sign in sign up
<<
Home , Aerial firefighting, Smokejumper, Wildfire

Eastern University EWU Digital Commons

Smokejumper and Static Line Magazines Digital Archive

7-1-2020

Smokejumper Magazine, July 2020

National Smokejumper Association

Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.ewu.edu/smokejumper_mag

Part of the Management Commons

Recommended Citation National Smokejumper Association, "Smokejumper Magazine, July 2020" (2020). Smokejumper and Static Line Magazines. 125. https://dc.ewu.edu/smokejumper_mag/125

This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Smokejumper Digital Archive at EWU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Smokejumper and Static Line Magazines by an authorized administrator of EWU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The National Smokejumper Quarterly Magazine Association July 2020 Smokejumper

Canopies Over The Kandik...... 5 In Russia...... 11 Adaptation Strategies To Increasing ...... 18 CONTENTS Message from Message from the President...... 2 Notes from the Ranks...... 4 Part I: Canopies Over the Kandik...... 5 the President A National Wildfire Agency: Part II...... 8 Smokejumpers and Rappelers in Russia...... 11 Managing Properly Is the Key to Preserving These Treasures...... 14 since they work in Aggressive : Why Do We close proximity to one another Avoid It?...... 16 Wildfire Trends in the US and Adaptation during the . My Strategies to Increasing Wildfire...... 18 thoughts and prayers, as well Snapshots from the Past...... 22 as those of NSA Board mem- The Challenge: To Manage or Aggressively Put Them Out...... 23 bers, are with active firefighters It’s To Get Serious About Utilizing Our as they are with all front line Aerial Fleet...... 25 Letters...... 27 workers and first responders Poor Management, Questionable Laws – We’re during this time. Those of us Paying for Them Now...... 29 Citizens Do Not Have The Right To Challenge who no longer work in those Poor Gov’t. Decisions—Accountability by Bob McKean capacities owe much to those a Thing of the Past...... 31 Blast from the Past...... 32 (Missoula ’67) who do! Remembrances of Bob Charley...... 32 President Recent editions of - Off the List...... 34 As you know, the Boise re- jumper have included a num- Families, Friends Get First Look at Site of Fatal 1957 Trimotor Crash...... 36 union scheduled for June of ber of articles related to the Paradise with a Chill...... 39 2020 was postponed until June of as they have Odds and Ends...... 41 Bill Moody Receives Prestigious Award...... 42 of 2021 due to the COVID-19 evolved in recent years es- Lynn and Alberts Selected for Al Dunton . While unfortunate, pecially given the increasing Leadership Award...... 42 Sounding Off from the Editor...... 43 postponement was clearly a frequency of large, destructive The Indian War of Idaho, , and ....44 prudent course of action given mega fires both in the United Recording Smokejumper History...... 46 the circumstances. States and around the world. As I write this, we are in the In the April 2020, issue, Mi- third week of a “stay-in-place” chael T. article, “Wild- order in . Oregon has fires and Global Warming: A been reasonably fortunate thus Continuous Cycle of Destruc- far ranking well into the bot- tion,” is one example. In my tom 1/3 of states in numbers “Message from the President” Smokejumper, Issue No. 109, July 2020 ISSN 1532-6160 of infections and considerably in that same issue, I discussed Smokejumper is published quarterly by: lower in per capita rates of information I had found dur- The National Smokejumper Association infection. Some good fortune ing my informal research of c/o 10 Judy Lane Chico, CA 95926 allowed Portland (and Or- the topic. The opinions of the writers are their own and do egon) to avoid the fate of Se- This issue of Smokejumper not necessarily reflect those of the NSA. Permis- sion to reproduce Smokejumper in any manner attle. And, good local and state includes several additional must first be obtained in writing. leadership in shutting the state articles related in one way or NSA Website: http://www.smokejumpers.com down early was a key factor as another to the current wildfire Managing Editor: Chuck Sheley well. Unfortunately, medical situation: Associate Editor: Ed Booth professionals and scientists tell “Aggressive Forest Manage- Editing: K. G. Sheley us we all have a long road in ment: Why Do We Avoid It?” Photo Editor: Johnny Kirkley front of us with respect to this by Michael T. Rains Illustrators: Dan Veenendaal, and Eric Rajala pandemic. I wish for all who “Managing Forests Prop- Layout/Printing: Larry S. Jackson, Heidelberg Graphics, www.HeidelbergGraphics.com read this good health. erly Is The Key To Preserving Front cover: practice jump—composite The pandemic is also cause These Treasures,” by Fred Ebel (Courtesy Mike McMillan) for concern for the health of (MSO-57)

Check the NSA website 2 National Smokejumper Reunion “Wildfire Trends In The US and Adaptation ary Derry brothers passed away in March. He Strategies To Increasing Wildfire,” Tania Schoen- fought in the Marshall Islands during WWII and nagel, PhD, University of , Boulder was a in Douglas County, Washington, I am pleased that individuals with expertise are for 30 years. I remember visiting with Bob at the willing to share their thoughts about this impor- Missoula reunion in 2015 and was amazed by tant topic. As I have written before, Smokejumper how fit he was! is an excellent forum where informed opinions Ed Lynn (MSO-95) and Seth Alberts (NIFC- ought to be aired. Clearly, opinions will vary, but 12) were selected as this year’s winners of the Al that is a good thing! No one has all the answers to Dutton Leadership Award. Congratulations go to the complex issues surrounding change, Seth. Ed’s award has been granted posthumously. fires, wildland and forest management, initial More will be written about these fine leaders in attack, and related topics. It is important for you, the near future. our readers, to learn these complex issues from the perspective of those with expertise. Consequently, Bill Derr (Associate Member and NSA Board again I encourage others with professional ex- member) was published in Wildfire News Today. pertise on these to consider weighing in. His article: “Let’s Get Serious About How to Use If you are thinking of doing so, please contact Our Aerial Fire Fighting Fleet.” Chuck Sheley or me. I want to offer my thanks to Smokejumper edi- tor Chuck Sheley (CJ-59). His dedication to the Some Odds and Ends NSA and tireless work on behalf of the NSA are Bob Derry (MSO-43), the last of the legend- remarkable!

NSA Members—Save National Smokejumper This Information Reunion Please contact the following directly if you June 4–6, 2021 have business or questions: Boise, Idaho Smokejumper magazine Articles, obits, membership, change of address Chuck Sheley 530-893-0436 [email protected] 10 Judy Ln. Chico, CA 95926 All else NSA President Bob McKean 503-762-6337 [email protected] 14013 SE Eastridge St Portland OR 97236

Smokejumper base abbreviations: Anchorage...... ANC Grangeville...... GAC Redding...... RDD Boise...... NIFC Idaho City...... IDC Redmond...... RAC Cave Junction...... CJ La Grande...... LGD West Yellowstone.WYS Fairbanks...... FBX McCall...... MYC Whitehorse Yukon.YXY Fort St. John...... YXJ Missoula...... MSO Winthrop...... NCSB Sheltering In (Courtesy Mike Bina)

June 4-6, 2021 in Boise 3 www.smokejumpers.com Notes from the Ranks

educational hiring boosts (for 1039s, two dozen 13/13s, and recent graduates and as student several PFTs. In the BLM, internships) allow the agen- there are a little over a dozen cies to hire and retain more PFTs, ten dozen 13/13s, and a qualified individuals. The cost dozen 1039s (including rook- benefit of this is great: Training ies). a smokejumper (around $25k The main benefits of a per- per rookie) is a risk should manent or permanent seasonal the jumper leave for a more position are and lucrative district management retirement benefits. A major- Pat McGunagle position after just a season or ity of seasonal wildland fire- (West Yellowstone ’19) two. The BLM leads the way fighters take unemployment in offering far more permanent benefits in the offseason. This In my continuing dialogue positions to its rookies after may seem out of character, with the esteemed members of their first season. The more but the job is unique, and our the NSA, I’ve received ques- cash strapped USFS has more risk exposure is also unique. tions on changes in equipment, seasonal temporary employees. The particulate discus- rules, firefighting strategy, crew A 1039 temporary sea- sion is just now filtering down composition, pay scales—you sonal may work 1,039 hours through all ranks of fire. Ineli- name it. Well, it’s the same fire (excluding overtime) for the gible for health care but with triangle as ever, but several ele- appointment before being the greatest exposure of all ments are indeed different. terminated. Usually a “going wildland firefighters, the low As an example, many for it” hotshot season includes guys on the totem poles, those current jumpers are making around 1100 hours of over- 1039s and budding 13/13s, a career out of smokejump- time, and by the time October should figure a way to prepare ing. Instead of the summer rolls around, the crew is sitting for potential health effects due job to pay for school, or a at close to 900 hours on the to . Direction brief intermission between 1039 balance. Jumpers are from leadership is often “take careers, the hiring and reten- often shy of this number. what you are owed and invest tion mechanisms of the USFS/ A “seasonal permanent” it because you’ll need it later.” BLM often encourage longer position guarantees either 13 A great investment vehicle forays into this world of fire. pay periods of work and up to for this is the Health Savings It requires usually around five 13 pay periods off (referred to Account (HSA). These allow of hotshotting and as a 13/13) or 18 pay periods for up to $3500 to be invested other fire seasonal work to be of work and 8 pay periods annually (as aggressively as you a candidate for Rookie Train- off (the 18/8). A permanent want) in conjunction with a ing. That much time in grade full-time (PFT) position works High Deductible Healthcare makes it seem not too difficult year-round. Smokejumper Plan. For a low-risk, mid- to stay in the fire world for the bases have a handful of PFTs, twenties, excellent-fitness long haul. a majority of 13/13s, and a wildland , an HDHP Further, apprentice pro- handful of 1039s (more in is a great alternative to costly grams (essentially fast tracking the USFS than BLM). At government health care plans. to permanent positions) and WYS there are around a dozen As we smokejumpers like to

Check the NSA website 4 National Smokejumper Reunion be low maintenance, paying parachute piloting are still a government inertia. into a program like this now sweet something to share just An important change is can let us lower our burden on between friends, because no the emphasis of talking about taxpayers later. one would understand you in mental health. Wildland Usually the unemploy- “the real world” anyhow. But firefighters have dispropor- ment benefits are about $3500 in terms of fire management, I tionately high suicide rates, before taxes. The HSA funds see it to be an easy disconnect though exact numbers are can be withdrawn, similar to from those “old ways where we difficult to find. Many of an IRA after age 65. There is used to kill so many firefight- our ranks are veterans from likely a more perfect solution ers.” With , air attack, the wars in the Middle East. out there, but this is hard to drones, and -seeking meat Stress events require us to be beat for a temporary seasonal missiles (smokejumpers), why accountable to each other, firefighter with a strong back should we listen to those old and this discussion is often and good knees. guys in the back? uncomfortable but necessary. So, what about those “per- Well, yes, we did kill more The more of this burden we manent seasonal” positions? firefighters back then, but take off our shoulders before Does this let us retain knowl- we also were able to solve going home to loved ones, the edgeable individuals, thus problems at their lowest level less stressful that most impor- helping train the new guys without too much red tape. tant part of our will be. better? Does this make us fall The fireline officers of today As more jumpers become ca- into robotic rhythms, and thus are able to defer risk and ac- reer jumpers, this work— squelch innovation? Maybe. countability throughout the balance—becomes a career The discussions in this maga- immense body of an incident task as well. zine help keep us thinking and management team, potentially If you are interested in an reflecting on ways to improve. missing the opportunity to aspect of modern smokejump- The fires don’t really make a hard, concrete decision ing that I can perhaps address change. The old ways are tried that may define their career. or seek out, please email me at and true, and the unseen Fire is the great equalizer to [email protected] acts of sawyering heroics and just about everything besides Thanks!

