Title: Executive Director
Company: Terra Fuego Resource Foundation
Location: Quincy, California, United States
Bill Jacks, car experiment boss and executive director of the Terra Fuego Resource Foundation, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Executives for dedication, achievements, and leadership in prescribed fire and wildland firefighting.
Mr. Jacks believes in the ability of humans to replace the inevitable catastrophic fires that result from fire exclusion, with frequent landscape scale prescribed fires that resemble Native American ancestral burning practices. In 2007, he received a Bachelor of Science from Humboldt State University, now renamed California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt. He was also certified through the California State Prescribed Fire Burn Boss program (CARx).
Mr. Jacks has extensive experience serving as a wildland firefighter for the United States Forest Service. During his time as a wildland firefighter, he learned from fire suppression and prescribed fire experts how to protect human lives, private property and forest ecology.
Mr. Jacks is currently the executive director of the Terra Fuego Resource Foundation, a lead volunteer for the Prescribed Burn Association called Plumas Underburn Cooperative and the chief executive officer of Stonehenge Signs Inc. He is a longtime resident of Plumas County, California, and has dedicated himself to being an ecological steward of the land.
Mr. Jacks’ passion for protecting the environment has manifested in thousands of hours of working on controlled burns. These planned controlled burns help reduce dead vegetation, fallen leaves and other fire hazards that fuel wildfires. Frequent prescribed fires are part of a critical ecological stewardship process that fire adapted and dependent forests and communities depend on for survival. Native Americans used fire frequently throughout the landscape to increase life sustaining benefit provided by forests that require frequent fire.
In Quincy, California, Mr. Jacks was instrumental in lobbying for a rule change concerning prescribed fires. He considered this a significant milestone in his career and a substantial accomplishment. Influencing a local government to change its policy is an example of Mr. Jacks’ expertise and advocacy in action.
Mr. Jacks’ next steps in the strategic prescribed fire planning process includes: changing polices that inhibit Rx fire, make Rx fire mandatory per environmental entitlement documents (NEPA/ CEQA), changing the EPA air quality restrictions on Rx fire, and providing a landscape scale Rx fire “proof of concept” demonstrate an “economy of scale.” He also hopes to establish Terra Fuego-prescribed Fire Work Centers throughout the fire-prone Wildland Urban Interface spanning from Colorado to the Pacific Ocean.
Mr. Jacks is only the second chief executive officer in the history of Stonehenge Signs Inc. Started by Rob Conover in 1978, the nationally recognized public art firm creates striking signs out of boulders. Mr. Conover instantly saw Mr. Jacks’ natural talent and mentored him until 2017, when Mr. Jacks took on the role of chief executive officer.
A large portion of his success can be attributed to maintaining positive thoughts throughout life’s roller-coaster of success and disappointments. Thoughts shape reality. His passion for Rx fire is rooted in a sacred obligation to do the right thing for the right reasons.
For more information, please visit:
Terra Fuego Resource Foundation
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