JUSTIN CULMAN

* The positions described below were completed as a National Park Service employee of the federal government in various grade levels described​.​

 

Fire GIS Specialist at Intermountain Region Fire and Aviation Management Division (April 2024 - May 2026) 2 years and 1 month at 40 hours/week (GS-0150-11)

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Fire GIS Specialist US Wildland Fire Service Rocky Mountain Geographic Area (May 2026 to Present) 5 months at 40 hours/week (GS-0150-11)

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• Park Fire Program Support

  • GIS support for the fire and aviation programs for all parks in the Four Comers, Utah, Northern Arizona, and Southern Arizona Fire Management Zones. After the first year gained three additional Fire Management Zones. Answer GIS related questions, emails, and project inquiries for all crews, engines, and overhead staff at parks fire programs to meet mission critical operations and objectives. Attend weekly meetings with park overhead staff to be informed of critical operations and update project support and pass along critical GIS updates to the teams. Maintain a professional relationship with fire programs and work with park stakeholders and interagency partners on GIS related projects. Use ArcGIS Pro and the Wildfire GISS Workflow to appropriately update fuels and wildfire GIS data in the National Incident Feature Service. Council parks resource management staff in the development of their local unit resource guides for fire preparedness. Work with permanent and seasonal staff to have access to mobile field data collection platforms and understandings of the terms of use/rules of behavior for interaction with ArcGIS Online datasets and web applications. 

• Fire Program Print Maps​

  • Development and maintaining print maps as annual products using ArcGIS Pro for GRCA, MEVE, SAGU, and ZION national parks. Maps included are briefing, aviation hazards, park groups, transportation, fire history, and program of work. Coordinate with park fire staff on annual reviews of maps, data validity, and usefulness of products to meet the parks operation goals. Customize maps as requested by parks to include elements or data pertinent to their objectives. Conduct internal review with colleagues to review products and suggest changes to enhance the quality of the products. Print out maps on plotter based on park request and ship to the programs. Complete additional maps series for all sub-unit parks that are managed by the main Fire Management Zones, roughly 40 additional park units with 6-8 maps per unit generated.​

• Annual Treatment and Wildfire Reporting​

  • Update polygons in Interior Fuels and Post Fire Reporting System (IFPRS) to reflect the parks fuels treatments for their program of work from FY 2025 to FY 2028. Meet with fuels specialist to plan out future activity and verify the accuracy of the polygons. Certify polygons and accurate acreage for wildfires occurring in parks in InForm Inspector, making sure that wildfires larger than 10 acres have an accurate contained polygon. Data QNQC for national and regional datasets at parks for geometry accuracy and attribute validation to maintain datasets as authoritative. Development of fire management plan maps to comply with policy and validate the fire management units, overall transportation, and risk assessments for structure prioritization. Support parks in submitting polygons for monitoring trends in burn severity (MTBS) and analyze data for very high and high burned areas to be added into the national dataset and reporting for the USFWS. Gather treatment and wildfire sizes for each year to update in the parks annual fire report outs.

• Training Development Support​

  • Aid in the development of training materials and exercises for mobile field data collection. Update the ArcGIS Pro template maps and layouts to contain the new features services and updated layout designs. Create Hip Pocket trainings to allow fire staff to teach, learn, and maintain new GIS mobile field data collection skills. Support IMRO FAM training program with webinars and instructor lead trainings virtually and in person to teach permanent and seasonal staff how to use Field Maps and Fire GIS data appropriately. Participate in yearly refresher training courses to maintain qualifications for Red Card status. ​

• Miscellaneous Duties:

  • Assist the IMRO Fire and Aviation Program team with miscellaneous map requests to help meet program objectives. Provide support to other parks in region outside of my assignment fire management groups with colleagues are on leave or fire assignment. Remain on call to assist duty officer if an emergency wildfire occurs and GIS support is needed. Supporting the national GIS Council as co-chair on the Cartography and Web Mapping Subcommittee. Duties for the subcommittee include development and maintenance of a SharePoint site with resources for NPS staff, maintain ArcGIS Experience Builder and Story Map templates that meet Section 508 policies and NPS branding, development of onboarding and offboarding checklists for GIS staff, as well as distribution of new techniques and skills to share with the NPS GIS community on updates to cartography and web mapping.​

• Wildfire Incident Assignments Completed:

  • July 2024 Muir Fire Lead GISS Virtual; 6 days

  • August 2024 Falls and Telephone Fire GISS/Lead GISS in Bums Oregon; 14 days

  • September 2024 Red Rock and Garden Fire GISS in Salmon, Idaho; 14 days

  • October 2024 IRIN Trainee Assignment, supporting 1 - 6 fires each shift, virtual; 14 days​​​

  • July 2025 Dragon Bravo Fire GISS/Lead GISS remotely for Grand Canyon National Park; 13 days

  • October 2025 IRIN Assignment, supporting 1-6 fires each shift, virtual with trainee; 14 days

  • June 2026 IRIN Assignment, supporting 1-6 fires each shift, virtual with trainee; 14 days

  • July 2026 IRIN Assignment, supporting 1-6 fires each shift, virtual with trainee; 14 days

  • August 2026 Shingle, Coyote, and Henry Fire GISS/Lead GISS in Paulina, OR; 16 days

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GIS Specialist at Intermountain Region Geographic Resources Division (May 2022 - April 2024) 1 year and 11 months at 40 hours/week (GS-0150-09-11)

• NPS GIS Internship Program Trainer and Lead Mentor

  • Trained and mentored a cohort of 11 interns onboarded in May FY22, a second cohort of 24 interns onboarded in October FY23, and a third cohort of 10 interns onboarded in June FY23. Review applications and participate in interview panels for hiring interns for both cohorts. Correspond with interns and mentors on onboarding processes and requirements for orientation. Lead and facilitate a five-day field data collection and management training to all interns during first week of internship. Hold two weekly office hours to answer intern questions one on one to support their projects. Hold weekly team meetings to go over all intern projects and host guest speakers on data management, USA Jobs and Federal Resumes, sensitive data, GIS and fire, and other requested topics. Help with procurement of position descriptions and budget information for 24 interns onboarding in October FY23. Work with mentors on required hiring practices and requirements to meet when selecting a candidate. Review over 100 applications for GIS qualifications, education, and background. Correspond with mentors on questions they have regarding hiring and the training each intern will take in late October FY23.

• GIS Mobile Field Data Collection and Management Training ​

  • Update existing training with Field Maps and updated workflows for tabular data collection. Update training materials by creating updated GIS data and presentation materials used throughout the training. Correspond with participants on troubleshooting computers, mobile devices, software, and applications installed and working correctly. Solely facilitate 5 day training to internship cohort of 11 interns, co-lead training for cohort of 24 interns and 10 interns in subsequent cohorts. Co-lead three trainings to NPS staff in Spring FY23 in a virtual training, at park in person training at Bryce Canyon NP, and a regional office training in Lakewood, CO with 10 - 15 participants in each training. Training included integrating topics of GIS in NPS, ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS NPS Portal, Field Maps, Survey 123, data management, and use of GNSS high accuracy receivers. 

• Authoritative Data Management for Regional and National Datasets​

  • Lead for maintaining and updating authoritative national datasets at the regional level in a SDE geodatabase, including points of interest, trails, roads, parking lots, and buildings for 86 park units. Work with federal, state, and local resources to obtain updated geospatial data from a variety of data types and integrate into our data management workflows. 

• Trimble LiDAR Scanning with Trimble SX12 Total Station and R12i Devices

  • Attend trainings on how to use, configure, capture, and management scanning data collected in the field. Travel to Mesa Verde National Park and Navajo National Monument to 3D scan Oak Tree House and Betatikin cliff dwellings for initial scanning to monitor change detection at the millimeter scale. Set up base station over monumentation and connected base station with rover and scanner inside cliff dwelling to create control points and triangulate all scans.

• Cartography and Web Mapping Subcommittee​

  • Revamping the GISC subcommittee as chair for the program to help modernize and develop cartographic products for the entire park service community. Lead monthly meetings to discuss tasks for members to complete, goals, deadlines, and objectives. Work with ESRI staff to troubleshoot common accessibility and user issues experienced by field users of ESRI products. Present work to GIS Council at monthly and annual meetings. ​

• Six Rivers Lightning Complex GISS Trainee Assignment​

  • Two weeks at the Northern California Lightning Complex as a GISS-T working 16 hour days. In charge of creating fire progression map daily, showing change over time of the fire spread and acreage increase per day. For majority of fire was in charge of edits that came in from field crews on updates to fire operations and logistics. Update fire perimeter based on nightly infra-red imagery that we would receive one to three times a day. Update incident action plan maps and map series as the operations expand and change dynamically. Update the briefing map used during morning and night briefings to discuss the fire on a large print scale. Print out a number of posters in different formats and scales for operation staff. Signed off as a GISS at the conclusion of this incident.