Part I: Canopies Over The Kandik by Robert C. Betts (Redding ’64)

Author’s note: This article is being republished in the “Off the List” section of the October 2019 issue of tribute to David R. Pierce (RAC-65), 43 years after it Smokejumper. originally appeared in Alaska magazine. It was largely due to Dave that the Kandik River jump happened. ave Pierce pulled back from the open Dave passed away June 1, 2019, at age 75 after a door of the jump ship and I moved into long career as a smokejumper for both the U.S. Forest Dposition, sitting with my feet sticking Service and the Bureau of Land Management, begin- out in the slipstream. When we were directly ning in Redmond in 1965 and continuing through over the drop zone, Dave slapped me hard on the his years as an Alaska jumper during 1971-80. From shoulder; I leaned forward and pulled myself out 1980 until his retirement in 1998 Dave worked at the the door. U.S. Forest Service Technology & Development Center I felt the sudden shock of my opening (MTDC) in Missoula. He was an inspiration to us all. and looked up to check the parachute. Below, in a A more complete account of Dave’s career appears in clearing about 100 yards from the Kandik River,

June 4–6, 2021 in Boise 5 www.smokejumpers.com I could see the white cargo chutes where the three kayaks had landed. Jon Klingel’s (CJ-65) orange-and- white canopy was al- ready on the ground between the kayaks and the river. To the southwest, the Kandik stretched away and disappeared in the mountains. I had a few seconds to enjoy the exhilaration of floating silently 1,000 feet above the river before having to concentrate on steer- Bob Betts, Dave Pierce and Jon Klingel just prior to departing Fairbanks for the 1974 Kandik River ing toward the jump jump. (Courtesy of J. Klingel) spot. I’d made more than 50 parachute jumps in Alaska for earlier in Fairbanks at the BLM smokejumper base the BLM, but this jump was different – there was at Fort Wainwright when Dave, Jon and I began no fire and no BLM to pull us out. thinking about the feasibility of airdropping kay- Sixty seconds after leaving the I hit aks to an otherwise-inaccessible river, jumping in the . I sat up, released the parachute from and kayaking out. my harness and let the wind take the canopy and All of us were experienced Alaska smokejump- deposit it neatly on the ground. ers, but the problems involved with dropping Checking the nearest kayak, I found it undam- kayaks were something new. We would be on aged. By the time I’d looked it over, Jon came up leave from the BLM and would not have the use and reported that the other kayaks were undam- of BLM aircraft or parachutes. Pulling the trip aged. off would depend on finding parachutes, kayaks I heard the plane overhead and looked up. Our and a plane large enough to carry us for a price we jump ship had gained altitude for Dave’s jump could afford. and was over the drop zone at 4,000 feet. Eventually we focused on the Kandik River Jon and I had both made static-line jumps but with its headwaters in the Yukon Territory and its Dave, an experienced skydiver, would execute a confluence with the Yukon about halfway between delayed jump and pull. We watched him exit and Eagle and Circle City. As far as we could deter- drop away from the plane. He stabilized his body mine, due to its inaccessibility, the upper Kandik position and, after a 10-second delay, pulled the had never been floated. rip cord. Finding parachutes turned out to be easy The tiny pilot chute pulled the main canopy because of Dave’s association with the Fairbanks out and suddenly he was hanging above us. The Skydiving Club. We were able to borrow all the last rays of the sun reflected off his canopy giv- necessary equipment in return for Dave doing ing it an orange glow in the twilight. By the time repair work for the club. Dave was on the ground, we had just enough The aircraft was a different story. It looked like daylight left to haul our gear to a stand of white the expense would be prohibitive. We required on the riverbank and set up camp. an aircraft with a removable jump door that was The trip had started taking form a month big enough to take us all in one trip. A DC-3 was

Check the NSA website 6 National Smokejumper Reunion going to cost about $240 an hour and we needed It was late afternoon in early September 1974 four hours of flying time. Our spirits sank; we just when we lifted off the runway in Fairbanks. couldn’t put that much money into the trip. George “Pappy” Smith (IDC-62) accompanied us We were sitting in the BLM dinning hall one as loadmaster. late August afternoon. Lunch hour was almost We banked and headed southeast toward over and among the few people still eating was the confluence of the Kandik and Yukon riv- Bob Schlaefli, a pilot and private aircraft contrac- ers. When we reached the mouth of the Kandik, tor for BLM. Bob dropped the B-23 to 1,000 feet and flew Dave went over and began outlining our plans upstream. Dave, Jon and I sat on our half-dozen and then asked about the possibility of renting boxes of gear and followed the flight path using his B-23, which was not under current contract a sectional chart, keeping our faces glued to the to BLM. Bob smiled, took another gulp of coffee, windows. From 1,000 feet the Kandik looked and said, “Sure. Why not?” good – plenty of stretches of fast , a few Dave’s eye’s widened. “How much do you want rocks to watch out for, but no apparent major an hour for it?” he asked. obstacles. “Aw, we’ll take you out there and drop you off The Kandik narrowed into a deep gorge, then for the fun of it,” Bob replied. widened again upstream. A few miles above this We couldn’t believe it. The sleek red, yellow canyon, known as Johnson Gorge, we spotted a and white B-23 was already set up as a para-cargo clearing next to the river and made the decision to and jump ship, in anticipation of a BLM contract jump. that had not come through. It was just what we The drop had been perfect and now we were needed. sitting on the bank of the Kandik with colored There were still some problems, however. bands of northern lights turning the night into To our knowledge, kayaks had never been air- a celestial light show. It had been a long day and dropped, nor had any of us jumped from a B-23. as the burned to glowing and the In addition, the navigability of the upper Kan- faded, we turned in for a peaceful night’s dik was unknown. But Bob and his co-pilot Jim sleep. Dunlap were experienced smokejumper pilots; The smell of fresh coffee and bacon drifted going out the door of the B-23 wouldn’t be much toward my sleeping bag. Jon was up first and had different than a DC-3 exit. wasted no time getting the coffee pot on. It didn’t Getting the kayaks rigged to be airdropped was take long for the smell of Jon’s coffee to get Dave a little tricky. We would be using Klepper folding and me out of our sleeping bags. kayaks. Each consisted of two packages – a long We began assembling the kayaks after break- one, about the size of a golf club bag containing fast. It had been a last-minute scramble round- the frame, and a smaller bag contained the rub- ing up the three Kleppers. Jon already owned berized covering. These we placed inside sturdy a double. Dave had found a used Klepper for a cardboard boxes and then stuffed sleeping bags good price, but it was almost the deadline and I and clothing around them as padding before still did not have a kayak. rigging them as para-cargo, using 24-foot cargo In desperation I called John Culbertson (FBX- chutes. 69), an Alaska jumper temporarily detailed to There was always a chance a cargo chute would . I came right to the point and asked if malfunction or that a kayak might be damaged he’d let me borrow the single-seat Klepper he’d left on impact, so we knew we had to drop the kayaks in Fairbanks. first. If we lost one on the drop, one of us would “Bob, you know you can borrow the kayak,” have to stay behind. John replied. Finally, there was the river. We would only be “Well, John, I want to drop it out of a plane up able to look it over once as we flew upstream. The on the Kandik,” I told him. There was a moment’s final decision whether or not to jump wouldn’t silence; then John said, “Oh, well – I guess you come until we were over the jump spot. know what you’re doing.”

June 4-6, 2021 in Boise 7 www.smokejumpers.com A National Wildfire Agency: Part II By J. Jay Jones (Associate)

The Core Elements ahead and conclud- Once upon a time when I was working at the ing that the real Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch Center, sticky wicket in this one of our preseason meetings was attended by a whole idea is snags on senior official. An opportunity came about in the operating facilities. meeting for me to ask him about efforts toward How are you going to centralizing wildfire into a single agency. I didn’t separate the firefight- really expect an answer and I was surprised when ers from their parent I actually got one. There had been efforts to create agencies and remain one, I was told, but these efforts had crashed on operational if you the shores of bureaucratic inertia. It didn’t appear haven’t accounted for that there was enough support from a sufficient operation facilities? number of necessary people to push the idea When you come right J. Jay Jones through. For myself, I hold out hope that it is dif- down on that incon- ficult to kill a good idea. venient point, it becomes a real rusty nail in the A National Wildfire Agency (NWA) may not backside, doesn’t it? be able organize itself overnight, but it will need Take, for instance, the case of rolling stock— direct command of several essential elements. The fire engines, water tenders, et cetera. Engines and short list would be the national aviation resourc- water tenders represent one of the largest percent- es, the incident management teams, the com- ages of capital expenditure in organized wildfire’s munication systems of personnel and telecomm budget. It’s not feasible to air rolling networks, and logistic support systems of caches stock, so you need a really comprehensive plan and warehousing facilities. Most of these elements in organizing their distribution and supporting would continue to operate out of their current their operations.In fact, it wouldn’t be cost effec- duty stations as the NWA assumed operational tive to incorporate these elements into the NWA control and command during its early, formative until these tactical units have a place to go—an stages. operational facility to base them from. What does During its initial formation, the NWA would this mean? It means consolidating rolling stock need to assume control of the Smokejumper into NWA might be ill advised initially. Why? Program, the Helicopter Attack Program, and the Because, currently most of the operating facilities Airtanker Program—but in essence, all the tactical these units are based out of are often employed aviation elements. Naturally, you can’t accomplish as shared facilities—the parent agency might still this without the associated ground support ele- need to use them. Engine bays, oftentimes, aren’t ments: technical specialists, contract specialists, just used by fire personnel. facility managers, and ever-present logistics bean Facilities for aviation resources are another counters. matter. For instance, before I left Las Vegas, Ne- While Hotshot crews are not, strictly speaking, vada, dispatch and were combined into aviation resources, they remain national resources a joint facility at the North Las Vegas Airport. and are highly mobile because of the ease of While at Minden, , the dispatch, helitack, employing air transport. It would be logical to and airtanker operations were at a joint facility. consolidate them into the NWA in the early stages Again, at Prineville, Oregon, dispatch was next of its formation. door to helitack at the airport. As anyone can tell I’m sure some readers are already thinking you, it’s a very convenient arrangement to have

Check the NSA website 8 National Smokejumper Reunion aviation resources so close to dispatch. Joint-use, Okay, I admit I have issues with lawyers and multi-purpose facilities are a good idea; they’ll accountants trying to run operations. But a facilitate the consolidation of the NWA into a strategy to deflect litigation needs to be developed functioning agency. that satisfies elected officials that the are in Just as I don’t see the NWA as necessarily place to self-regulate the NWA. A cadre of Wild- needing to assume immediate control of rolling fire Incident Commanders could accomplish two stock during the initial startup phase, I don’t see objectives. The first would be to reorganize the the need to organize a consolidation proposal industry to be self-policing and to deflect, or at that requires a set deadline either. The key is to least blunt, reactionary attacks from uninformed appropriate key elements into the NWA that can sources determined to interfere with the process contribute the most, the fastest. Other tactical of investigating an incident that needs a referee. resources that lag behind the initial operational Securing complete control of the NWA in-house phase can be assimilated as the initial organization review is essential to alleviate the political aban- expands and acquires the capabilities to expand donment of agency personnel to scapegoat litiga- further. What matters is having the political will tion. The second objective is to bind the manage- to chase this dream. ment teams into a more tight-knit community That issue brings us, quite naturally, into a through training and advancement incentives. discussion of another essential component of the Organizing management teams into brigades at NWA: the wildfire management teams. Realign- the GACC level would maintain a clear unity ing these teams into a cadre of Wildfire Incident on policy and help ensure the standardization of Commanders won’t be painless. This cadre needs training. to form a Council for Professional Standards The top slots in senior management should comprised of in-house selection, promotion, and be time-limited billets. A rota of billets allows review boards for the management teams. The personnel rising through the ranks to have con- teams should be assigned to a Geographic Area tinuing opportunities for advancement. It also Coordination Center and head up the training for prevents entrenched interests from maintaining that GACC. The Type 1 teams, being the senior a stranglehold on the organization and limits the management teams, should train, evaluate, and terminal effects of nepotism. supervise not only the Type 2 teams, but all the Part of a management team’s authority as available Type 3 incident commanders within that command area leaders comes from being visible. GACC’s sphere of responsibility. It might be good They should be faculty in the training regimen so to develop Type 3 short teams as another layer of that subordinates can get the straight scoop right training and evaluation. In essence, every GACC from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. While I have would form a stand-alone fire brigade. nothing against technology, per se, communicat- There’s a lot to be said about bringing an ing face-to-face is far superior to using emails, entire company of people along together. When phone calls, and web-based training modules in I worked on the Plumas National Forest, all six evaluating people’s competency, capabilities, and districts would have the district hand crews, the psychological maturity. It’s negligent, in fact, to engine companies, the , and helitack avoid personal contact for evaluation purposes crew train together for a weekend. By the time since the question usually arises: “Who signed off the training were completed, the on this idiot, anyway?” Face-to-face encounters entire corps of fire fighters for the forest would ensure that promotions, demotions, and reviews know who they were working with, and it went a aren’t just test score related, but have input from long way in eliminating miscommunications and personal insights. raising unit standards. Management teams should Another concern requires a little backstory. do the same. It would make for a more close-knit My editor sent me a couple of files onWork Force organization. In-house management of potential Capacity of the US Forest Service that brought up problem areas in pre-season training can go a long some interesting points. In the subsection of Syn- ways in mitigating threats of litigation. opsis of Interviews from Nine Regions, a few points

June 4-6, 2021 in Boise 9 www.smokejumpers.com of concern caught my attention. I paraphrase: tions. Many of my colleagues have argued that it’s worse than that; that it’s now necessary to staff fire • Increasingly, the “process” appears more crews year-round in many locations and others important than meeting goals. speculate that there’s a high possibility that global • Centralized services unresponsive to field warming is increasing the occurrence of extreme personnel. fire behavior. Under this scenario, incident com- • Responding to national data requests manders facing increasing risks are also facing trumping fieldwork. increasing litigation. Political pundits—seeking to An example out of my past is the consolida- further political agendas—don’t care that litigation tion of personnel management in a centralized is bad for wildfire command or bad for firefighter facility in Albuquerque. One winter I stopped in morale. They are willing to sacrifice long-term na- at the Siuslaw N.F. Supervisor’s Office in Corval- tional interests for a short-term tactical advantage lis, Oregon, looking for work and was hoping to in achieving a political goal of a personal nature. get a leg up on the coming fire season. I couldn’t Firefighters need to close ranks to face these chal- get any information because the personnel office lenges. was gone. My contact there lamented that with What makes this litigation so disheartening is the local personnel office gone, quick answers that it’s inherently unethical. Our firefighters, who didn’t happen, phone queries took too long, and risk their lives trying to save other people’s lives you often didn’t get the right person or the right and their property, are being sued for attempt- answer to personnel issues. Other contacts at the ing to do the right thing. This should boggle your rat warren in the Albuquerque facility complained mind. that morale was down for the same reason. This Firefighters are combating the forces of na- reminds me of why the military opted for creat- ture and they don’t have Godlike powers over the ing organic units of close fire support for combat or the fickle caprices of the fire demon. If units—e.g., Marine pilots flying close support an agency has the mandate and duty to perform aircraft for Marine assault groups. In an emer- a service for its country, the country should make gency, you like to know you can depend on your the effort to stand by its agency support. So, centralization might look good on In the face of this, I believe that a National paper, but is often another matter where the rub- Wildfire Agency should assume the responsibil- ber meets the road. ity for investigating its own wildfires with its This is why good communications and ef- own in-house audit system. This would require a ficient logistics are so important to firefighters. Type I team from a different GACC with special- Management personnel should all have their ticket ized training to perform the audit investigation punched in a dispatch center, a fire cache, or a under the glare of public scrutiny and using full warehouse so they not only understand the pro- transparency. This won’t be a simple task, but it is cesses, but get to know the personnel who work preferable to the self-destruction of the wildfire in- there, as well. Competent logistics is what makes dustry by rampant litigation that will pit members operations so efficient. Professional development of Type 1 and Type 2 teams against each other requires cross-training. Experience in communica- in the courtroom. That path leads toward defeat tions and logistics will help craft good firefighters in detail. An audit system, in combination with into greater incident commanders. a Professional Review Board, should effectively self-police the NWA and help defend it against its Facing The Judge detractors. Unlike some political pundits who like to stick their head in the sand, I believe global warming My next article will dive into the two major compo- is an established fact and that it’s responsible for nents of NWA: the divisions of telecommunications and our extended fire seasons. I’ve watched fire seasons logistics. This includes personnel, facilities, capitalized grow over the last twenty-five years from ninety equipment, and a discussion of their contributions and days to one hundred eighty days at many fire sta- drawbacks.

