Editor 's note : The staff at CNN.com has recently been intrigued by the journalism of VICE , an independent media company and website based in Brooklyn , New York . VBS.TV is Vice 's broadband television network . The reports , which are produced solely by VICE , reflect a transparent approach to journalism , where viewers are taken along on every step of the reporting process . We believe this unique reporting approach is worthy of sharing with our CNN.com readers . Brooklyn , New York ( VBS.TV ) -- Whenever someone at our office bitches about being overworked , our stock response is `` Beats digging ditches . '' While the express intention of the statement is usually not-so-supportive , we think it 's a healthy reminder that at the end of the day , we are all basically professional e-mailers and should be thankful for such . The wildland firefighters who work for Grayback Forestry in Medford , Oregon , have no such motivational adages because their job is actually digging ditches . Around active forest fires . On the sides of mountains . You ca n't even bitch at these guys for having cushy government pensions to fall back on when they get older , because they 're all private-sector contractors . Which means if they are n't out fighting forest fires or doing preventative forestry on unburned woods ( basically extreme landscaping ) , they are losing money . They are the hardest working men in the tree business . Southern Oregon in the summer is a tinderbox . Last year the state recorded some 560 wild fires , the majority of which occurred in the seemingly endless sea of trees running across its bottom from the Cascades to the Pacific Coast . Humidity is next to nonexistent , which is extremely pleasant , but means that even an errant spark from a chainsaw or the proverbial cigarette butt out the car window can set the entire region ablaze . Flying into the Rogue Valley , there is evidence of past wild fires is everywhere : From the miles-long scar of the 2002 `` Biscuit '' fire stretching past the horizon , to the smaller pockets of charred trees crowding the edge of towns to the blue Wilderness-Firefighter-ribbon bumper stickers flying past on the I-5 to the elaborate wildfire and firefighter shrines at a local bar . See more of Oregon Fire Lines at VBS.TV . There are very few places firemen are n't revered as local heroes , but the wilderness firefighters of Oregon go past people simply risking their lives to help others into a crazy superhero realm where their work regularly prevents entire settlements from being destroyed . They 're literally the guardians of their communities . Incidentally , their work is also very beneficial for the forest . We spent a few days following a crew of Grayback forest-firefighters walk up the sides of what most people would consider a cliff , to chop down underbrush in preparation for a controlled burn . This is what they like to call `` project work '' -- the light stuff they do between fires . The work is the hardest and least rewarding work we have ever tried to do . Unless you consider 12-hour-plus shifts of backbreaking labor , virtually zero outside recognition , and occasional accusations of being shills for the timber industry rewards . Which we do not . This piece was originally produced in August 2010 .
VBS follows firefighters as they prepare for a controlled burn . 12-hour shifts involve ditch digging , brush clearing in mountains . VBS crew calls it `` the hardest and least rewarding work we have ever tried to do ''