Innovating on the Frontlines: The FireTech Podcast

About Innovating on the Frontlines: The FireTech Podcast

Welcome to the FireTech Podcast! Season 1: Innovating on the Frontlines (2024), delivers insights from innovators on the frontlines of the wildfire crisis in America. Host Shefali J Lakhina asks how innovation unfolds in public agencies tasked with wildfire preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery. We speak with fire captains and operators from across the country to understand innovation cycles and early adopter perspectives on FireTech. The four episodes offer a deep dive into agency and user experiences with co-developing and deploying technology on the frontlines. We aim to spotlight what the innovation cycle looks like for boots on the ground and what kind of FireTech is useful, usable, and actually used on the frontlines of the wildfire crisis in America right now. Season 2: Partnerships on the Frontlines (2025), examines the emerging dynamics of public-private-people partnerships (4Ps) in building wildfire resilience. Through four conversations with community partners and technical leads, we examine how diverse partners cultivate trust, accountability, and responsiveness to shared wildfire resilience goals on the frontlines. We uncover what responsible innovation for wildfire resilience entails, particularly as it relates to co-developing useful and usable innovations that can amplify capacities on the ground.

Publisher

Shefali J Lakhina

Category

technology

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

26 Apr 2024

Latest episode

10 Dec 2025

Latest episodes

5 of 10 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   10 Dec 2025TRANSCRIPT

   Partnerships on the Frontlines: Grand County and Flash Forest

   The FireTech Podcast Season 2 (2025) examines emerging dynamics of public-private-people partnerships (4Ps) in building wildfire resilience. Through conversations with community partners and technical leads, host Shefali Lakhina examines how diverse partners cultivate trust, accountability, and responsiveness to shared wildfire resilience goals on the frontlines. In this episode host Shefali Lakhina speaks with Jessica Rahn, Executive Director of Grand County Wildfire Council, Colorado, and Marc Apduhan, Innovation and Business Development Manager with Flash Forest, a regenerative startup based in Canada. Matched as part of Conservation X Labs’ Fire Grand Challenge (2025), Jessica and Marc have been working to replant landscapes impacted by the East Troublesome Fire in 2020. Flash Forest is helping Grand County explore how drones guided by AI can distribute seed pods for replanting. Jessica has a background in Human Resources Management with a Masters in Organizational Leadership from Regis University. She became interested in wildfire mitigation, education, and prevention after losing her home in the East Troublesome Fire in 2020, joining the Wildfire Council's Education Committee as a volunteer in April of 2023. Jessica is honored to be a part of moving this important work forward for the community. Grand County Wildfire Council (GCWC) is a non-profit, community-based wildfire education and mitigation program for the residents and visitors of Grand County, Colorado. https://bewildfireready.org/ Marc has over thirteen years in the environmental space, where he has worked in water and wastewater treatment, contaminated site remediation, and post-fire drone reforestation. He is currently the Innovation and Business Development Manager for Flash Forest, where his focus is on inter-organizational projects to enhance technologies in site suitability software, seedpod biotechnology, and drone/land hardware deployment systems to improve post-fire restoration efforts. His background is in Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of British Columbia. Flash Forest’s advanced reforestation automation technology merges UAV, AI, GIS, engineering, silviculture and plant science to scale reforestation to meet the growing demands of private and public partners across North America. https://www.flashforest.com/our-tech

2. 

   26 Oct 2025TRANSCRIPT

   Partnerships on the Frontlines: COCO and Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition

   The FireTech Podcast Season 2 (2025) examines emerging dynamics of public-private-people partnerships (4Ps) in building wildfire resilience. Through conversations with community partners and technical leads, host Shefali Lakhina examines how diverse partners cultivate trust, accountability, and responsiveness to shared wildfire resilience goals on the frontlines. In this episode Shefali speaks with Jeff Ravage from Coalitions and Collaboratives (COCO) and Anissa Watson from the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition. They’re working on the Cold Fire Project, a fungi-powered solution to the wildfire crisis. Jeff is the Chief Technology and Science Officer for Coalitions and Collaboratives, a Colorado-based NGO focusing on all aspects of fire, WUI communities, and ecological restoration. He is a researcher in forest mycology and works closely with the Denver Botanic Gardens Sam Mitchell Herbarium of Fungi. Jeff is actively involved in work on carbon offset protocols and consults on biomass utilization and carbon policy for municipalities and agencies. He has lectured and presented papers all around the U.S.A. on fungal techniques for ecological restoration. He actively promotes novel methods of forest mitigation and restoration to achieve the goals of forest health and longevity; much of which is outlined in his book: “The Green Evolution”. He’s always willing to sit down over a frothy drink and discuss forest ecology, lignicolous saprophytes, or aposematic anurans. Anissa is the Director of Program Execution at the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition in British Columbia, Canada. Anissa brought her children to Gitxsan Lax Y’ip in 2006 and set down deep roots. Along with being a mom of four incredible humans, Anissa is a community organizer at heart. Connecting with people and seeking local solutions to big and small issues is a driving force in her work. As an active community member herself, Anissa is a volunteer firefighter, a women’s self defense instructor, a small time farmer, a soil nerd, river guide, and solo adventurer.