Check the NSA website 10 National Smokejumper Reunion SMOKEJUMPERS AND RAPPELERS IN RUSSIA by Andrey Eritsov – translated by Bruce Ford (Missoula ’75)

Editor’s note: Andrey Eritsov is the deputy director of the Aerial Forest plied to the Osaviakhima avia- Fire Center of the Federal Agency of Russia. He has served there tion club to undergo parachute since 1991 as a smokejumper (making 73 fire jumps, including three fire training and completed several jumps made in Alaska, , and Arizona in 2001); as senior instructor jumps. of a smokejumper base, as aerial fire manager and aerial subdivision chief It must be said that it was for the West Ural Regional Aerial Fire Center; and as deputy director of the not easy for him to bring this Aerial Forest Fire Center of Russia. Eritsov is a skydiver and has more than idea to fruition, as many were 1,600 parachute jumps. opposed to the proposal. In- deed, parachuting was still new- He worked for the World Bank project “Sustainable Development in For- ly developing, and this would estry” as a fire management consultant for pilot regions in Russia. require not just jumping into Eritsov participated in initial attack and extended firefighting operations in the fields, but to fires burning in U.S. with both smokejumpers and hotshot crews, under exchange programs between forests. the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and the Federal Forestry Nevertheless, the leadership Agency of Russia. of the institute agreed to an The use of smokejumpers in in the establishment of forest experiment. Mokeev and his Russia stemmed from parachut- fire aviation was an academic colleague, I.Z. Levin, jumped ing developments in the early from the Leningrad Forestry two small forest fires in the 20th century. July 7, 1931, is Institute, Giorgy Mokeev. He Nizhnegorodsk area June 19, considered the starting date for immediately proposed using 1936. For these jumps, they had aerial forest in parachutes to quickly deliver to climb out and stand on the this, the most-forested country firefighters to new fires. wing of the PO-2. on . At that time, Mokeev had The experiment showed that On that day, the first experi- no parachuting experience. To the idea of using parachutes in mental flight was undertaken in bring his idea to life, he ap- suppressing remotely accessible a small, two-seat PO-2 airplane from the Uren aerodrome in the Nizhnegorodsky region. At that time, a group including forestry specialists, fire scientists, pilots, and technical personnel had been sent there with the goal of testing the use of aviation for detecting forest fires in remote regions. From July 7 through Aug. 14, the PO-2 flew 40 hours and detected 14 fires. Thereafter, bases for aerial forest patrol were established in many regions of the young Soviet Union. One active participant in these experimental flights and Andrey Eritsov

June 4–6, 2021 in Boise 11 www.smokejumpers.com Jumpers training to jump from the second seat via the wing, and directly from the third seat. Northern Airbase, Archangel, 1950. (Cour- tesy Valery Korotkov) forest fires, which many had years directed all work on up- ment of in the 1950s considered a crazy fantasy, was dating fire suppression technol- led to the new profession of indeed viable in practice. ogy employing smokejumpers. rappelers, who arrived at fires by Mokeev trained as a jump The experiments pleased the helicopter and used ropes and instructor and started to train leadership of the institute, and descent devices to reach areas the first parachuting firefighters, smokejumper bases were subse- lacking suitable nearby land- or as they came to be termed, quently set up all over. In those ing areas. Smokejumpers also “avia-firemen.” years, the PD-6 and D-1 para- trained as heli-rappelers and For the first course in 1936 chute systems were adopted. It thus became versatile specialists, at Krasnoborsk, Mokeev pre- was necessary to pick a suitable while rappelers were transported pared 18 people, including two jump spot and precise exit point only by helicopter. women, M.G. Tykina and K.F. from the aircraft. Collectively, they came to be Obrucheva (later Muzhins- Due to the lack of a wide- called the parachute-rappeller kaya). In the forests of Archan- spread radio-communication fire service, or PDPS. They par- gelsk and Vologodsky regions, network, jumpers were also ticipated in putting out more smokejumpers participated dropped to nearby populated than 70 percent of forest fires in fighting 82 fires in 1937, areas for mobilization of local each year, and by the 1980s extinguishing a total area of ap- forest workers and citizens to numbered more than 8,000 proximately 37,000 acres and fight fires. The jumpers, know- members. completing 425 jumps. ing the location and direction With the development of Soon, the All-Union Forest to the fires, would arrive with new technology, the PDPS ad- Aviation Trust was established. considerable resources. opted new parachutes and rap- Mokeev headed the trust’s labo- The number of smokejump- pel descent devices. For many ratory and for more than 10 ers increased steadily. Develop- years, a drum-type descent de-

Check the NSA website 12 National Smokejumper Reunion vice was used. lowed very accurate jump spot been two fatalities resulting The SU-R post-type rappel landings. The Lesnik-2 was from drogue-in-tow malfunc- descent device was adopted in used with a 3-5 Series-4 chest- tions, as well as other serious 1978, and is used in many re- mounted round reserve. jump-related injuries. Conse- gions even now. The Lesnik-2 was replaced quently, the Aerial Fire Pro- However, trials were con- in the 2000s with the nine-cell tection Service is constantly ducted in 2015 with a com- ram-air Lesnik-3, which ex- studying new types of parachute pletely new descent device, ceeded previous systems in wing systems. the Kashevnika KSK. In many characteristics and gave greater Trials are being conducted aspects, including safety, it ex- horizontal speed of 24.6 mph, with the newly purchased, new ceeded performance of the SU- as compared to 20 mph for the generation 310-square-foot, R, and is now being widely Lesnik-2. seven-cell ram-air Combat para- adopted. However, when jumping chute system which is set up Non-steerable parachutes into small spots in low-wind for static line deployment. The had been replaced by the 1950s conditions, it retains high for- Alpha-Combat is packed in with the steering-slotted, ward speed and several land- a backpack container with a 743-square-foot PD-47, the ing injuries have resulted. The ZOOM-190 reserve. 753-square-foot PTL-72, and Lesnik-3 system utilizes identi- Study of other parachute sys- the 624-square-foot Lesnik. cal canopies for the main and tems is ongoing. In the mean- The Lesnik-2, a 285-square- reserve, packed in the same time, new jumpers continue foot, seven-cell ram-air chute, backpack container. to train on the round PTL-72 appeared in the 1980s and al- In recent years, there have system.

Jumper preparing to jump from wing of Po-2. Northern Airbase, Archangel, 1950. (Courtesy Valery Korotkov)

June 4–6, 2021 in Boise 13 www.smokejumpers.com Managing Forests Properly Is The Key To Preserving These Treasures by Fred Ebel (Missoula ’57)

have reflected on the challenge made by Bob Service activities. McKean (MSO-67) in the July 2019 issue Check out the four board members of the Iof Smokejumper to address the questions of Alliance. You will find an Arizona congressman, forest management and the responsibility of those former President Jimmy Carter and two Holly- involved. Here are some of my thoughts. entertainers. Do you really think they are First, is outside of my expertise. knowledgeable or even interested in the project on However, anthropogenic global warming is a high- the Payette Forest? ly politicized and scientifically complex issue that How do we get forest management back in still requires debate. Frankly, given the strategic the forest? It will take executive, legislative, and importance of our nation’s sector, I suspect judicial action plus agency buy-in. any mitigation efforts will have wide-reaching This effort starts at the very top of our govern- economic and political ramifications. ment. The president and Congress must revise leg- A salient point: A well-managed forest can help islation which thwarts action on the ground. They mitigate effects of global warming, particularly in must, through legislation, encourage forest man- fast-growing stands. agement and put sideboards on the lawsuit-and- To improve forest resilience, reducing fire in- appeal process. These changes must give greater tensity and the rate of spread is easy to apply and weight to the local communities most affected by achieve in practice. It means actively managing a forest management. forest through , and prescribed The key person in this scenario is the Chief of fire. However, this is difficult to implement on the Forest Service. The Chief must give the presi- national forest lands. Public and legislative efforts dent and Congress a cogent rationale for changing default to nature’s way and thwart any activities and upgrading regulations. The Chief must also that would promote resilience and healthy convince Forest Service employees of the efficacy stands on the national forest. of forest management to improve forest health Land allocations limit options on national and protection. forest land. “Wilderness” and “Roadless” designa- This will not be an easy task given the current tions crimp on national forests and culture of the Forest Service and past decisions. create a dilemma when controlling wildfire. The consent decree changed the Forest Service in- Complex forest-planning rules limit manag- ternally by advancing categories of people without ers in pursuing forest-management options. The on-the-ground experience. agency managers have been conditioned to steer Another significant decision was the elimina- away from active forest management because of tion of forest offices in our small rural communi- lawsuits and endless appeals of forest-management ties. The decision to consolidate ranger districts activities. was a huge mistake in community relations. Case in point: This morning’s newspaper car- When district offices in small rural communi- ried a story about a restoration project ties were closed, it disconnected these commu- on the Payette N.F. A lawsuit was filed by the nities from Forest Service personnel, but more Alliance for the Wild Rockies, even though the important, it disconnected the Forest Service project was approved by a local forest coalition staff from these communities. The budget sav- which included environmentalists. This is an ings from consolidation will never repair the example of interference and interruption of Forest continuity of relationships developed over the 70

Check the NSA website 14 National Smokejumper Reunion years before consolidation. Overcoming complex allocations, regulations, tion was just; for although lawsuits and appeals, plus a cultural shift in the Congress had set apart the workforce, will not happen quickly. This process, even with the proper motivations of the players, lands and their resource, it has will take decades to achieve. made no provision for their use In the early Forest Service, fire protection was a priority of all the district personnel. Everyone was or their protection. The timber expected to fight fire and had firefighting experi- was simply locked up and let to ence, or was gaining it. This is no longer true. The Forest Service now has a special cadre of firefight- . This mistake was reme- ers to quell fires, which disconnects these employ- died in 1897, when a law was ees from the critical responsibility of management. identify three basic issues with fire: passed which made it possible weather, and . Weather and to use all the resources and give topography are not controllable, but loads are. This requires aggressive use of thinning and them suitable protection.” logging plus prescribed fire. I see no aggressive use of thinning or prescribed fire locally. This law, the 1897 Organic Act, is still in full In terms of firefighting, rapid initial attack force and effect having never been repealed by must still be the priority. This is where smoke- Congress. It is an active directive to Forest Service jumpers are most effective. There are always risks management. fighting fires but that should not diminish initial Fire protection and active forest management attack. We must act quickly, putting the necessary is a very real and present issue today, just as it was resources on the fire. in the early 1900s. For decades, the Forest Service Overstaffing is cheaper fighting a small fire was on the right track, but in recent years jumped than a project fire in the middle of nowhere. From the rails and is unwilling to confront the issues it my experience, hitting a two-manner when it is faces today. small and controllable is good business. Smoke- I selected forestry as a career because of the jumpers are efficient firefighters and perfect for Forest Service. It had a great reputation and, from this job. my perspective, wore a white hat. That was in the My concern today is that the upper-level staff 1950s. of the Forest Service comprises individuals who While attending college, I worked summers for may never understand or accept the direction the Forest Service as a lookout, smokejumper, and provided in the 1897 Organic Act to manage timber management aide. Many of my classmates the national forest for the resources of water and and friends were career Forest Service employees. timber. If I could suggest a document to be read My forestry career path changed after I com- and studied by Chief Christiansen, it would be pleted my military obligation. But for 40 years, I The Use of the National Forests by Gifford Pinchot interfaced with Forest Service staff as a purchaser’s published in 1907. rep for timber sales and a reviewer of forest plans Perhaps the last paragraph on page 7 of Pin- and environmental impact statements on five chot’s direction is as instructive today as it was in national forests. 1907: I witnessed the evolution of the Forest Service from a male-dominated agency to a more diverse workforce and the consolidation of ranger dis- “At the start there was much tricts. I lived in communities affected by these opposition to (designation of) changes and watched as workforce changes and consolidation made a significant difference to For- the Forests. Often this opposi- est Service operations and community relations.

