Redmond Air Center—Smoke Jumper Dispatch Map

Smoke jumpers specialize in remote fires, parachuting into areas where access would otherwise be difficult and slow. Rapid deliveries of competent and self-sufficient firefighters make the smoke jumper operation a definite asset to forest and land managers.

The Redmond Smokejumper Base, in Redmond, Oregon, is one of two Pacific Northwest regional bases for smoke jumpers. Since the Redmond Air Center opened in 1964, the Smokejumpers have made more than 11,000 fire jumps into 2,800 wildland fires for an average of 350 fire jumps each year.

This 1:475,000 scale 8-by-8-foot wall map was commissioned by center dispatch staff to help track the daily movement of smoke jumpers and to more easily identify crew pickup locations (road or stream junctions) after fire suppression efforts are finished. The map contains information about surface ownership and point locations of fire lookout towers and remote automated weather stations, trails, roads, and major hydrological features. Compass roses on the map are used to aid in navigation.

Courtesy of Barbara W. Haney, Bureau of Land Management/Northrop Grumman.