Partnerships on the Frontlines: San Juan Islands Conservation District and Envisioning Labs
Update: 2025-09-22
Description
The FireTech Podcast Season 2 (2025) examines emerging dynamics of public-private-people partnerships (4Ps) in building wildfire resilience.
Through four conversations with community partners and technical leads, we examine how diverse partners cultivate trust, accountability, and responsiveness to shared wildfire resilience goals on the frontlines.
In this episode we speak with Kai Hoffman-Krull from the San Juan Islands Conservation District, and Jayden Alp from Envisioning Labs. Together, they’re working to pilot FireLance––a multifaceted sensor technology that provides real-time, continuous monitoring of prescribed fires to detect and prevent lingering hotspots and re-ignitions.
Kai is a certified NRCS Natural Resource Planner and has founded and managed the field restoration program, the Islands Conservation Corps, since 2019. Kai studied forestry and literature at Yale University, where he also received a certificate in Business Plan Development from the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute. He serves as an adjunct faculty member at the Western Washington University College of the Environment, and has coordinated research projects in forestry with the University of Washington, University of Montana, and Oregon State University since 2014. He has co-authored peer-reviewed articles in Biogeochemistry and Agriculture, Ecosystems, and Environment, and has written extensively for publications such as Growing for Market, Civil Eats, New Society Publishing, The Sound Consumer, Rodale Institute, and Stone Pier Press. Kai is also a Washington State Certified Burner and a US Forest Service C-Level Sawyer, and holds on foundational interest in integrating academic, cultural, and field based knowledge.
Jayden Alp is the Communications and Engagement Manager at Envisioning Labs, a Vancouver-based climate innovation and R&D firm. She is the Project Lead for Firelance, the company’s wildfire technology initiative and a finalist in Conservation X Labs’ Fire Grand Challenge. With a background in sustainability and community engagement, Jayden is based in Vernon, BC. Get in touch at info@envisioninglabs.com.
Through four conversations with community partners and technical leads, we examine how diverse partners cultivate trust, accountability, and responsiveness to shared wildfire resilience goals on the frontlines.
In this episode we speak with Kai Hoffman-Krull from the San Juan Islands Conservation District, and Jayden Alp from Envisioning Labs. Together, they’re working to pilot FireLance––a multifaceted sensor technology that provides real-time, continuous monitoring of prescribed fires to detect and prevent lingering hotspots and re-ignitions.
Kai is a certified NRCS Natural Resource Planner and has founded and managed the field restoration program, the Islands Conservation Corps, since 2019. Kai studied forestry and literature at Yale University, where he also received a certificate in Business Plan Development from the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute. He serves as an adjunct faculty member at the Western Washington University College of the Environment, and has coordinated research projects in forestry with the University of Washington, University of Montana, and Oregon State University since 2014. He has co-authored peer-reviewed articles in Biogeochemistry and Agriculture, Ecosystems, and Environment, and has written extensively for publications such as Growing for Market, Civil Eats, New Society Publishing, The Sound Consumer, Rodale Institute, and Stone Pier Press. Kai is also a Washington State Certified Burner and a US Forest Service C-Level Sawyer, and holds on foundational interest in integrating academic, cultural, and field based knowledge.
Jayden Alp is the Communications and Engagement Manager at Envisioning Labs, a Vancouver-based climate innovation and R&D firm. She is the Project Lead for Firelance, the company’s wildfire technology initiative and a finalist in Conservation X Labs’ Fire Grand Challenge. With a background in sustainability and community engagement, Jayden is based in Vernon, BC. Get in touch at info@envisioninglabs.com.
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