June 4-6, 2021 in Boise 15 www.smokejumpers.com Aggressive Forest Management: Why Do We Avoid It? in our country, specifically We each use about 53 as it affects the high-impact, cubic feet of wood and wood terribly destructive wildfire products each year. That’s situation with which we have about two more than the been confronted during the global individual average! So, last two decades. My notion is: if we like wood so much, why “... aggressive forest manage- do we seem to avoid ensuring ment will help ensure effective a sustainable supply through fire management” and eventu- aggressive forest management? ally the large, high-intensity It does seem like a paradox. wildfires we are experiencing Maybe most people do not now will subside and become know where their wood comes by Michael T. Rains again a for landscape scale from. And as long as it does (Associate) conservation. not come from “my forest,” I am a by training, so I To date, most of my words then that’s okay. But it does have a bias toward forest man- have had little effect at influ- come from “your forest.” agement. That is, toward keep- encing change. I am not sure Across our country, there ing America’s forests healthy, exactly why. People seem to is a total inventory of about sustainable, and more resilient be entranced or simply do 1 trillion cubic feet of wood. to disturbances like insect and not care. Have we become so According to a recent publica- disease outbreaks and wildfires divisive that removing any tion on Forest Resources of the through aggressive actions. from our forests by Oswalt, et Currently, there is a lack of and woodlands causes what al., that’s enough wood to “... forest management across our former Forest Chief Jack Ward fill the Great Pyramid of Giza country. Our forests are in de- Thomas described as “gladia- 12,000 times.” That’s huge cline. From the rural to urban tors form and fights ensue”? from a standpoint of help- land gradient, this affects all of Well-managed forests that ing mitigate the impacts of a us. It does not have to be this provide goods and service and changing climate. way. slow the ravages of wildfires is And, about 26 billion cubic Recently, I was reading the conservation issue of our feet of new wood is produced “Print and Paper and time. Surely there must be each year from forests and Facts” from Two Sides North some common ground. woodlands in the United America, Inc. A quote caught Thus, I began to look at States. Offsetting amounts for my eye: “... Avoiding the use the issue perhaps more prag- exports and imports, we essen- of wood is not the way to pro- matically: the use of wood. tially use each year about one- tect forests for the long term. Americans like to use wood half what is produced from our It is precisely the areas of the and enjoy its benefits – hous- forested lands. This in itself has world that consume the least ing, furniture, paper products, created a problem: our forests wood that continue to experi- its carbon-positive nature, low are getting clogged up. ence the greatest forest loss.” energy production, and that For example, there are more During the past few years, I fact it’s renewable and can be now than 100 years ago. have written extensively about easily recycled. And, most of it Forests, which include more the lack of forest management comes from America’s forests. than just trees – i.e., the chap-

Check the NSA website 16 National Smokejumper Reunion arral forests of Southern Cali- commercial construction using could easily increase their con- fornia – are getting stressed, wood is on the rise. tribution of wood and wood are dying, and are becoming a Who controls the manage- products. And, as a result the tinderbox for fire. And, once ment of our forests? About forests in the west – which are a fire gets a foothold, they eight percent of the world’s especially vulnerable to large, become destructive behemoths forests are in the United States, intense wildfires – could be- that destroy everything in their and this is split into three come much more resilient. paths. ownership categories: federal Simply put, we reverse Nationally, we consume (30 percent), state and local the current trend of “lack of about 17 billion cubic feet of (10 percent) and private (60 management” to “aggressive wood each year, including the percent). About 67 percent management” to help protect offset of exports and imports; of all the forestlands have an lives, property and communi- about 13 billion cubic feet objective to produce wood. ties. And, produce more wood from just America’s forests and According to a Forest Re- and wood products for a grow- woodlands. sources Report of the United ing America. According to reliable States, “... about 55 percent of To me, “aggressive forest sources, projections indicate the volume of growing stock management” can easily be demand for wood and wood and half the volume of - translated, for example, into products – for example, lum- timber is in private ownership. an annual wood removal pro- ber, , and In the eastern states, about 90 gram on the National Forests advanced composites – in our percent of the timber volume of 0.75 billion cubic feet – 9 country will be 24.3 billion is on private land; in western billion board feet – three times cubic feet in 2030; 27.5 bil- states, by contrast, only 40 the current level. lion cubic feet by 2050. That’s percent of the timber volume Yes, this will take additional close to the current annual is in private ownership. More resources and infrastructure, growth – about 26 billion cu- than 90 percent of the growing but it’s well within the range of bic feet – to ensure a sustain- stock on western public lands sustainable vegetative manage- able proposition, assuming net is on national forest or other ment and will help increase annual growth remains con- areas managed by the national the flow of wood and wood stant. Simply put, more wood government.” products to meet projected can and should be harvested This last statement is tell- demands. from our forestlands. ing. There was a time when I Let me go back to that Approximately one-quarter was with the U.S. Forest Ser- opening quote: “... Avoiding of the used in the vice when the timber harvest the use of wood is not the way United States last year was level from the national forests to protect forests for the long imported. About 80 percent was about 12 billion board term ...” Healthy, sustainable, came from Canada. While I feet or about 3 billion cubic resilient forests make our lives am all for free trade, if more of feet. Now, it is about 3 bil- better. They protect us. They America’s forests were aggres- lion board feet, or about 0.25 nourish us and provide com- sively managed, there would billion cubic feet. That’s about fort. They improve our health. be a much better balance in 2 percent of the nation’s total The current decline of our domestic production and use production level, from a high forests does not have to be. We and imports, especially for of about 12 percent in the late owe it to ourselves and future the more conventional wood 1970s. About 20 percent of generations to band together products such as lumber for America’s forests are designated and do all we can to enable construction. national forests. our lands to be more fulfilling For reference, an average- Clearly, if there were a will to everyone and everything size house uses about 1,400 – from a sustainability point that depends on them. cubic feet of wood. And, of view – the national forests References available on request.

June 4–6, 2021 in Boise 17 www.smokejumpers.com Wildfire Trends In The US and Adaptation Strategies To Increasing Wildfire Tania Schoennagel, PhD

t’s now mid-summer, and likely an active fire 2017)5-7. A careful study revealed that human-caused season is underway, yet I am writing this back climate change was responsible for almost doubling in April amidst stay-at-home orders in numer- the area burned in western US forests from 1984 to I 8 ous states across the US. While I don’t yet know 2015 . Of the total area burned in US since 2002, the future trajectory of COVID-19, I do know 55% was in the conterminous western states (80% that if it is a hot and dry summer, the West will be including Alaska)4. So, the rise in area burned in the experiencing an active fire season. As smokejump- US in response to warming largely reflects increased ers work heroically to extinguish remote wildland burning in the fire-prone West. fire starts, we all search—yet again—for answers to why is so much area burning, and how can we Are human-caused ignitions a big deal? better manage the growing threat of wildfires? Yes, human-caused ignitions (, pow- I am a fire ecologist at the University of Colo- erlines, fireworks, equipment use, etc.) now play a rado, and I have spent 25 years researching wildfires big role in starting wildfires, accounting for 84% and their effects across the West. I also examine of all wildfire starts and 44% of area burned across trends in US wildfires and evaluate efforts to man- the US 1992-20129. Within the wildland-urban age them and have testified in Congress and the interface (WUI), where homes abut or intermix Colorado legislature on these issues. Through my with fire-prone vegetation, almost all fires are started research, and that of many colleagues, and from by humans. Warmer, drier conditions are making listening to firefighters, land managers and varied human-ignited wildfires more common through- stakeholders, I have grappled a lot with these issues, out the US. Only in the interior West is and I have some answers to these burning questions. still the predominant ignition source of the largest 10% of fires; elsewhere in the US, human-caused Is climate change affecting wildfires? ignitions have become the dominant source of Yes, a large body of research shows us that warm- wildfires10. er, drier conditions are associated with increased area burned in the US in recent decades, primarily in the So, what actually ? West. Since the late 1970s, the US annual average In the Western states in an average year, some temperature has risen almost 2 degrees Fahrenheit1. two-thirds of what burns is shrublands and grass- In the western US, this warming has led to more lands, not forests11. This comes as a big surprise to aridity, earlier snowmelt2 making higher-elevation many people, as the topic of better wildfire man- forests more flammable, and fire seasons three agement is often couched in terms of better forest months longer on average3. management. However, most of what burns in the As a consequence of this warming, annual area West is non-forest. If we look at the total area burned burned in the US has risen significantly, with a big across the US, about 55% burns in the contermi- uptick since 20004. The ten largest fire years since nous West, and only about 40% of what burns 1960 have all occurred in the last 20 years. In the in the West is forests. Taken together, that means western US. area burned by wildfires larger than forests in the western lower 48 states account for 1000 acres has grown by over 350% across all ecore- less than a quarter of what burns across the US in gions and by an astounding 1300% in forests (1984- an average year (55% x 40% = 22%). Our western

Check the NSA website 18 National Smokejumper Reunion wildfire problem is not predominantly a forest fire problem, and therefore forest management alone cannot effectively solve it.

How severe are wildfires these days? While area burned in the US has increased sig- nificantly in recent decades, wildfire severity has not. It comes as a surprise to many to learn that the majority (65%) of what burns across the US is low-severity fire. Only about one-third (35%) is moderate or high-severity fire, with no significant change over the past 30 years (1984-2014)12. In western forests, burn severity tends to be higher in larger fires and during extreme burning conditions, but these trends are not beating out the noise, and overall forest fire severity has not changed signifi- cantly over the past 30 years13, 14. Where is forest fire severity high? In moister, more productive, higher elevation, and more northern forests, reflecting geographic patterns that promote higher fuel loads. Tania Schoennagel (Courtesy T. Schoennagel) Generally, these moister, cooler forests don’t burn very often so remain a small slice of the wildfire pie, tion. High-severity fires, while scary to us, are busi- although that is changing as snowpack is melting ness as usual for those forests and not a consequence earlier due to warming. of past fire suppression and fuels buildup17. In sum, most of what burns each year is shru- What is the role of fuels buildup? bland and grasslands, and only a portion of the I often hear people point to fuels buildup as the forests that burn suffer from fuels buildup due to main reason for our big and growing wildfire prob- past fire suppression. Therefore, reducing unchar- lem. Indeed, fuels buildup has played a role. Forest acteristic fuel loads can restore dry forests to pre-fire fuels have accumulated due to decades of suppres- suppression conditions, but this alone will not sig- sion of frequent low-severity fires characteristic of nificantly address the increasing wildfire problem in dry forests (for example, low-elevation ponderosa the West triggered in large part by climate change. forests). Historically, frequent low-severity fires kept these forests of thick-barked, fire-resistant Can fuels management significantly trees relatively open (forests that clearly fall in this reduce area burned? category are roughly 1/3rd of western forests in the Let’s look beyond the issue of forest fuels lower 4815,16). Effective suppression of frequent buildup, and simply ask whether fuels reduction fires has allowed smaller trees to fill in formerly aka “wildfire mitigation,” treatments in a variety open stands, increasing their density and making of could help reduce area burned in the uncharacteristic high-severity fires more likely now. US. The answer to this question may surprise you, But importantly, fuels have not increased in all which is an issue of both scale and odds of burning. forests. Many forests have not become denser over Wildfire mitigation treatments remove the previous century (roughly 1/3rd of western for- fuels primarily through thinning and prescribed ests in the lower 4816). For example, high fuel-load fire with the aim of reducing subsequent wildfire forests described above, where you might ski or hike severity and spread. Treatments are not fire pre- in the high country, typically experience infrequent, vention tools, but rather are designed to mitigate high-severity fires. These moister, cooler forests are subsequent fire behavior. Therefore, in order for as dense today as they were prior to fire suppression wildfire mitigation treatments to work, they need and haven’t experienced significant fuel accumula- to burn by wildfire during their period of efficacy,

