From Wildfire’s Aftermath to a Place for Innovation: The High Lonesome Ranch’s Role in Advancing Wildfire Response
Six years after the Pine Gulch Fire burned 95,000 acres of ranch-managed land, The High Lonesome Ranch is helping create opportunities to explore new approaches to initial wildfire attack. On July 31, 2020, lightning ignited a wildfire in remote terrain about 18 miles north of Grand Junction, Colorado. What began as a single ignition grew […]
PGSU MythBusters: What the PGSU is NOT
The Precision Guided Suppression Unit (PGSU) is a new tool for Aerial Firefighting. It’s an advanced technology and not an understatement to say it will be met with unfounded fears initially. It’s Human to mistrust new technology, the recent AI environment is a case in point. Even though the PGSU is made with Commercial Off […]
Colorado Tests New High-Altitude Tech to Stop Emerging Wildfires
RIFLE, Colo. (Sept. 24, 2026) — Every catastrophic wildfire starts as a small fire. Nightfall, heavy smoke, severe weather, difficult terrain and limited resources can all delay suppression efforts. These challenges create what aerial firefighting professionals have identified as a “denied environment.” These are situations that restrict or delay a firefighter’s ability to suppress wildfires […]
Defining the Denied Environment: An Aerial Firefighting Advancement Paradigm
As the Aviation Projects Manager at the Center of Excellence, I get to see a wide array of great ideas and technologies; most of which will never see the light of day in Aerial Firefighting (AFF). Aviation in general has a high-barrier to entry for new ideas, enforced through high-costs, with roots in life-safety, but […]