Tuesday, June 16, 2026

Pike National Forest increases fire response capability along the Front Range

On April 24, Deputy Chief for Fire and Aviation Management Sarah Fisher approved the addition of the Monument Helitack crew to the Forest Service helicopter short-haul programs. The program recently moved forward to complete short-haul ground and flight training. The crew completed ground training this spring at the Monument Fire Center on the Pike National Forest, followed by a short-haul flight training in McCall, Idaho, in early June.

The Forest Service short-haul program began operations in 2015 and was initially used for medical extraction. Since then, the program has expanded to include inserting aerial delivered firefighters.

“The addition of the short-haul capability will be extremely beneficial both regionally and nationally,” said Mike Spink, zone aviation officer. “As we get closer to the heart of fire season, this will increase our readiness and preparedness to respond to medical emergencies that occur on an incident and responding in difficult terrain.”

The Forest Service manages most of the large firefighting aviation assets for the federal government, including helicopters, airtankers, smokejumper planes and other fixed-wing aircraft. These assets are used across all jurisdictions.

Monument Helitack is a 10-person wildland fire crew based in Monument, Colorado on the Pike National Forest. They are focused on providing highly trained firefighters and aviation managers to increase our response capacity for initial attack and large fire support both regionally and nationally.

The Forest Service will continue to respond to fires in an aggressive, coordinated and unified response with interagency partners, states, tribes and local governments.



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