June 4-6, 2021 in Boise 19 www.smokejumpers.com which may last roughly 10-20 years depending on of prescribed burns from 1998 to 2018, and about site conditions. half of the federal area treated for fire mitigation Two studies have specifically looked at how often is prescribed fire. However, most prescribed fire in federal wildfire mitigation treatments encounter the US (70%) is implemented in the Southeast by subsequent wildfire, as a high-level indicator of non-federal agencies19. Meanwhile, prescribed fire treatment effectiveness. The first, led by a team at has declined during the last 20 years in the West. the University of Montana, looked at federal wildfire There are important safety concerns with fires es- mitigation treatments in all types across caping prescriptions (although such occurrences are the US from 1992-201218. The second, led by my rare relative to the amount of prescribed fire safely team at the University of Colorado, looked only at burned), and in the arid West there are narrower federal wildfire mitigation treatments in western windows for burning and challenges burning in forests from 2004-201411. Both studies found es- mountainous terrain. Yet such challenges are not in- sentially the same answer: on average each year less surmountable. Implementing more prescribed burns than 1% of wildfire mitigation treatments encountered safely in the West is the cheapest and most effective subsequent wildfire, meaning the vast majority of means of removing smaller fuels that spread fires, treatments miss the chance to do their job. and better controls smoke production relative to Forest treatments essentially burn at the rate that uncontrolled wildfire, providing untapped benefits the forest itself burns, which is about 1% per year to both ecosystems and society. in western forests, and it’s really hard to beat those odds. Treatments that had relatively high rates of What are wildfire impacts on people and subsequent burning (>2%) occurred in only three homes? ecoregions across the US, all of which experience Forests today are very different from the forests relatively high fire frequencies18. These are all in that used to roam. The wildland-urban the West, but only one of them is forested: the interface (WUI), where houses and wildland vegeta- ponderosa pine woodlands in the tion meet or intermingle, now accounts for about Ecoregion of Arizona. 10% of lower 48 states20. From 1990 to 2010 the So, wildfires burning fire mitigation treatments number of homes in the conterminous WUI grew is a game of low odds, and the vast majority of 41% to 43.4 million, and the land area grew 33% treatments never get the opportunity to modify to 770,000 km2. Over 100 million people and about wildfire behavior because most never burn during every third house is in the WUI, which is the fast- their period of efficacy. As a consequence, treat- est growing land-use category in the US. About 1.7 ments have very little leverage in changing wildfire million homes in the WUI have a high to extreme behavior. In fact, only about 1% of the area burned risk of wildfire21, and efforts to contain wildfires each year burns in fire mitigation treatments. Even that threaten homes and communities are costly and doubling or tripling our efforts will still yield fairly dangerous. Continued expansion of the WUI will low treatment-wildfire encounter rates, and there- further increase human exposure to wildfires and fore, low impact on wildfire trends. More forest human-related ignitions. management, especially if it occurs in moister more Extensive research on wildfires in the WUI in- productive forests that burn less frequently, will not dicates that home ignition and subsequent loss is slow increasing wildfire.Therefore, we need to be mostly a function of home construction and vegeta- strategic about where and how we manage forests to tion directly around the home is largely independent have any measurable impacts on wildfire. of fuels and forest management on distant federal lands22. Ember showers during extreme wind and Prescribed fire burning conditions are a primary source of home The National Cohesive Wildland Fire Manage- loss, and homes that can withstand ignition from ment Strategy considers prescribed fire as the most embers are generally the ones that survive. cost-effective approach over the largest potential area Furthermore, about 70% of the WUI is pri- of the US for reducing fire risk. Indeed, federal agen- vate land23, making homeowner and community cies implemented about 2.8 million acres per year fuels mitigation efforts paramount where federal

Check the NSA website 20 National Smokejumper Reunion land-management agencies have little jurisdiction. and around communities to help firefighters directly Wildfire home loss research does not support the defend homes and neighborhoods where ignitions notion that damages to people and property will are highest. significantly decline if we manage federal forests better. Home wildfire protection and federal forest Burn better management are largely independent issues, which Burning better means implementing more pre- require distinctly different solutions. scribed fires in the West and allowing more remote wildfires to burn in ecosystems that have evolved Strategies for adaptation with frequent fire to help minimize the severity and Adaptation is when people and ecosystems adjust size of future fires. Implementing more prescribed and reorganize in response to changing climate and fire in places with a high likelihood of wildfires wildfire trends to reduce future vulnerability.How encountering those prescriptions will reduce subse- can we better manage and adapt to the growing quent wildfire smoke, spread, and severity, and help threat of wildfire? First off, we need to continue firefighters more safely do their job. Furthermore, to safely and effectively suppress wildfire where it reintroducing prescribed burns in areas where his- protects people, communities and vulnerable ecosys- torically frequent fire has been suppressed will help tems. Smokejumpers will lead the way by snuffing those ecosystems adapt to more frequent burning out fire starts before they threaten communities and in response to climate change. Burning better also choke our skies with smoke. But despite valiant and means reducing the number of human-related ever-larger suppression efforts, we still are witness- ignitions, especially in the WUI where people and ing a continued growth in area burned. How can property are at high risk. we better cope with this more-fiery world? We can thin better, burn better, and build better. Here’s how. Build better National Institute of Building Sciences estimates Thin better that every $1 spent on wildfire mitigation saves $4 Unfortunately, more forest management cannot in wildfire recovery costs. Retrofitting exist- significantly alter regional increases in area burned ing homes and building new homes to strict wildfire in the West where non-forest lands burn the most, codes will save homes and lives, making homes able and few fire mitigation treatments encounter sub- to defend themselves without the aid of firefighters. sequent wildfire due to the large area of fire-prone Integrating wildfire planning into regulations, codes forests and the low odds of treatments burning. and ordinances will help communities better adapt More treatments will encounter more wildfire if to likely wildfire. Examples are requiring defensible prioritized in ecosystems that have a high likelihood around homes, evacuation routes and commu- of burning in grasslands, shrublands, and warm-dry nity perimeters; restricting development on steep, forests. remote and high fire-prone lands; ensuring ample Bigger treatments will also increase the odds of egress and evacuation routes and community shel- subsequent burning if implemented in areas most ter-in-place options. Promoting public awareness likely to burn such as lower elevations, south facing and preparation for the inevitability of wildfire is a slopes, lower latitudes in the arid West and parts of key feature of community adaptation to increasing the southeastern US. fire in the West. Federal thinning projects are not well-suited to reducing home loss on distant private lands, where Summary building construction and fuels directly around the New adaptive approaches are needed to manage home matter most but can be valuable in restoring increasing wildfire risk and costs. Better thinning, forests that are adapted to frequent fire. Thinning burning and building will help communities and better means thinning areas that burn frequently ecosystems adapt to wildfire as climate continues to reduce fire severity, helps ecosystems adapt to to change. But over the long term, the most critical warming, and reduces carbon losses from wildfire. means of countering rising wildfire impacts is to Thinning better means thinning on private land in mitigate climate change by transitioning to a low-

June 4-6, 2021 in Boise 21 www.smokejumpers.com carbon economy sooner rather than later. to a low-carbon economy. Coronavirus showed us As I look out my window at eerily empty streets how well we can change our behavior for the greater while we shelter in place against the COVID-19 good. We need to do the same to save ourselves from , I realize that like protecting ourselves from an increasingly dangerous, costly and fiery future. novel coronavirus, we need to keep wildfire from spreading to where it matters most, our homes References and communities. While we can effectively man- https://spot.colorado.edu/~schoenna/images/ age forests for many uses, we can’t vaccinate the Smokejumper.pdf forests against wildfire. Instead, we need to better https://www.americangeosciences.org/sites/ defend our homes and communities, become bet- default/files/webinar/assets/AGI_Wildfires_ ter adapted, and fight climate change by pivoting May2018_Schoennagel.pdf

Snapshots from the Past

River. The fire was called the had it completed by 1500. But Kelly Mountain Fire No. 2 the weather was socking in. and jumpers from four bases The chopper flew overhead jumped it. As was predictable and dropped a note telling us for Salmon River fires, every- to pack our gear cross-country one thumped in hard on those downhill a mile and a quarter little FS-2, 28-foot chutes on to a trail. We were to flag it those steep slopes. After that for a packer to take out later. jump, Charlie complained of Then we were to hike down a bad headache, but no one Obia Creek on the trail clearly thought anything of it at the marked on our map. The trail by Jeff R. Davis time. There were a number of continued down an easy water- (Missoula ’57) jumpers injured that day. grade route to the Lochsa, The Jump on Bowl We were over the Bowl where it continued an easy Creek Creek Fire at 1200 and we several miles to the Lochsa jumped at 1215. The fire was Ranger Station. At 1030 June 5, 1961, I got an easy one to control in the The hike-out looked easy a fire call to the Bowl Creek wet Idaho timber country enough on the map, but we Fire off the Lochsa River on in early summer. We were were forgetting the unusually the Clearwater Forest. It was on the fire in five minutes as wet spring and the effect that a two-man fire. Charlie Evans we’d jumped right on top of had on the drainages we were (MSO-56) and I took off at it. Within the hour, we had it to transverse. Our “no sweat” 1115 in a Twin Beech. controlled and busied our- hike turned into a nightmare. Charlie died later that sum- selves retrieving our gear from We started out at 1700, mer of a brain hemorrhage, the timber and mopping the dumped our gear on the trail, collapsing in the mess hall. fire up until 2400. and started down the drainage I always thought the brain We were back at it the next to the Lochsa. But the drain- damage occurred on another morning at 0500 and by 0700 age soon became flooded and jump we made together later we had the fire out. Our next impossible to cross. Char- that summer on the Salmon job was to cut a helispot and lie and I started to hump it

Check the NSA website 22 National Smokejumper Reunion cross-country, contouring the use on fires. I thought that was Forest Service Trail No. 234 slopes in an attempt to regain far too wasteful and put one in the following morning, rav- the Lochsa on the opposite my PG bag when we left the aged by cramps and diarrhea bank. By 2400 we knew we fire. all the way. It took us until were in trouble. We were Charlie and I were in a 1700 that evening to reach the soaked clear through by the fairly desperate situation, but Ranger Station. They’d been pouring and beginning to I had an idea. I told Charlie worried about us back in Mis- experience hypothermia. No I had this mummy bag and soula. The jumpers had tried shelter, no way we could start I thought we should both to mount a search for us, but a fire—we were screwed. crawl inside it to get warm the foul weather cancelled the But I had “rat-holed” a before we got in worse condi- attempt. down sleeping bag that we had tion than we already were. He Charlie and I kept the little orders to shit-can after using agreed, and we spent the night secret about the shared sleep- it on the fire. The AFD had huddled together in a single ing bag to ourselves and finally acquired a large supply of mili- fart sack, warmed against the the jump on Bowl Creek came tary mummy bags. There were storm. to an end. Sometimes jumping so many that they ordered us We faced another hard four the fire and putting it out is to discard them after a single hours of steady hiking down the easiest part of this job!

The Challenge: To Manage Wildfires or Aggressively Put Them Out by Bruce Courtright (Associate)

or those who have been observers of the approaches, not previously thought of earlier, United States Forest Service over the past are now becoming the norm. These approaches F40 years, significant changes have taken frequently affect employee safety and that of forest place at all levels, affecting the agency’s ability to residents and may threaten the health and sustain- effectively respond to demanding resource man- ability of our nation’s forests, both federal and agement situations. Some of the most impacting private. changes are: One challenge in the wildland fire arena has • A reduction in the number of personnel at the been how to deal with longer fire seasons, drier field level. forest conditions, and an increasing overstock of • A reduction of funds available to accomplish —mostly on public lands. This has led field work. to the crux of the dilemma. That is, whether to • An increase in restrictive regulations generated aggressively fight fires as they emerge or allow by outside sources. some to burn, hoping for an effective reduction of • Major changes in the overall climate worldwide forest overstocking. Previous methods of reducing which has changed the environment we man- stocking levels have failed due to limited funding, age. regulations, longer fire seasons and a continued • A shift in the political priorities affecting sup- growth of vegetation. port for critical Forest Service programs. These issues force us to ask some fundamental These changes and others have forced For- questions. For example: est Service leaders, at all levels, to seek new ways • Does Forest Service policy allow for managed of accomplishing mission-critical work. New fire decisions rather than full out, immediate

June 4–6, 2021 in Boise 23 www.smokejumpers.com suppression? tactics. • Are we able to conduct timely reviews of man- • Immediately direct scientific research to focus aged fires to evaluate the effectiveness? on wood-based nanotechnology and other • Do we have the needed skills at all levels to ad- innovative biomass uses to better utilize haz- dress the fire challenges? ardous fuels, forest slash and other lower value • Do we have properly trained leaders at the biomass residuals. ground level to make the difficult decisions? • Ensure there is an adequate budget for innova- • Has the Forest Service been able to evaluate tive biomass uses and the associated develop- the success or impact of managed fires and the ment and expansion of cost-effective markets risks to firefighters, loss of homes and critical for a wide range of wood products. resources for managed burns that have failed? • Build into the planning process—for managed • Does the Forest Service have clear direction and controlled burns—the fact that we may and clear standards for when to manage a be adversely affecting the environment and the wildfire? health of our firefighters and the public and • Are we working on alternatives to burning, need to find new ways to reduce unwanted such as wood-based nanotechnology and other forest fuels (for example, through innovative creative uses of biomass? biomass uses). • Have we come to grips with leading-edge sci- This is a start at identifying some of the vexing ence that shows industrial and forest smoke challenges of today’s and future forest needs. If carries harmful carcinogens, and is directly strong, creative leadership is not insisted upon and affecting both global warming and incidence of made available, the future of our treasured forests cancer? looks very dim. We hope this paper will generate Effectively addressing these issues calls for the discussions on how we can best contribute to the evaluation of strong leadership and decision-mak- saving of our nation’s critical forest resources. ing skills to enable the Forest Service to continue to lead the nation in protecting and nurturing our Bruce is a graduate of Utah State University with a forest treasures. The following recommendations degree in Industrial Relations and advanced work in shall lead to once again creating forests that are Organizational Psychology. He worked for the USFS more resilient to wildfire and provide the needed, starting in 1963. Later in his career Bruce was assigned sustainable resources to our nation. to the DC Office as Chief for Management Improve- • Immediately set up a task force of Forest Ser- ment and next as management consultant to the Chief vice employees and cooperators to evaluate cur- of the FS. rent policy and direction on managing fires for He retired in 1985 and formed the National Wild- resource benefits and develop revised direction fire Institute in 2010. Bruce is currently engaged in to reflect the current and future challenges. activities to improve the nation’s wildland areas and • Evaluate ways to increase investments for forest reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire. restoration and fire rehabilitation. We need to look at current programs and reach out to the Congressional Appropriators to provide for ad- Get Smokejumper One Month Earlier equate funding for restoration work to insure Many NSA members are switching to America will have viable, sustainable forests to the digital version of Smokejumper delivered pass on to future generations. by email instead of the printed edition. It is • Evaluate the skills needed for our current and sent as a PDF identical to the hard copy issue. future workforce in both forest and fire man- Advantages include early delivery, ease of agement. storage, and NSA postal expense savings. • The Forest Service shall confirm that current To request email delivery contact Editor guidelines will ensure safety, use the best fire Chuck Sheley (CJ-59) cnkgsheley@earthlink. management tactics available, and hire skilled net. personnel to deploy these guidelines and