3. 

   22 Sept 2025TRANSCRIPT

   Partnerships on the Frontlines: San Juan Islands Conservation District and Envisioning Labs

   The FireTech Podcast Season 2 (2025) examines emerging dynamics of public-private-people partnerships (4Ps) in building wildfire resilience. Through four conversations with community partners and technical leads, we examine how diverse partners cultivate trust, accountability, and responsiveness to shared wildfire resilience goals on the frontlines. In this episode we speak with Kai Hoffman-Krull from the San Juan Islands Conservation District, and Jayden Alp from Envisioning Labs. Together, they’re working to pilot FireLance––a multifaceted sensor technology that provides real-time, continuous monitoring of prescribed fires to detect and prevent lingering hotspots and re-ignitions. Kai is a certified NRCS Natural Resource Planner and has founded and managed the field restoration program, the Islands Conservation Corps, since 2019. Kai studied forestry and literature at Yale University, where he also received a certificate in Business Plan Development from the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute. He serves as an adjunct faculty member at the Western Washington University College of the Environment, and has coordinated research projects in forestry with the University of Washington, University of Montana, and Oregon State University since 2014. He has co-authored peer-reviewed articles in Biogeochemistry and Agriculture, Ecosystems, and Environment, and has written extensively for publications such as Growing for Market, Civil Eats, New Society Publishing, The Sound Consumer, Rodale Institute, and Stone Pier Press. Kai is also a Washington State Certified Burner and a US Forest Service C-Level Sawyer, and holds on foundational interest in integrating academic, cultural, and field based knowledge. Jayden Alp is the Communications and Engagement Manager at Envisioning Labs, a Vancouver-based climate innovation and R&D firm. She is the Project Lead for Firelance, the company’s wildfire technology initiative and a finalist in Conservation X Labs’ Fire Grand Challenge. With a background in sustainability and community engagement, Jayden is based in Vernon, BC. Get in touch at info@envisioninglabs.com.

4. 

   22 Sept 2025TRANSCRIPT

   Partnerships on the Frontlines: Town of Paradise and Witching Hour

   The FireTech Podcast' Season 2 (2025) examines the emerging dynamics of public-private-people partnerships (4Ps) in building wildfire resilience. Through four conversations with community partners and technical leads, we examine how diverse partners cultivate trust, accountability, and responsiveness to shared wildfire resilience goals on the frontlines. We uncover what responsible innovation for wildfire resilience entails, particularly as it relates to co-developing useful and usable innovations that can amplify capacities on the ground. In this first episode, Wonder Labs' cofounder Shefali J Lakhina speaks with Susan Hartman from the Town of Paradise in California and Lance Adler from The Witching Hour in Tennessee, USA. Susan and Lance came together as one of the Conservation X Labs’ Fire Grand Challenge teams last year. They’re piloting Witching Hour's robotic system that installs insulation over live power lines, to reduce the risk of utility caused wildfires. Susan Hartman is Community Development Director for the Town of Paradise. She has been with the Town of Paradise for just over 31 years, having worked in Finance, Wastewater, Building, Engineering, Solid Waste, & Planning. She’s worked on multiple disasters including the 2008 Butte Lightening Complex (37 fires over 59k acres), 2016 Saddle Fire, the 2017 Oroville Dam Spillway event & the Honey Fire, and the 2018 Camp Fire. Lance Adler is Founder & CEO of Witching Hour, a startup working to prevent wildfires caused by power companies. A former PG&E engineer, Lance understands the need for insulating live power lines using advanced materials and robotics. The Witching Hour’s solution is working to reduce faults and ignitions that can lead to catastrophic fires on landscapes and in communities.

