In a year when the Forest Service stepped up to support response efforts for wildfires, hurricanes, a pandemic and a presidential inauguration, the agency is now rising to a new challenge—a historic effort to vaccinate the nation’s population against COVID-19.

Remarkably, Eastern Region Cooperative Fire Specialist Maris Gabliks has been involved in every one of these efforts. They are all part of his emergency support function leader responsibilities, which he has held for 10 years. Now, as one of the many Forest Service employees called into action by FEMA to assist states with priority vaccination efforts in the Eastern Region, Gabliks is making a difference in yet another way.

With its large population, the Eastern Region requires effective coordination for its vaccination initiative. The region’s footprint includes 20 states (and the District of Columbia) in the Northeast and Midwest, an area that is home to 40% of the U.S. population and several of the nation’s most populous cities.

As of March 25, 49 Forest Service employees, including 22 Eastern Region employees—from fire personnel, to EMTs, to support staff—were assigned to the initiative, and an incident command structure is in place. Their efforts require strategic collaboration with states, tribes, health care providers, private companies and other partners.

As a leader, Gabliks currently supports vaccination efforts in several states, including New York and New Jersey, two states that saw especially devastating outbreaks of COVID-19 last spring. In New York state, Forest Service personnel are assisting at six vaccination sites: two in New York City and one each in Yonkers, Albany, Rochester and Buffalo. Collectively, these six sites have the capacity to vaccinate 10,000 people per day.

Support for vaccination efforts has come from Forest Service staff in every corner of the Eastern Region—from emergency support function performed in a home office in the Milwaukee suburbs, to incident management teams in Illinois and Michigan coordinating the writing of a dozen incident action plans for the two states, to wildland fire EMTs administering vaccines in the upstate New York hubs of Rochester and Buffalo.

According to Gabliks, “The variety of challenges we have supported this year show how universal the national incident management system can be, and how incredibly adaptable the people serving in these roles are. Wildland firefighters across the United States are always prepared for the next challenge and ready to serve the public and protect our nation’s communities. I am proud to be a part of the vaccination effort.”