One thing to keep in mind is that the Green Mountain National Forest also administers the Finger Lakes National Forest in New York. This is a relatively new national forest, having been previously called the "Hector Land Use Area" at some point. It is federal land and I don't recall the history of how it was transferred to the U.S. Forest Service for administration. It is now administered as a ranger district of the Green Mtn. NF.
A couple of months ago while doing a Google search, I came across a document that I find very helpful here in the west. It is a list, by region, then national forest that lists the administrative coding to all USFS units. This can be helpful as all unit designators (not to be confused with call signs, e.g. "KOC 423) of the USFS originate from this admin coding. This coding is shown on official records such as legal documents, special use permits, inventories, etc., but also forms the basis to what you will hear on the radio. For the Green Mtn. National Forest:
R9, Eastern Region
Forest #20, Green Mountain NF
01 Middlebury Ranger District
02 Manchester Ranger District
03 Hector Ranger District
05 Rochester Ranger District
When numbers are missing, such as 4 in the above list, it means that two or more districts were consolidated sometime in the past. Usually the number of the district that retains the ranger station, or district office for the two districts is the number that carries forward.
It should be noted that when two national forests are administered by one Forest Supervisor's office both forests (in a couple of cases three) all the forests will be in the official name of forest. So the Green Mtn. NF is officially the "Green Mountain and Finger Lakes National Forests."
The number of a district is used in all radio designators. If a forest uses numbers for personnel it will follow this format:
RD# - Function # - Individual Position #.
RD #'s are covered above. Functions are usually timber, range (grazing), recreation, lands (land exchanges, land donations, land purchases, special use permits, easements, rights of way), wildlife, watershed, soils, fire and minerals. The USFS does not have a nationwide standard for the numbers assigned to each function. Some forests, especially in northern Idaho and Montana don't use numbers for any person, just the last name. This has some distinct disadvantages, but that is another topic. Examples:
5-1 is likely the district ranger on t he Rochester Ranger District.
1-6 is the recreation primary staff assistant on the Middlebury Ranger District. 1-6-1 is the first person working for that the recreation primary staff assistant.
2-3 is the fire management officer on the Manchester Ranger District.
On ranger districts with a smaller workload in some functions timber, range and wildlife might be under one primary staff assistant. One function number is used for those positions.
Fire management uses names and numbers. Engines, dozers, water tenders, patrols, divisions (fire management officers), battalion chiefs (on radio "battalion" and are usually assistant fire management officers), captain (supervises engine crews, etc.) and chiefs (fire management officers for entire national forests). So Division 1 would be the fire management officer for the Middlebury Ranger District. Chief 1 would be the fire management officer in the Forest Supervisor's Office.
The USFS does have a national standard for how engines and water tenders are numbered:
First digit - Engine or Water Tender Type, second digit - ranger district number, third digit - individual apparatus number on ranger district. Example:
Engine 631 is a Type 6 on the Manchester Ranger District. If there is a second Type 6 on that ranger district it would be Engine 632. You might hear "Water Tender 251 and that would be a Type 2 tender on the Rochester Ranger District. Consider that the fire workload on the Green Mtn-Finger Lakes is likely low, there are probably no water tenders. If they need one it will be ordered from a local fire department or be under contract. This policy is 6-8 years old so any engines/water tenders that existed at the time are using an older format.
One other system is used in the Forest Service and it is the function name system, but I've only heard it used in California, R5. So you might hear "Ranger 1" (district ranger on district 1), or "Wildlife 31" (works for Wildlife 3, primary wildlife staff assistant on district 3).
I hope this information is helpful for someone to decipher where radio traffic is coming from and for understanding what is heard. I'm considering posting thread for each state that has national forests with all the forest/district numbers and unit designator format.