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Cartographic Technician at Grand Teton National Park (May 2021 - November 2021) 6 months at 40 hours/week (GS-1371-07)

• Cultural Resource Data Management and Field Data Collection Workflows

  • Planned and implemented data management of all cultural resources GIS data collected and created from park staff and partners/contractors. Added core cultural resources attribute standards to file geodatabase feature classes to reflect necessary information for site locations, field surveys, historic structures, cultural landscapes, archaeology, and miscellaneous data. Applied Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) compliant metadata standards to compile and organize formal metadata digital spatial information. Upload park master data to ArcGIS Portal and create web map for field data collection in Field Maps and Survey123. Taught crew of three archaeologists to use field data collection methods and sync data into Portal to use for report and print map creations in ArcGIS Pro. Assist in any GIS requests for cultural reports, web applications, print maps, and other project requests.

• Project Management Dashboard​

  • Created and implemented spatial data aggregation of all projects currently being completed in the national park under the Project Management division. Uploaded dataset to ArcGIS Online to be displayed in a customized dashboard to monitor project budgets and timelines. Created an automated workflow to streamline updates made from an excel spreadsheet by the Project Management division to then update the attribute values in ArcGIS Online feature service that feeds into the dashboard. Utilized model builder to run spatial analysis when data set is updated from an excel spreadsheet based on project changes. 

• High Accuracy Receiver and Mobile Device Inventory and Management​

  • Set-up, maintained, and distributed mobile data collection devices, Android and iOS, for multi-user field data collection. Equipment included 20+ Android Tab Active 2's, iPad's, Leica GG04's, Trimble Rl 's, Eos Arrow Gold's, Trimble Rl 's, and Trimble Geo 7x's. Trained and supported resources staff on how to properly collect field data with high accuracy workflow.

• Stream Profile Field Data Collection

  • Completed survey on Buffalo Fork/Snake River confluence to monitor river bank erosions and cross sections of river systems. Developed protocol to collect high accuracy spatial data along 30 river cross sections to get elevation values at varying river features, such as banks, bars, and other river features. Trained staff on use of survey grade GPS/GNSS equipment, including Trimbles Geo7x. Supervised field data collection workflow in remote environment with no connectivity to verify and ground truth data collected. Created graphic models of cross sections to show river features and changes in elevations in a profile. Mapped out line features along the banks of river features to use for future monitoring of changes in bank to monitor stability of soils. Findings were reported to project management division to voice concern of potential damage to culverts and roadways based on erosion caused by the river confluence. 

• Glacier Field Mapping

  • Completed glacier monitoring work on 7 out of the 11 glaciers in the national park. Work included hiking to locations pre season and post season to take repeat photos, set up and dismantle time laps devices, and replace air temperature loggers. Additionally on Middle Teton Glacier, I collected elevation points along a 10 meter by 10 meter grid to compare changes from previous years data to model elevation change over time. The data was collected using a Trimble Geo7X to get 3cm high accuracy vertical spatial data to determine changes in the glaciers movement and ice melt. Data was integrated into ArcGIS Pro and modeled to show areas of elevation change and movement of the glacier.

• Dixie Fire as GISS Trainee​​​

  • Spent 16 days on the Dixie fire in California work as a GIS Trainnee for the Resource Advisor's (READs). Set up a mobile map package for READ's to be able to have access to all cultural, natural, and resource data without being able to edit the data but allowing them to see the data and flag off the areas so they would not be impacted by future dozer lines. Additionally set up data collection protocols to gather appropriate resource data that can be shared with firefighters and other partners to protect the resources. Stationed as the GIS contact for the East zone of the fire for one week, in charge of 15 - 20 READs to help them with proper field data collection, editing data, and supporting any additional web and print mapping projects that came up. Compiled a dashboards and a model builder workflow to demonstrate priority repair areas compared to resources that were directly impacted by dozer effects and areas with higher erosion potential requiring priority for repair. ​​

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