Brad Washa

Biography

J. Bradley Washa – After a 33-year career in federal wildland fire management, Brad retired in 2022 as the State Fuels Specialist with the Bureau of Land Management in Utah. Brad also worked for the BLM in Medford, Oregon, the US Forest Service on the Cibola and Arapaho/Roosevelt National Forests in New Mexico and Colorado, respectively, and the National Park Service at Mesa Verde National Park along with The Nature Conservancy, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and US Fish and Wildlife Service. Brad has continued working in the Park City area and throughout the western states to create resilient communities and forests along with participating in wildfire assignments as a Type 1 Operations Section Chief on the Alaska Incident Management Team focusing on strategic planning. Brad is excited for his new role as an Assistant Professor of Wildland Fire Science in the Wildland Resources Department with Utah State University Extension. This is a new Extension specialist position in the Quinney College of Natural Resources and has been in the works for nearly three years. Brad had a very rewarding and successful career in wildland fire and fuels management and appreciates the opportunity to give back to the wildland fire community and those coming up in the field in this new professor role and continuing as a “student of fire.” Brad is looking forward to connecting and reconnecting with many throughout Utah and through Extension. Areas of interest for Brad are fuels treatments including prescribed fire and treatment effectiveness, smoke management, risk analysis, strategic planning, and dispelling of wildland fire misinformation. During his time in college, Brad felt the professors he got the most from were those who had solid careers in the field and he hopes to have a similar impact. Brad will have an office in the Natural Resources Building, and will be on campus a few days per month, but he will be primarily based in Park City where he has lived since 2002, which is more central to the rest of Utah. His outside interest he shares with his partner Marlea and her daughter Brynn, both graduates of USU, includes trail running and hiking with their Samoyed dogs, Luka and Kiska, Nordic and XC skiing, serving as a volunteer on the Snowbasin Ski Patrol, traveling, and water sports. Each spring Brad returns to Wisconsin volunteering time to teach forestry to the Sixth Graders at Mayville Public School’s Environmental Education Camp. Growing up in Wisconsin, before moving west in 1989, Brad has a BS in natural resource management from the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point and holds a MS in wildland fire science from Colorado State University.