Team Rubicon (TR), a veteran-led non-profit disaster response organization, is deploying 40 veterans and volunteers to Malden and Pine Creek to help with fire-mitigation ahead of the 2021 fire season.
The group is responding to calls for help from Whitman County officials to remove thousands of dead trees left in the wake of last years devastating fire.
For the first two weeks of June, TR's volunteers will begin falling, chipping and removal of dead trees as they could become fuel for future fires.
TR is setting up a command post near Malden to direct the operation, called "Operation Still Standing." TR said their volunteers come from as far as Alaska.