Check the NSA website 24 National Smokejumper Reunion It’s Time To Get Serious About Utilizing Our Fleet by Bill Derr (Associate Life Member)

erial firefighting strategies and aircraft sioned by Congress as part of the 2009 mobilization tactics must be revisited given Act. This strategic priority includes “enhancing Athe intensifying threat of US wildfires. wildfire response preparedness with an empha- Existing models were built for a different time and sis on both structural protection and wildfire have not kept pace with the change in the wildfire prevention to maximize the effectiveness of initial fighting environment. It is not lost on anyone response.” To move the needle toward achieving who has been in the business for more than a few national strategy goals, the way we respond to years that getting on a fire faster, even with small wildfire must be reevaluated to improve effective- amounts of water, water enhancer or retardant, ness and rein in costs. By doing so, we can ensure significantly reduces the possibility of that fire that programs to restore and maintain US land- becoming national news. In the face of the 2020 scapes are positioned (and funded) to succeed. wildfire season and the complications presented by managing it in a COVID-19 operating envi- A Change In The Air ronment, keeping fires small will be the key to The first pillar of the National Strategy—im- success in limiting both the spread of the proving the safety and effectiveness of wildfire and number of large fires. response—is more important than ever as blazes Fire agencies need to use the nation’s aerial burn larger and dangerously hot over the course of firefighting assets in a manner that produces the a longer season. One area of wildfire response that best possible outcomes. The strategy is simple. is primed for increased effectiveness is the use of Lead the battle through the pre-positioning of the aerial firefighting. numerous, smaller, significantly less-costly assets For decades now, the use of firefighting aircraft such as wheeled SEATs (single engine air tank- has been central to wildfire response programs. ers), Fire Bosses and Type 3 helicopters. If during However, as the decades have passed by, tradition- the battle these assets need more support, send in al aerial firefighting strategies have remained most- the less numerous and more costly LATs (large air ly unchanged despite the shifting fire environment tankers). This strategy would optimize the usage and the introduction of new aircraft, technologies and effectiveness of the country’s entire aerial fire- and tactics. To increase response effectiveness, it is fighting force and provide Incident Commanders time for these strategies to be revisited. appropriate time to request and receive the LATs The yet to be published USFS Aerial Firefight- if needed. ing Usage and Effectiveness Study (AFUES), initi- Initial attack (IA) and direct air strategies that ated in 2012, will likely produce a result that is utilize the large number of less-costly, smaller, air- already obvious to most wildland firefighters: The craft can better contain fires and keep them small. probability of succeeding in battling a wildfire is This provides an advantage to the ground crews in significantly increased when you start working a putting out blazes more efficiently. fire within its first hour. The problem is that there aren’t enough LATs, Type 1 and 2 helicopters in The Flame Act the currently contracted USFS fleet to achieve Improving the safety and effectiveness of wild- that goal. These agencies need to find a way to do fire response is the highest priority set forth by the more with the same amount of limited funding. USDA and USDI in the 2014 National Cohesive What this article proposes is a way to do that. Wildland Fire Management Strategy, commis- Fortunately, an entire fleet of smaller fixed-

June 4-6, 2021 in Boise 25 www.smokejumpers.com wing and rotary assets do exist to achieve this be suppressed and extinguished while they’re still goal. Our state and federal fire agencies, primarily small. driven by the USFS, need to rethink the integra- More specifically, the 2020 season is going to tion of these smaller assets into their response to be an even greater challenge than any other previ- wildfire starts. A multi-million dollar study is not ous season as a result of the COVID-19 pan- needed for most firefighters who have been in the demic. Fire agencies will be focused on reducing field over the last two to three decades. Let’s start the number and size of fire camps. They will also demanding a change in how we use these costly be trying to minimize the number of evacuations assets. It will result in better outcomes for every that result in citizens sheltering in local gyms and citizen in a fire-prone region (less devastation and auditoriums. healthcare impact) and significantly reduce the However, the reality is that the current aerial risk and danger to our wildland firefighters. firefighting models are not optimized to execute the swift, reliable, initial response needed to con- Aerial Firefighting—Initial Response To trol fires. Rather, aircraft are more often deployed Wildfires when a fire has already escaped containment and It is well known that aerial firefighting is most grown into a larger, more expensive event. When effective through initial attack on small wildfires. this happens, typically large and very large air During IA, small, prepositioned IA aircraft and tankers (LATs and VLATs) are used to initiate an helicopters can arrive on a scene within minutes, indirect attack. LATs and VLATs complete nu- carrying loads of water or retardant that can help merous drops of retardant to contain the blaze. contain a fire until ground crews arrive. If smoke- Turnaround time between drops often exceeds one jumpers are available in the area, the probability to two hours due to the time-intensive procedures of success increases substantially. Each time a required for loading high volumes of retardants. small wildfire is suppressed during initial response, Turnaround time may also be impacted by basing agencies prevent greater devastation and millions requirements, as large aircraft must operate out of more in associated costs that come with large fires. large airports with retardant loading infrastruc- A USDA audit report found that when the success ture. Turnaround time contributes to the overall rate of USFS initial response dropped by 1.5% length of a wildfire mission, which in turn in- in 2007, it represented an estimated 150 more creases aircraft operating costs. In some situations, fires that escaped containment and cost the Forest incident managers have tried to ameliorate long Service an additional $300 million to $450 mil- turnaround times by “filling the gap” with addi- lion to suppress. By avoiding decreases like this, tional LATs to help paint more lines around a fire. the USFS could generate hundreds of millions of Doing so essentially doubles the cost of a suppres- dollars in savings. sion mission. Additionally, there are public health benefits When a small fire does break initial contain- to extinguishing fires through quick IA. A lower ment efforts, LATs play a critical role in suppres- amount of smoke is released into the air, which sion, but at a high cost. There just aren’t that in past wildfire situations has affected the health many of these aircraft to meet the supply of fire of thousands of people in communities across starts. For example, for the 2020 season, the USFS the US. Fewer harmful carbons are emitted, will have only 18 exclusive use LAT/VLAT con- which research shows can have a lasting impact tracts and 17 call-when-needed contracts for air- on climate change—severe wildfire seasons such craft of the same size. With such a small number as 2015, 2017 and 2018 had the potential to of large aircraft operating from a limited number release a decade’s worth of stored carbon into the of bases, they cannot be as widely distributed and atmosphere in just a single season. The degrada- numerous as smaller, less expensive aircraft. Given tion of is also reduced. These public the broadening geographic areas requiring po- health benefits underscore the importance of the tential fire suppression, there is simply too much National Strategy’s first priority “to maximize the ground to cover to ensure a swift, reliable initial effectiveness of initial response” so wildfires can attack.

Check the NSA website 26 National Smokejumper Reunion A New Path Forward lon load, operate out of smaller airports cutting Most wildfires start as small, containable down turnaround time. There are approximately situations. Rapid IA is needed to avoid a large, 60 to 75 of these assets available. multi-million dollar fire. Bolstered aircraft and Fire Bosses—a wheeled SEAT with amphibi- smokejumpers, in many cases, would result keep ous floats, 800-gallon load, can load at local water these fires small. Given the large number of SEATs source in less than a minute, 3.5-hour operating in the U.S., fire agencies should lead the response time over the fire. Given that most human settle- with these aircraft until ground resources arrive. ment is near water, and at least two-thirds of his- When a fire start does break the containment torical fires in the US have been within ten miles efforts of IA, these agencies can utilize the scarcer of a scooper-accessible water source, there is unde- and costly LATs and VLATs. This approach makes niable value to adding Fire Bosses to firefighting common sense, fire sense and dollars and cents. arsenals. There will be 19 Fire Bosses available for the 2020 wildfire season. Prioritize Use of Aircraft During initial response to a wildfire start, every Summary minute counts. Small, pre-positioned initial attack Climate change, expansion of the WUI, and aircraft are needed to quickly arrive at the fire. Fire today’s unhealthy are combining to Boss aircraft can quickly reload at nearby water create costlier fires that are burning and spreading sources. Only a handful of IA aircraft have the much faster than they did 20-30 years ago. Public numbers to do this job over a wide area: entities must bolster rapid and direct initial air Type 3 Helicopters—have the advantage of attack capability by incorporating a network of being able to drop water/retardant and can load smaller, lower cost aircraft into the aerial firefight- from local sources. Disadvantage of small bucket ing arsenal. Doing so will prepare agencies to rap- load of 150-300 gallons. Best estimates put the idly respond to fire situations before small blazes number of these assets at 100. escape and become multi-million dollar fires. SEATS—can be locally located, carry 800-gal- References are available on request.

LETTERS Thoughts On Jan. Issue of Smokejumper Chuck, I want to thank you for your article in remember getting calls in the middle of the night this quarter’s NSA magazine. You have hit on all from lookouts during and soon after . They the important points that I, and so many other could see glows from fires on the ground and Wildland Managers, have been saying/thinking those small at daylight. We would put for years. two- or three-person crews together and head that The first time I was told we were not having a way. Sometimes we were on the fire before day- night shift, I couldn’t believe it! How were we go- light. No GPS to follow. ing to catch this thing if we couldn’t use the cooler We knew our District. With info from the weather and to help us? It just added lookout, maps, and a desire to find the fires several more shifts to this already big problem of quickly before the day had time to heat them up, containment. we found them. Air recon was also used to locate Back in the “day,”the full-time District IA strikes in hidden canyons and Wilderness Areas— folks worked maintenance on the strategically money saved. located ridgetop lookouts. We thought it was great Nowadays maybe, maybe not for the air recon. work and that some old timers had their S—t For sure the lookout is taken out of the equa- together figuring out the right locations. Lookouts tion in locating, staffing, and extinguishing fires: were always our eyes in the sky day and night. I Money lost.

June 4-6, 2021 in Boise 27 www.smokejumpers.com Air Tankers are just another beast. You stated Urban encroachment, climate change, and user that whole issue pretty well. Probably pros and days in the forest add to the equation as well as cons for both sides, given so many scenarios. But population growth. because we have been doing this for a long, long If we are to do our jobs for the safety of the time, let’s use our “in the ground experience” to public and protection of the National Forest our advantage. lands, we need to get back to some basics in initial What does the Fire Operations Manager want attack of wildland fire. We need to connect with or need at the time he/she is in charge of the fire management from local officials all the way to from the first discovery to the control of the fire? DC. Fires are getting bigger and will continue to The need might be one bucket of water from a do so. helicopter or several one-half-mile drops from a We can throw millions of dollars at fires and heavy air tanker. If it’s a single-engine air tanker, then the season ends. Now it’s winter, and all we need a plan to make it happen. Money saved. is out of sight, out of mind, but there’s another We know that safety is a big factor in all of our season coming. firefighting operations. Safety should always be a —Gary Cardoza (MSO-74) concern and a part of our every decision process. Vegetation Management in our forests is a Gary started fighting wildfire in 1968 before going into huge problem and we are way behind the curve the military and spending 13 months in . In on that. Having a secure full-time work force, that 1973 he went back to the Forest Service and worked can make a living in the lower ranks of the FS/ engines, Hotshots, Smokejumpers, Aviation and Veg- BLM, would help with the planning and execu- etation Management. He later transferred to the BLM tion of this work. Fire Management Program in California and retired We also need to take a look at the big picture. in 2006.

