Mendocino National Forest Recruiting On-Call Wildland Firefighters for 2026 Season
If you’ve ever wanted to fight wildfires and help protect Northern California’s forests, the Mendocino National Forest is gearing up to hire on-call wildland firefighters for the 2026 fire season — and in-person signup days are coming in January.
Forest staff will register applicants for type-2 hand crews at the following locations, all from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.:
- Jan. 8: Mendocino National Forest Supervisor’s Office, 825 N. Humboldt Ave., Willows
- Jan. 16–17: Tribal Community Building, 9460 Main St., Upper Lake
- Jan. 23–24: Butte County Search & Rescue Building, 3965 Morrow Ln., Chico
- Jan. 29–30: Supervisor’s Office, 825 N. Humboldt Ave., Willows
Each year, the forest sponsors about nine on-call type-2 hand crews, based in Willits and Chico, to support wildfire suppression locally and across the country from roughly May through November. Crews include 18–20 members, a crew boss, and three squad bosses, with paid 10-day training and opportunities to work as sawyers, swampers, and firefighter type-1 and type-2.
Requirements:
- Must be 18 or older
- Bring two forms of ID (driver’s license, Social Security card, birth certificate, or valid U.S. passport)
- Complete online FEMA courses I-100 and IS-700 and bring certificates to signup
Applicants can pre-register online at the provided Google Forms link, but must still attend one in-person signup day.
Training is scheduled for Feb. 21–28 (Willits crews) and Mar. 14–21 (Chico crews).
For more information, contact Forest Training Officer Natalie Maynard at natalie.maynard@usda.gov.
