assisting with research on fuel mitigation techniques and post-wildfire monitoring. His summers spent working with the lab have solidified his focus on wildfire resilience as a career and he is excited to begin this journey with The Watershed Center.

When he’s not learning about fire, Ethan enjoys climbing, hiking, leather crafting, and whittling.

Email Ethan: ethan@thewatershedcenter.com

 
Hannah Hepner smiles at the camera. She is wearing full protective fire clothing including hard hat, goggles, radio, Nomex pants and shirt, and leather gloves. She wears a fire pack and holds a McLeod.

Hannah Hepner - Northern Sierra Beneficial Fire Training Coordinator

Hannah is the Northern Sierra Beneficial Fire Training Coordinator for the Watershed Center. She provides training and beneficial burning support to increase the number of individuals who are safely utilizing “good fire.” Her work focuses on operations as well as addressing barriers to access and information. 

Hannah has a bachelor's degree in Forestry & Natural Resources from UC Berkeley and a Certificate in Landscape Design from Cabrillo College. Prior to working for the Watershed Center, she was the Program Director for the Plumas County Fire Safe Council, where she developed and implemented programs to reduce losses from wildfire. She is a co-founder of the Plumas Underburn Cooperative and has been an IMT member for Plumas Cal-TREX since its establishment in 2020.

Hannah balances time in the field with knitting, poetry, and aerial acrobatics. Based in Quincy, Hannah and her three daughters spend their summers in the creeks and winters on the snow.

Email Hannah: hannah@thewatershedcenter.com

 
Jose smiles at someone or something off-camera. He is wearing a yellow Nomex shirt and has a pair of sunglasses dangling from his collar. He has short dark hair and matching beard and mustache.

José Luis Duce Aragüés - Prescribed Fire Training Specialist

José Luis Duce Aragüés (he, him) is a fire practitioner from Spain, learning, sharing, and improving his skills related with all aspects of fire, working with The WRTC as a Prescribed Fire Training Specialist, through the RFFC (Regional Forest and Fire Capacity) program, and under the Fire Management Program with an incredible group of lovely people.

José has been practicing fire for some years in different parts of the world and in different ecosystems. “As a fire student, what I have learned is that fire belongs to people, to communities, and to the landscape. It has always been like that and, for good or for bad, it will always be like that. So, here I am, offering my small portion of responsibility to give Mother Earth, ‘Mama Tierra’, back, what She has given to us, and honoring and respecting those who taught and transferred to me what I know, ready to spread the good fire around, keeping on learning and sharing my little experience and knowledge.”

José is based in Weaverville (CA) but will be traveling (and ready to travel) around the whole state of California primarily, trying to find ways to add, improve, and develop local capacities and charismatic leaders who want to take the torch and share what they know and feel.

Email José: jose@thewatershedcenter.com

 
Miller Bailey smiles at the camera. He is wearing a hard hat and sunglasses. His yellow Nomex shirt is dark with soot and ash. He holds a drip torch and shovel in his gloved hands.

Miller Bailey - Co-Director of Fire management and

Watershed Center Safety Officer

Miller is the Co-Director of Fire Management for The Watershed Research and Training Center. His main duties include designing and implementing cooperative projects that foster resilient ecosystems, optimize local workforce and landowner benefits, and protect communities from wildfire. He works on risk management, coordinating training opportunities, and leading cooperative burns.

Miller also serves as the Safety Officer for the WRTC. Miller has a strong foundation of operational wildland fire suppression and prescribed fire experience, working on a Type 1 Interagency Hotshot Crew, and most recently serving as the Crew Boss for a Type 2 Initial Attack Handcrew for the State of Utah, Lone Peak Conservation Center.

Miller is also a Prescribed Fire Training Exchange (TREX) Coach and has attended TREX events all across the United States and in Portugal. He is currently qualified as a RXB2, TFLD, CRWB, ENGB, ICT4, FAL1, and FEMO. He is actively working on ICT3 and DIVS. He enjoys all things family, quilting and crocheting, fishing the waterways of Trinity County, game nights, and talking fire.

Email Miller: firemanagement@thewatershedcenter.com

 
Qwalen Bernsten smiles at the camera. He has a blond beard and mustache. His hair is covered by a beanie and sunglasses sit atop his head. He has a heavy backpack on his back. There are jagged glaciated peaks behind him.

Qwalen Bernsten - Fire Operations Specialist

Qwalen has lived in the lower Klamath Watershed for 15 years, spending much of that time facilitating extended wilderness immersion and survival trips. He is an active member of the Hyampom Volunteer Fire Department. His work with the Watershed Center centers on organizing and implementing prescribed fire with the intention to reduce wildfire risk and create fire resilient communities through the management of local ecosystems. His passion for understanding the interrelationships within ecosystems brings valuable perspective on the interaction of fire with our local environment. In every free moment you can find him backpacking, split-boarding, homesteading, leather crafting, or sailing across an open ocean.

Email Qwalen: fireoperations@thewatershedcenter.com