To The Editor Yes, a stronger, more aggressive initial attack I want to commend NSA President Bob McK- response in the fire season is needed. And so are ean (MSO-67) for his observations on the impacts other equally important measures such as - of climate change on weather and wildfires. He has ous fuel treatments in the wildland-urban interface, addressed the “elephant in the room.” prescribed fire use outside the fire season, better And, it is heartening to read articles like “Wild- zoning and building standards, and, an educated fires and Global Warming: A Continuous Cycle of public knowing how to defend, shelter and or escape Destruction,” by Michael Rains (Assoc). Michael inevitable natural . does an excellent job of describing the effects of For the sake of current smokejumpers, wildland climate change and the relationships to wildfire and firefighters and future generations, I hope that forest management. someday the NSA Board of Directors can come to The conditions and challenges that smokejump- a consensus on these issues. Past and current smoke- ers and wildland firefighters face today is not the jumpers have earned a voice to advocate positions same as the “two-manners” or even the “barnburn- for positive change in how we address the emerging ers” we encountered in our firefighting days 30, 40 challenges of climate change and its devastating ef- or 50 years ago. And, these conditions will continue fects on our forests and . to worsen with chaotic weather, , , Thank you, President McKean (MSO-67) and and . It is important to learn to recognize Michael Rains, for adding balance to the discourse. the challenges and prepare to adapt to dealing with —John Berry (RAC-70) the future. Retired Eldorado NF Supervisor

Check the NSA website 28 National Smokejumper Reunion Poor Management, Questionable Laws – We’re Paying For Them Now by Major Boddicker (Missoula ’63)

he last three issues of Smokejumper are real classics. They are excellent and com- Tplete treatments of the fire-management issue in the USA. Thanks! A copy should be sent to every member of Congress and all governors. I remember when the Wilderness Act and Major Boddicker (Courtesy M. Boddicker) other protections of Mother Earth were being stampeded into law. Being a strong skeptic of their no-use intents, which were being suggested by more than half. Hunters, trappers and fisher- by the advocates of the laws, I remember warning men are severely reduced in numbers because our my graduate school friends that the unintended access has been shut off by road and trail closures, consequences of these no-use laws would not be lack of road and trail maintenance, beetle kill, and good. There were much better alternatives avail- fire-caused forest damage. able. Colorado forests are like trying to force your My first experience with the U.S. Forest Service way through a pick-up-sticks game. It is interest- implementation of the Wilderness Act was during ing how coincidentally our main USFS access the summer of 1968. I was jumping out of Mis- roads get shut down during big game seasons. soula and had just stepped out of a jet boat in the We old and disabled, injured, ill, too young, Salmon River after the Chamberlain Creek Fire. too fat, and time-handicapped are out of luck A fresh young USFS employee in uniform met when it comes to having access to thousands of us and asked our fire crew, a crew headed by Larry square miles of BLM and Forest Service lands. Eisenman (MSO-58), where our trash was. Larry Lots of these miles have old logging, , and looked at the guy with disgust and said firmly, ranching roads to them which we historically “We ate it.” End of discussion. used. They could be easily opened and allow for The Wilderness Act, which has significantly environmentally acceptable uses by the public. reversed more than 100 years of human use and What lands are not in are classified as economic and cultural development of these roadless – or made intentionally inaccessible – by lands, was developed on the theme that human BLM and the USFS fiat. uses were bad, so they should be federally regu- My government has cheated me. It has cheated lated out of BLM and Forest Service lands. me, my family, and friends when it comes to Our urban brethren, most of those whom using my Forest Service, BLM, Bureau of Rec- would never set foot on these lands, shut them off lamation, and USFWS refuges and lands. It is a to the folks who lived by and depended on them. monstrous real application of the fable Dog in the We rural folk got and get no compensation, no Manger. You can’t use it and we don’t use it, but exemptions, and no real access to complain. The tough – we’ll let it rot and burn because we have agencies control the input and complaints, the the power. Too bad, so sad; and we pay for this protectionist radicals control the politicians, and lousy service. they control the agencies. The agencies then use In Colorado, the Forest Service’s first priority the warm-the-frog strategy to shut us out. is recreation. Because our forests have not been It has happened. Miners are gone, loggers are significantly managed since the Wilderness Act, gone, sheep and cattle guys have been reduced the Forest Service and BLM lands are pathetic,

June 4-6, 2021 in Boise 29 www.smokejumpers.com beetle killed, droughted out from dog-hair stands build in the mountains, even on previous building of 60-year-old, 1.5-inch diameter junk soaking up sites. the water. County and state governments in Colorado I would guess that there is a reduction of ap- obviously intend to discourage building on private proximately 70 percent of livestock grazing on inholding properties in the mountains. BLM, Forest Service lands since 1968 due to forest tree Forest Service, and state land management agen- overgrowths and intentional regulatory prohibi- cies go out of their way to freeze out inholders, of tions. There is little to eat for big game and live- course with the best of intentions. I have personal stock. Access to livestock folks and federal grazing experience with this effort. and use rules makes it economically unfeasible to How long can a country exist that intentionally graze it. sabotages the efforts of its citizens at every turn? So, we have barren, shaded-out deserts under Our western public lands, with the exception the tree cover. Where fires have burned the forest of gas and oil leases, are a liability – not an as- out, the regrowth without grazing or management set – under current management. There is no end is dog-hair thick, prime for devastating reburns. in sight for this poor management process. Wild Lightning on the Buckhorn Mountain, west of horse management is a total Gandy Dance. Fort Collins, Colo., started the High Park Fire in It would be interesting to have a credible 2012. My grandson and I were working at a cabin economic study looking at the dollar losses and I own about seven miles southwest of the fire. We gains that have occurred since 1968 because of watched the fire blow up. the multiple environmental protection laws. The I told my grandson that this was the fire the overall impacts are like a gigantic negative interest Front Range had been fearing and expecting for being deducted from the economy of the western 60 years. In spite of it being close to old roads states, annually sucking us dry. and trails (the was adjacent to the What have been the positive impacts of these Cache la Poudre Wilderness), vehicle access was environmental protection laws (including the seriously restricted. Endangered Species Act, the Wetlands Protection The area is a steep, rocky tangle of unburned, Act, EPA, etc.)? Realistically, in my experience, ungrazed, and unlogged mountains, an ideal forest none of them has resulted in better outcomes than fire location. The sheriff’s office and Rist Canyon could have been under 1968’s prior management Fire District guys moved quickly and moved out of laws. Even the few good examples I have seen the people who lived in the fire’s path and inhold- could have been done better by less-punitive ap- ings. proaches and regulations. The Endangered Species The Forest Service diddled. It took them about Act is a great example of the heavy hand leading three days to get its plan going. By that time, the to miserable failures. fire was a gobbling up forest, scat- The Golden Goose of the USA is being killed tered buildings, and homes throughout the area. by the Pied Piper’s preaching the eco-wackos’ The Red Card requirements seriously retarded chant and marching us toward drowning in a tar local responses, requiring a long period to collect baby sea. qualified firefighters. I strongly support NSA speaking out on the It was a get-out-of-the-way fire depending on wildfire and related issues. I am not sure the nega- the June . During the fire, there was no rain tive effects of the current forest management are or help from the weather. The fire basically ran being discussed sufficiently. It would be instruc- out of fuel when it hit the bottom of the moun- tive to hear the USFS’s and BLM’s explanations tains and petered out at the agricultural land, or of their decision-making, assuming they would be the fuel ran out at the short grass prairie edge. honest and do so with positive intentions. I have friends who lost their buildings, houses Frankly, I am tired of reading their double- and machinery. Some still have not rebuilt due to speak platitudes to CYA and pass-the-bucket county code rules, insurance hassles, access issues, gobbledygook. Who expects complete, straightfor- etcetera. A person here has to be very wealthy to ward answers from federal agencies?

Check the NSA website 30 National Smokejumper Reunion Citizens Do Not Have The Right To Challenge Poor Gov’t. Decisions— Accountability A Thing Of The Past by Chuck Sheley (Cave Junction ’59)

huck Pickard (MSO-48) sent me an But, on the other hand, should we now burn article from the Knoxville News Sentinel our way out of this situation? Let’s face it, we put C(Jan. 2020) concerning the November out fires because the public did not want to de- 2016 fire that started in the Great Smoky Moun- stroy millions of acres of forests, burn down towns tains National Park. The acre-sized fire intimately and kill people. Where would we be now if we let destroyed more than 2,500 homes and killed 14 the forests burn? How many lives lost, towns lost people in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. and watershed damaged? There has to be a middle The US Dept. of Justice, representing the ground in this argument. Park Service, argued that citizens don’t have the There is a time and place to let fires burn and legal right to challenge “discretionary” decisions let nature take its course. Situation: extended of government workers even if those decisions are conditions, middle of July, extreme fuel bad and lead to death and destruction.” End of load, resources depleted by hundreds of other argument no matter how sad and unfair. wildfires, lightning strike starts a wildfire. Do However, it was argued that the Park Service we let this fire burn? After all, it was started by a was required by its own guidelines to notify park lightning strike and this is the way fires started for “neighbors” about the fire. The US District Judge centuries. agreed with that argument. But we now have 330 million people in the Let’s take a look at this fiasco. The fire started U.S. More than we did in 1800. There are towns during a record-setting drought, and the park’s fire and people adjacent to these wilderness areas. Do management officer (FMO) decided to “contain” we adapt to the current situations or go back to (let burn) the fire despite forecasts of high winds. what “nature” intended to happen? Do we realize Does this sound familiar to you who live in Mon- that we are a different country now than we were tana and Oregon—Lolo Peak Fire/Chetco Bar in 1800? Fires? We know the end result. I’m depressed by the Gatlinburg fire and how it The FMO decided not to attack the fire five was handled. Fourteen people killed. That is just days before it entered Gatlinburg, waited four a fraction of what we experienced in California’s days before ordering water drops, and did not call , a few miles from where I live. There in “most of fire crew staff,” most of whom were on has to be a factor added to the equation—com- vacation due to the holiday (Thanksgiving). No mon sense! one was assigned to watch the fire before new fires Michael Rains (Assoc) has written a series of started on Nov. 28 within a mile of the Gatlin- well-thought-out articles for this magazine on burg city limits. When winds reached 60 mph, the creating a biomass industry in the United States. fire wrapped around the city. Even though his thoughts are so logical, they don’t We’re in a new era. It has been reasonably stand a chance of being implemented. We do not argued that by putting out wildfire, we have cre- have to burn our way out of the past! We can ated the current situation where the landscape is create jobs, manage our forests, and save us from clogged with a high fuel load. Point well taken. tremendous health problems down the line. We certainly jumped many fires in wilderness Will we change and take a new path—not a areas that should have been left to burn. chance.

June 4-6, 2021 in Boise 31 www.smokejumpers.com BLAST FROM THE PAST by Jack Demmons (Missoula ’50) into a bull moose who, thank- Seeley Swan Pathfinder fully, left the trail to us. It March 1993 was about 6:00 a.m. when we rounded a turn in the trail and August 1950, 16 jumpers were come upon bear rooting at airborne enroute to nine fires something along the bank. I on the Nez Perce N.F. and were shouted and the surprised bear to be dropped two to a fire. My jumped straight up, switched partner, Mike, and I were to ends in midair and, with gravel be dropped on two fires about flying, headed down the trail. 500 yards apart. Mike and I arrived at the Ten jumpers bailed out on walked most of the way in the Selway Falls Guard Station five fires. Our turn came. We creek. After tagging our gear by 8:00 a.m. and were later were to jump in the Three for pack string pickup, we pro- picked up by a truck and taken Links Creek area near “The ceeded on to the Three Links to the Grangeville airport. Crags”—a very rugged section Guard Station and planned to Floyd Bowman (USFS pilot) of the Nez Perce. spend the night. picked us up in a Beechcraft I exited and headed for the We reached the unmanned Bonanza and flew us back to jump spot that was occupied station about 10:00 that night Missoula. by three mountain goats who and decided to continue The experience from the took off when I shouted. Mike walking all night to a road at Three Links fires was one of was dropped to his fire. We Selway Falls. I used the phone my most memorable while had our fires out by 2:00 p.m. at the guard station to call the with the smokejumpers. Mike We packed our gear down Fenn Ranger Station to tell and I walked a little over 30 to a place called Stuart Hot them of our plans. miles on the trip out of the Springs. The sides of the After leaving about 11:00 very remote area in the Selway canyons were so steep that we p.m., we hiked on, running Bitterroot .

Remembrances of Bob Charley (McCall ’93)

Bob Charley passed away April 3, 2020. At this time, do you copy?’ ‘Go ahead, Charley Fire.’ no obit has been received, but many emails have gone “Bob Charley was the first jumper who over the internet. Some are below: taught me that, despite what some Ned like me might have thought, smokejumpers don’t Matt Ganz (MYC-01): “Many moons ago fit a mold of conformity. Why should we? One Todd Franzen, Mike Cooper, and I named a of the greatest strengths of smokejumpers is great little 3-man’er, out in some vast beauti- our innate individualism, despite the fact that ful stretch of Nevada, the ‘Charley Fire.’ We we must always have a team mentality. Bob sat on the high ridge, stirred up some coals, typified that for me. His low-key demeanor and just loved every report we sent to dispatch. always lulled me to sleep, until that sharp ‘Battle Mountain Dispatch, Bob Charley Fire, intellect delivered some wonderful piece of fire

Check the NSA website 32 National Smokejumper Reunion wisdom built off of so many years mastering Frankie Romero (MYC-89): “So many great his trade. memories of Bob. Not just all the fires we were “I can see in my mind’s eye his face, lighting on, but just being around him. Bob kicking up after some epic fire jump with him into Yel- all our butts at the annual Ponderosa Trail lowstone, Hells Canyon, the Gospel Hump, or Run—all the cool T-shirt designs—cookouts at the Salmon breaks. He was an adept parachute married housing with Priscilla and their kids. handler, and he loved it.” Ours, along with all the other smokejumper kids, running around, as Bob would say, ‘like a Corey LeMay (MYC-98): “This is a punch in the pack of wild Indians.’ gut. I worked a lot with Bob in my short career “Most of all Bob had the gift of perspective. as a jumper. I jumped some fires with Bob and He could bring you back to earth if you were spent time climbing trees with him in Chicago. thinking a little too much of yourself. More of- We always had a good time. He was a great bro ten, he would pick you up when life was getting to have.” you down and show you that things weren’t all that bad. Leo Cromwell (IDC-66): “Bob and I exchanged “More than once he made some wisecrack messages or calls regularly, and Bob always that turned the mood of the whole room shared a story or two about his love for jump- around, definitely a gift that the rest of us got ers. He was always interested on how Bobby to share in. Thanks Bob, you were a team cap- Montoya was doing and how he defeated his tain when it came to crew morale.” kidney problems and dialysis.” Christy Behm (MYC-01): “God speed Bro.You Brad Sanders (MYC-88): “This is very sad news are missed by all. After this pandemic is over, to hear about the loss of Bob Charley. He was a I think we should have a memorial party for fine, humble man, a father, and a smokejumper Bob if possible, this summer. He was such an with a unique wit and sense of humor.” integral part of the jump base for many years.”

