Episode 3: The Why Behind Wildfire Mitigation with Curtis Hartenstine
February 18, 2025
No one wants to hear the word wildfire – except Curtis Hartenstine because he’s been working to mitigate their risk for most of his career. As the Wildfire Mitigation Program Manager at Tri-State G&T, the w-word has been a part of Curtis’ daily life for decades.
In this episode of Western Watts, we dive into how Curtis’ deep love of nature has taken him from working at a shipyard in Martha’s Vineyard, to a field station in the Amazon forest, then the base of the Himalayas, and now to the Rocky Mountains where his daily work is centered around how to protect our members and the grid from wildfires.
Curtis details the immense effort that goes into managing a mitigation program for Tri-State's 200,000 sq mi territory with all its diverse ecosystems and terrains. Learn about the practices and technologies being used to help with early detection and, as always, the brave men and women working year-round to deploy those strategies and keep our rural communities safe.
Stay tuned till the end for the fire preparedness advice that Curtis himself uses and how to apply that to your own life.
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