Faces of Wildland Fire: Meet Logan Blankenship and Scott Mayer

With the approach of National Wildland Firefighter Day on July 2, we’re highlighting some of the amazing individuals who make up this community. 

Meet Logan Blankenship, a Fire Management Specialist in BLM's Division of Fire Operations at the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC).  

Logan began his career with BLM Fire as a Snake River Hotshot in Idaho and went on to spend 22 seasons as a primary firefighter. His experience spans many years on crews and engines throughout the Great Basin with the BLM and U.S. Forest Service and several on the Midewin Interagency Hotshot Crew in Illinois. He most recently spent four years as Superintendent of the Craig Interagency Hotshot Crew with BLM Fire before transitioning to a role at NIFC.

Today, Logan serves as a bridge between field operations and the agency leadership at NIFC, drawing on expertise from his years on the fireline. As co-chair of the BLM Fire Operations Group and liaison to the BLM Hand Crew Committee, he communicates new policy and direction from agency leadership to the field and helps to elevate feedback from ground-based firefighters and resources into actionable change. He aspires to promote a culture of trust and recognition of firefighter's concerns throughout the agency.

He also leads BLM Fire's annual preparedness reviews, where traveling teams of national, state, and local subject matter experts provide a peer review of other units' fire preparedness, providing opportunities for learning and improvement. The reviews are also a chance to give kudos for things that are being done exceptionally well and should be shared more broadly.

What does Logan love about wildland fire? “The camaraderie is unmatched. Everybody is a little bit different and we’re all a little bit weird. I still talk to friends from my very first season. Secondly, it’s the mission, being outdoors and doing good things in land management. I’m providing a benefit for the public, including myself."

In 2025, his 24th year in wildland fire, Logan hopes he can encourage people to keep seeking careers within BLM Fire. “Just like any job out there, there’s going to be ups and downs. But there’s so much positive in this career choice. We continue to refine what success looks like, what a good organization to work for looks like. We want to see people do well and love their job.”

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Meet Scott Mayer, a BLM Intelligence Officer for the National Interagency Coordination Center (NICC) at the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC).

Scott works in the NICC predictive services section, where he helps produce the daily Incident Management Situation Report, which tracks fire statistics nationwide. During high activity, the report is published seven days a week and is a round-the-clock labor, including night shifts. He also compiles daily documentation for decision-makers on the National Multiagency Coordinating Group. His small team handles specialized data requests, supports the SIT-209 application used for fire reporting, and more.

Scott describes the NICC as the nerve center for the national wildland fire community, coordinating the movement of firefighting resources nationwide, while processing and producing a vast array of information, reporting, and products. "It's a masterclass in coordination and orchestration. Everybody is incredibly dedicated to safeguarding communities and public lands and we have to work closely together to do that well."

Scott credits his career with the BLM to a BLM ranger he met when he was in middle school. “I wanted to be that,” he says. He started his career as a BLM firefighter, detoured to Border Patrol, and then returned to BLM as a law enforcement officer, where he handled a dual-purpose canine. He returned to BLM Fire in 2017 and eventually found his niche working in the NICC.

“Working with people is important to me. At the NICC, I’ve built relationships with colleagues all across the country. This is also a job where you can pick your own pace, and I’m always looking for ways to maximize efficiency.

“At the end of the day, my job and the job of everyone at the NICC is to get things where they need to be to solve a problem. It’s satisfying to solve even one problem. And we’re doing that on a national scope, thousands of little decisions that add up to helping the whole country.

“Something I really appreciate at the NICC and at NIFC is leadership that seeks to understand us, that cares about us. They know we’re people and we have lives. That’s an important thing in fire. The better support we get from our leaders, the more efficient and effective we’re going to be.”