Smoke jumper's award

Photo Courtesy Great Basin Smokejumpers

Seth Alberts, a Great Basin smokejumper with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management based in Boise, Idaho, was named the BLM "Al Dunton Smokejumper Leadership Award" recipient for 2019. The award is presented annually to one BLM and one U.S. Forest Service smokejumper who goes beyond the requirements of the job and demonstrates excellence in leadership. Alberts is the son of Deb Rathe of Palisade and the late Kirwin Alberts. He is a 2003 graduate of Wauneta/Palisade High School and a 2007 graduate of Chadron State College, where he majored in criminal justice and minored in wildlife management. It was in Chadron that he trained on a "hotshot crew" of wildland firefighters. He has been a smokejumper for 8 years.