Marty is having the best time getting to know the natural world — one he was unconscious of growing up in Manila, Philippines. Since moving to the States in 2014, then to Washington state where he finished his bachelor’s degree in forest ecology at the Evergreen State College, it’s been an explosion of curiosity, excitement, sense of purpose, and fulfillment working with the ever dynamic and primal element that is fire. He started with Americorps stints working as a fire-effects monitor with the North Cascades National Park and as a land steward for The Nature Conservancy around Arizona. From 2020-22, he split his time monitoring fire effects in California and on a prescribed fire crew burning long-leaf pine forests in North Carolina — giving him a balance in perspective between the field research and operational aspects of prescribed fire. As a prescribed fire practitioner, he’s grateful for the opportunity to apply these skills and to learn novel ones, working in landscapes and communities in California that are intimately intertwined with fire.