5. 

   30 Aug 2025TRANSCRIPT

   Innovating on the Frontlines with David Green

   In this episode, host Shefali Lakhina speaks with David Green, Principal Consultant at Green Resilience Insights, LLC. In this role David provides consulting for science and technology innovation, transition, and integration enabling foresight planning and strategy, risk management across weather, water, and climate-impacted sectors. David previously served as Program Manager for NOAA and NASA. As the NASA Applied Sciences Wildland Fires Program Manager, David and his team used space-based instruments and models to support decisions and actions, promote innovation and build capacity in the use of Earth Science. Prior to joining NOAA, David was a Research Fellow at the National Institution of Science and Technology and worked in the private sector as well. David received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Toronto.

6. 

   1 Aug 2024

   Innovating on the Frontlines with Frank Frievalt

   In this episode, host Shefali Lakhina speaks with retired Fire Chief Frank Frievalt, now Director of Cal Poly's Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fire Institute. Frank previously served as fire chief for the Mammoth Lakes Fire Protection District, division chief of operations for the Sparks Fire Department, among other leadership roles. In his current role at the WUI Fire Institute, Frank is focused on developing a better understanding and implementation of the "mitigations that matter" so communities can be designed in ways that are resilient and well-adapted to fire and smoke impacts.

7. 

   14 Jun 2024

   Innovating on the Frontlines with Neil Chapman

   In this episode, host Shefali Lakhina speaks with Neil Chapman, Wildland Fire Captain for the Flagstaff Fire Department and Summit Fire & Medical District, Arizona. We talk about Neil's wide ranging career in fire adapted land management over the years; how agencies are working together to catalyze systems innovations to modernize workforce capacities; and why it is important to democratize access to beneficial fire for both landscape stewardship and community resilience objectives. Neil is President of the Greater Flagstaff Forest Partnership Advisory Board, 2024 Chair of the Northern Arizona Chapter of the Society of American Foresters, and President of the Friends of Camp Colton Board of Directors. Learn more about Neil here: https://gffp.org/essential_grid/neil-chapman-flagstaff-fire-department-and-summit-fire-medical-district-forest-health-supervisor/

8. 

   6 Jun 2024

   Innovating on the frontlines with Josh Wilkins

   In this episode, host Shefali Lakhina speaks with Josh Wilkins, a seasoned fire captain and wildfire technology consultant with over 27 years of dedicated service at the San Bernardino County Fire Department in Southern California. Josh has managed and responded to numerous wildfires across the western United States, demonstrating a profound commitment to public safety and emergency response. We learn about Josh's journey with FireTech over the years, the kinds of technology he found most useful on the frontlines, and his perspective on how local agencies can catalyze the co-development and early adoption of useful and usable FireTech. Connect with Josh Wilkins here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshwilkins1/

9. 

   21 May 2024

   The State of FireTech 2023 Survey and Annual Update

   In this first episode, I set the stage for this mini podcast series by summarizing key trends and findings from the State of FireTech 2023 Survey and Annual Update. Download the 2023 report and summary here: https://www.wonder-labs.org/state-of-firetech.html and be sure to take the 2024 FireTech Survey before August 30, 2024 here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/firetech2024 In the next episode, you'll learn from my first guest Josh Wilkins, who recently retired as Fire Captain with the San Bernardino County Fire Department in Southern California! Josh is a second generation firefighter who has led responses to hundreds of wildfires over the past 27 years and will tell us about his journey with FireTech on the frontlines.

10. 

    26 Apr 2024

    Introductions!

    This trailer introduces the aims of the Innovating on the Frontlines FireTech Podcast: a mini series that showcases how intrapreneurs within federal, state, and local agencies catalyze innovations. Join us on this learning journey!

Inside a recent episode

Partnerships on the Frontlines: Grand County and Flash Forest

Published 10 Dec 2025 · Transcript excerpt

[…] So identifying where flash forest fits and where its solution would fit. makes the most sense so for example areas that are a little bit more remote may be accessible through drone areas that may be dangerous because there's dead stand trees that are falling those are a little bit more accessible with with our deployers And also areas that might not be economical for hand and shovel methods. Those are areas that we talk to Jessica and the local community about in identifying. So in our next phase with the private landowners, they get the choice. I'll give them a matter of fact presentation and they get the decision. […]

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Apple Podcasts (US)

4.3 / 5

3 ratings