PUBLICATIONS & WRITINGS
Nearly Five Decades of Writing, Teaching & Advocacy
I've been putting words on paper for a long time.
Long before blogs, websites, social media and digital publishing, there were typewriters, legal pads, cameras, manuscripts, magazine editors, professional proceedings and a whole lot of stamps and envelopes.
Over the years, my writing and photography have covered public lands, natural-resource management, wildfire, wildlife, responsible motorized recreation, volunteer leadership, four-wheeling, hunting, fishing, diving and outdoor adventure.
Some of it was professional. Some educational. Some advocacy. Some was simply telling a good story.
This page is a growing archive of that work.
As I recover older papers, articles, photographs, training materials and publications, I'll continue adding them here. My purpose isn't necessarily to catalog every word I've ever written, but to preserve the work that may still have historical, educational or practical value to someone down the road.
PROFESSIONAL PAPERS & PROCEEDINGS
Some of my earliest published work grew out of my career in forestry, fire protection, wildlife and natural-resource management.
1982 — Master's Thesis
Implementation of Coordinated Resource Management and Planning on the Englebright Wildlife Project. Master's thesis in Environmental Planning, California State University, Sacramento.
The project dealt with Coordinated Resource Management and Planning (CRMP) — bringing agencies, landowners and resource interests together to address resource-management problems across traditional jurisdictional and ownership boundaries.
1983 — The Wildlife Society
Coordinated Resource Management and Planning — Winning Compromises in Resource Competition. Published in the Transactions of the Western Section of The Wildlife Society.
This work continued my exploration of cooperative resource management and the idea that people with different responsibilities and interests could work toward common objectives rather than simply defend their respective turf.
1985 — North American Wildlife & Natural Resources Conference
Coordinated Resource Management and Planning — The California Experience. Co-authored with Kent A. Smith.
This paper further examined California's experience using coordinated planning and interdisciplinary approaches to natural-resource problems.
1987 — Symposium on Wildland Fire 2000
Adapting the Incident Command System to Meeting or Conference Management. Published by the U.S. Forest Service in the proceedings of the Symposium on Wildland Fire 2000, General Technical Report PSW-101.
By then, I was exploring another idea that would follow me throughout much of my career: the organizational principles of the Incident Command System could be adapted to accomplish much more than emergency incident management.
That concept eventually helped lead to my development of the Recreational Incident Command System (RICS) for recreation organizations and volunteer projects.
Other Professional Publications
My earlier publication credits also include work appearing through or associated with:
California Department of Forestry Note #79 — 1980
California Department of Forestry Communique — multiple articles
Proceedings of the Wildlife Society National Conference — 1986
Additional professional and natural-resource publications will be identified and added as I recover them.
RECREATIONAL INCIDENT COMMAND SYSTEM — RICS
In the early 2000s, I developed the Recreational Incident Command System (RICS), adapting and simplifying ICS specifically for volunteer recreation organizations, trail projects, events, meetings, conventions, convoys, and trail rides.
The basic premise is simple:
Everyone should have a job, know what that job entails, and understand how that job relates to everyone else's job.
RICS became an important organizational tool for Friends of the Rubicon (FOTR) as hundreds of volunteers came together to help save, repair and maintain the Rubicon Trail.
I incorporated RICS into my Recreational Leadership Training Course (RLTC) and trained hundreds of volunteers and recreation leaders in its use.
The original training included organizational charts, job descriptions, project-planning techniques, objectives and expectations, communications plans, crew assignments and standardized forms.
[Read: The Recreational Incident Command System (RICS)]
BOOKS
Writing eventually led to books as well.
My published works include:
Welcome to the Mega-Fire Generation
Wildfire, forest management and the conditions contributing to catastrophic wildfire.
Shortcuts to Landuse & Volunteerism
Lessons and practical techniques for organizing, advocating, volunteering and protecting recreational access.
105 Off Road Tips
Practical four-wheeling and backcountry lessons collected from decades on the trail.
Tales From the Ol' River
Stories, memories and adventures from another part of my life outdoors.
Additional books, editions and links will be added to this archive. BOOKS LINK HERE.
