Plan. Prepare. Act.
WHY GROUNDED TRUTHS?
Plans and Solutions Grounded in Reality
"Grounded Truths" is a derivative of "ground truth", meaning "the actual facts of things happening 'on the ground'." Our goal is to cut through the haze of perceptions and biases to get to the "ground truth" of things - and from there guide others toward planning desired changes and outcomes, and making them happen by grounded, realistic, attainable goals and frameworks. While the term and methods have origins in the military, public safety, and land management circles, they're equally applicable to not only those fields but private sector endeavors as well.
What specifically does that mean? Planning, first and foremost. "Failure to plan is planning to fail" is an old adage mostly from the military but it's true in many aspects of life.
With planning comes facilitation and collaboration. You can draw up the best plans in the world, but if you can't obtain buy-in from others, and then facilitate their actions to meet the plan and achieve its goals, you're as dead in the water as if you'd never planned at all.
Analyze problems (current vs desired states). Formulate solutions. Obtain buy-in and then facilitate their achievement. That's what we do.
ABOUT
Mark Howell
My road has been a long one, coming up on 30 years of public safety and emergency management experience: Law Enforcement. Fire - both wildland and structural. Emergency Medical Services. Dispatch, Emergency and Incident Management at the Local, State, and Federal levels.
The most rewarding part of it has been managing complex incidents and situations, and building collaboratives around fire: both preparing for and mitigating wildfires, and using prescribed fire to build better habitat for animals AND people.
There are three things I haven't done in wildland fire: Fly aircraft, jump out of perfectly good aircraft (Smokejumping/Rappelling), and drive a bulldozer or other heavy equipment. I have, however, done literally everything else over my 14 years with USFS Fire and the years beyond, specializing in Wildfire Prevention/Investigation, Mitigation, and Prescribed Fire/Fuels Management.
The totality of this training and experience means I meet NFPA 1140/1051 standards for Wildland Firefighter 1 & 2, Wildland Fire Officer 1 & 2, Wildland/Urban Interface Protection Specialist, and Wildland/Urban Interface Coordinator.
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When it comes to wildland fire, I'm a one-man band with a rare breadth and depth of knowledge that's tough to find. You're in luck, cause here you are!
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Some Notable Highlights and Examples of "What I can do for you"
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Wildland-Urban Interface Coordination, Planning, Implementation, and Instruction from single-home scale up to large/multi-county regions.
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Wildland-Urban Interface/Intermix Fire Operations Training
In a mere four years on the Malheur National Forest, as a Supervisory Prevention/Mitigation Specialist, in a place that absolutely hates Feds (and former Californians, that's TWO strikes to start off!) I:
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Built 4 FireWise Communities
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Built & scaled an Interagency Prevention/Mitigation Cooperative (from 5 folks at the start to over 30)
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Provided technical wildland fire input to the Grant Co (OR) Community Wildfire Protection Plan
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Built a successful working relationship with Grant Co Sheriff's Office (then-Sheriff Glenn Palmer, an incredibly vocal detractor of the USFS)
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Co-designed and hosted an Interagency Wildfire Exercise featuring Structure Triage and Evacuation (with GCSO) in a FireWise Community
Post-USFS Fire, I got involved in the private lands prescribed fire movement, and:
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Used the same framework from building FireWise Communities to build Prescribed Burn Associations across Missouri (nearly 4x in 2 years from 5 to 18)
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Provided guidance and information for other states to form Prescribed Fire Councils
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Provided technical guidance for development and refinement of state-level Prescribed Fire laws, regulations, and policies
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Started developing and delivering prescribed fire training programs including Learn To Burn workshops, fire behavior training, and fire suppression workshops
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Long story short: when you have a wildland or prescribed fire problem you can't solve - call Grounded Truths.
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