SELECTED MAGAZINE & PERIODICAL CREDITS
My outdoor writing, photography and columns have appeared in numerous national, regional and organizational publications over the years.
Publication credits include:
American Hunter
California Game & Fish Magazine
Fur-Fish-Game Magazine
4Wheel Drive & SUV Magazine
Fins & Feathers Magazine
Western Outdoors
In Gear
Blue Ribbon Magazine
Snow Tracks
Mount N' Trail
...along with numerous recreation, conservation, association and organizational periodicals.
At various times my columns and articles were also republished on numerous websites, helping take public-land and responsible-recreation messages well beyond their original audiences.
OTHER PUBLISHED WORK
My old publication records also include several interesting projects that I hope to document more completely as I rebuild this archive.
Among them:
McGraw-Hill — 2002 Science Textbook
California Tourism Publications — 2001 Official Visitor's Guide
Turtle Bay Nature Center — Redding, California
Gilfoyle Report
As I locate the original material and determine the details of my contribution to each, I'll add more information here rather than rely on memory alone.
PUBLIC LANDS & RESPONSIBLE RECREATION
A large portion of my writing has focused on keeping public lands available for responsible recreation.
Subjects have included land-use planning, motorized access, wilderness, roadless areas, Travel Management, environmental regulations, trail management, volunteer stewardship, organizational development and working effectively with government agencies.
Some of those writings are decades old.
Interestingly enough, many of the issues aren't.
As worthwhile older pieces are recovered, I'll republish or link them here.
[Selected Public Lands & Access Articles]
WILDFIRE, FORESTRY & RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
My forestry, natural-resource and fire-service careers generated another long trail of writing.
Subjects have included wildfire suppression, prescribed fire, vegetation and fuels management, forest health, wildlife habitat, coordinated resource planning, post-fire recovery and eventually the conditions that led me to write about the Mega-Fire Generation.
These older writings also provide something increasingly valuable: a historical record of what land managers were discussing and trying to accomplish decades ago.
[Selected Wildfire & Resource Management Articles]
LEADERSHIP, VOLUNTEERISM & TRAINING
I've spent much of my life organizing, training, supervising and working alongside volunteers.
That experience became the Recreational Leadership Training Course (RLTC) and numerous articles, classes and presentations dealing with leadership, planning, organization and volunteer management.
One concept running through that work is my Leadership Triangle:
INSPIRE • MOTIVATE • FACILITATE
Good volunteers don't want their time wasted. Give people a worthwhile mission, a clear job, the tools they need and good leadership, and it's amazing what they can accomplish.
RICS grew directly from that philosophy. My original training described it as the organizational structure for recreation projects, events, meetings, conventions, convoys and trail rides.
OUTDOOR WRITING & PHOTOGRAPHY
Of course, not everything I've written has been about regulations, meetings or organizational charts.
There's been plenty of fun along the way.
Four-wheeling. Jeep adventures. The Rubicon Trail. Hunting. Fishing. Ocean diving. Camping. Backcountry exploring. Outdoor photography. Interesting characters. Mistakes. Lessons learned.
And a whole lot of trail tales.
Photography has always been closely connected to my writing, documenting public lands, recreation, wildlife, people, projects and outdoor adventures along the way.
Those stories and photographs are part of this archive too.
FROM THE ARCHIVES
One reason I'm building this page is simple:
Websites disappear. Magazines disappear. Organizations change. Links die. But history is still history.
Some older articles will be brought forward not because every word remains current, but because they document what was happening, what we knew, what we were fighting for and what we were trying to accomplish at the time.
Occasionally I may read something I wrote 20, 30 or 40 years ago and be tempted to say:
"I told you so."
I'll try to behave.
A GROWING COLLECTION
This is not yet a complete bibliography.
After nearly five decades, I'm still rediscovering papers and articles I'd nearly forgotten I'd written.
So consider this page a work in progress and a doorway into the archives.
I'll continue adding professional papers, magazine articles, books, training materials, outdoor stories, photographs and selected writings as I recover them and bring them into this site.
If you're researching something I've written or taught over the years and can't find it here, please use my Contact page and ask.
There's a pretty good chance it's buried in a file somewhere.
— Del Albright