Turn Your Pins and Patches Into Helping Other Smokejumpers and Their Families Send us your Smokejumper or other pins, Trail Crew pins, and/or patches that are hiding in your sock drawer. We’ll sell them to collectors on eBay with all money going into the NSA Good Samaritan Fund and acknowledge you in a later issue.

Send to: Chuck Sheley—10 July Ln—Chico Maggie Wright (R), wife of Clay Wright (MYC-79). presents Good Sam Fund check to Rainey Jensen, wife of Lee Jensen CA 95926 (MYC-69/deceased), for needed roof repairs on her home. Thank you GSF donors. (Courtesy M. Wright)

June 4-6, 2021 in Boise 33 www.smokejumpers.com Remember and honor fellow jumpers with a gift to the NSA Good Samaritan Fund in their name. Hard times can fall on many of us at any Off time. The NSA is here to support our fellow jumpers and their families through the Good Samaritan Fund. Mail your contribution to: The Chuck Sheley 10 Judy Lane List Chico, CA 95926

his master’s degree and PhD. from the University Robert “Bob” Dusenbury (Missoula ’46) of Oregon. Gordon taught in Boise for five years Bob died September 23, 2017, in Anacortes, before moving to Eugene, Oregon, where he was WA. After graduating from high school in 1942, a teacher and principal. The last ten years of his he joined the Navy and served as a Petty Officer career were spent as Director of American Inter- on LST 281. Bob delivered tanks and supplies to national Schools in Saudi Arabia, Yugoslavia and Charlie Sector on Omaha Beach on June 6, l944. Ethiopia. He jumped at Idaho City 1955-58. He moved to Missoula after the war and got his degree in Forestry from the Univ. of Montana. Sam L. Greiner (Missoula ’54) Bob jumped 1946-48 at Missoula and moved Sam died June 28, 1971, in a helicopter ac- to Charlo, Montana, in 1955 where he worked cident while working a fire in Alaska. He was a for the BIA, ending up in Cedar City, Utah, as sergeant in the Oklahoma National Guard dur- a manager for the writing of the first Grazing ing the 1950s and was deployed to France. Sam Environmental Statement for Utah. Bob retired in jumped at Missoula 1954, 55, 58, Fairbanks in 1981 and moved to Anacortes and started Dusen- 1962, and Cave Jct. in 1969. bury Marine Services, spending many hours on Sam was working as a seasonal firefighter in his 40-foot sailboat. Alaska when the helicopter he was in was forced down near McGrath, Alaska. He walked into the G. Brent Wynn (Idaho City ’56) rotor blade and was killed. Brent, 81, died May 22, 2019. After graduat- (Thanks to Fred Cooper for researching this obit ing from high school, he took his first job as a as part of the NSA History Preservation Program. smokejumper with the USFS, spending five sum- Ed.) mers fighting fires as a jumper. He paid his way through college, a LDS mission, and helped out Richard D. Cromwell (Missoula ’68) with the expenses of the family farm in difficult Richard,48, died July 10, 1999, in Hamilton, times. During these early adulthood years, he Montana. He moved to Montana from Southern served an LDS mission to the Western States. He California in 1961 and jumped at Missoula 1968- worked for Thiokol, Boeing, Evans & Sutherland, 71, where he had 17 practice jumps and 35 fire Link Flight Simulation, and retired from Hill Air jumps. Force Base. His favorite job was teaching Design In 1972, he began working as a dispatcher Engineering and Technology at Brigham Young for the Bitterroot N.F. While in this position, University. he trained Job Corps enrollees for fire crews and Brent was active and proud of his good health helped develop the Selway Bitterroot Fire Man- and active lifestyle, competitively finishing 20 St. agement Plan. In 1985, he began working as the George Marathons and multiple triathlons. manager and outfitter for the North Star in the Selway Bitterroot Wilderness, spending many Gordon L. Quigley (Idaho City ’55) hunting seasons guiding and packing. Gordon died May 12, 2018. After serving with (Thanks to Fred Cooper for researching this obit the U.S. Army in Germany, he completed his as part of the NSA History Preservation Program. bachelor’s degree from Idaho State and later got Ed.)

Check the NSA website 34 National Smokejumper Reunion NSA Good Samaritan Fund Contributions Donor In Memory Of/Honor of Donor In Memory Of/Honor of Lonnie Park (MYC-54)...... “Buz” Bertram (MYC-47) Lynn Sprague (MYC-59)...... Frank “Bud” Phillips Leonard Wehking (FBX-85) “Erik the ” (MYC-55) Schoenfeld (CJ-64) Bruce Marshall (BOI-71)...... Matt Kelley (FBX-71) Brad Willard (MSO-58)...... Jon Rolf (GAC-57) John McMahon (MSO-58).... Ron Stoleson (MSO-56) Richard Baumgartner (MSO-58) Dave Poncin (MSO-58) Barbara Mattison...... Glen Smith (IDC-54) Chuck Hatch (GAC-63)...... Good Sam Fund Jim Miller (CJ-68)...... Tom/Sam Greiner (MSO-54) Les Tschohl (MSO-66).... Michael R. Smith (MSO-69) Claude Greiner (MSO-55) Toby Scott (MYC-57)...... Max—Pete—Shep Don Havel (FBX-66)...... Jerry Walters (MSO-66) Lonnie Park (MYC-54) Frank “Bud” Phillips Fred Ebel (MSO-57)...... Ron Stoleson (MSO-56) (MYC-55) Craig Smith/John MacKinnon (MSO-57) Bud Filler (MYC-52) Contributions since the previous publication of donors April 2020 Total funds disbursed to smokejumpers and families since 2004—$207,240 Mail your Good Samaritan Fund contributions to: Chuck Sheley, 10 Judy Ln., Chico CA 95926

Harold W. Meili (Cave Junction ’52) jumped there 1957-59 after his rookie year in Hal, 89, died January 28, 2020, in Cheney, Cave Junction. Bill received university degrees Washington. He was a graduate of Eastern Wash- from the U.C Berkley and U.C. Davis. He had ington College of education and served in the a 30-year teaching career at Chabot College in U.S. Coastguard. Hal taught 5th grade in Spokane California. for 25 years. Two highlights in his life were watch- After retirement, Bill wrote a nature column for ing his daughter, Launi Kay, win the gold medal the “Ridge Rider News” in Shingletown, CA. He in sharpshooting at the 1992 Olympics and seeing was a runner and bicyclist who, when they first his daughter, Heidi, at the Seattle Seahawks games met, told his future wife, Kay, that he had totaled as a professional cheerleader. Hal jumped at Cave as many running miles as the circumference of the Junction for the 1952 season. earth.

Ralph M. Miller (McCall ’45) John William Eaton (Redding ’63) Ralph, 93, died August 20, 2018, at his home Bill died February 6, 2020, in Highland, CA. in Anchorage, Alaska. He jumped at McCall After graduating from high school, he began his during the 1945 season and later went into the 34-year career with the USFS working on the Las- logging business in Sweet Home, Oregon. sen, Shasta-Trinity and San Bernardino National Ralph moved to Alaska in 1956 and pastored Forests. Before retirement in 1987, Bill was FMO churches in North Pole, Sitka and Anchorage. He for the Cajon District of the San Bernardino N.F. served as an elected official in the denomination’s He worked with FIRESCOPE in the creation of Alaska District Office from 1984 until retirement the and fought fires in 1996. throughout the Western U.S. Bill spent two years in the US Army, being discharged in 1959. William B. Brophy (Cave Junction ’56) Two days after retiring, Bill began a new career Bill, 81, died May 20, 2018, of a severe brain with the Alvord School District (Riverside) where injury sustained as a result of a fall in Santa he was the Director of Maintenance and Opera- Cruz, Calif. He moved to Redding as a child and tions, a position he held for 24 years before retir-

June 4-6, 2021 in Boise 35 www.smokejumpers.com ing again in 2012. Bill was part of the unique R-5 Robert L. Derry (Missoula ’43) “Retread” program and jumped from 1964-70 as Bob died March 23, 2020. The last of the Der- a “Retread.” ry brothers, he rookied in 1943 before enlisting in the Navy and serving in the Seabees until the Ramon J. “Ray” Mansisidor (McCall ’46) end of the war. Bob was involved in landings in Ray, 95, died March 11, 2020. He graduated the Marshall Islands and spent eleven “miserable from Homedale (ID) High School in 1942 and months” on Kwajalein. He was a went into the US Army in 1944. Ray trained flight operator in Spokane 1946-49 before joining the engineers, pilots and co-pilots on bombers at Wil- Douglas Co. for a 30-year stint liams Field, Chandler, AZ, until the end of the war. as Fire Chief. Ray went to Washington State for two semes- Bob remained in excellent physical condition ters before returning to McCall where he jumped as he aged as anyone who worked with him on the 1946-47 seasons. In 1956 he came back to the NSA Trail Projects can attest. He continued to Homedale to help on the family farm where he bike, ski, kayak, row and run in later life. has been since that time. Ray was an accomplished pilot and was instrumental in the creation and Merl C. “Bud” Filler (McCall ’52) development of the Homedale Municipal Airport. Bud, 86, died of cancer March 26, 2020, at his In 2020, in recognition of 60 years of service, home in Boise. He was a graduate of Penn State the Owyhee Co. Soil and Water District renamed University and earned his master’s degree from the their “Conservationist of the Year” award the “Ray University of British Columbia. Bud jumped at Mansisidor Conservationist of the Year” award. McCall 1952-54 and also served as an Artillery Officer in the U.S. Army’s 9th Infantry Divi- Rob Lundgren (Associate) sion. Rob died March 4, 2020, at his home in Walla Throughout an exemplary career in forest Walla, Washington He received his B.A. in Indus- products, Bud worked for several major forest trial Technology from Washington State Universi- products companies and later co- ty in 1968 and then spent four years in the USAF. founded Filler King Company, a highly successful Rob had a 31-year career with the USFS before manufacturer of structural prod- retiring in 1997. He was FMO on the Lochsa ucts. He authored two books and was a pilot. R.D. in Kooskia for twenty of those years. As a volunteer National Ski Patrolman for Rob was the cook on Tom Kovalicky’s many years at Bogus Basin, he was first on TRAMPS crew for 12 years. “He was a volun- the hill and one of the last off. Bud was a Life teer, an outstanding organizer, and all on his own Member of the NSA dime,” said Tom.

Families, Friends Get First Look at Site of Fatal 1957 Trimotor Crash by Kim Briggeman, The Missoulian (Missoula, Mont.)

TOWNSEND, Mont. – It was nothing short of a members of Penn Stohr Sr. and Bob Vallance had pilgrimage. been notified just a day earlier of the Forest Service They came by bus, car, truck and airplane Aug. escort to the slope where the two pilots died in 1957 19 to a mountainside most had never seen. in a fiery crash of a Ford Trimotor. Some of the two-dozen friends, fans and family They showed up anyway, not a few of them

Check the NSA website 36 National Smokejumper Reunion blinking away tears as they paid homage and sought crash site. answers to questions more than six decades old. “I was surprised there was as much there as there “It turned out to be a lot more than we ex- was, surprised Johnson didn’t take it all out,” Stohr pected,” confessed Jamison Jordan, an archaeologist said. for the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest’s Marcia Vallance Babowicz was on Monday’s Townsend Ranger District. pilgrimage too. Two fathers, husbands and daring mountain A retired bank executive from Hamilton, Mont., flyers lost their lives here on the morning of June she was 5 years old when her father died up here. 19, 1957. Stohr Jr. himself tracked her down on Sunday to let Penn Stohr Sr., 54, was a fearless, cigar- her know about the Townsend gathering. Babowicz chomping pioneer aviator who grew up in Plains canceled a doctor’s appointment on the drive over and started building his legend as a backcountry with her husband Don, son Nate Souther, and cous- pilot in Idaho. His skills were arguably second only in Donna Gastineau, who was Bob Vallance’s niece. to Bob Johnson himself in Johnson Flying Service’s “I wasn’t really looking for closure,” Babowicz table of flyers. Stohr is in the Idaho and Montana’s said afterward, “but I think just having the ad- Museum of Mountain Flying aviation Halls of ditional information was comforting to me and Fame, one of seven inaugural inductees in the latter meaningful.” in 1995. Gastineau is several years older and remembers Bob Vallance, 31, had been a radioman on a her father better, Babowicz noted. “She said she’s warplane in the Pacific during World War II. He been waiting for this her whole life.” became a pilot for Johnson in the 1950s, and was Barely a month had passed since someone in his fourth year in the front seat that morning, approached members of a trail crew from the learning the ropes of weed spraying in tricky terrain Townsend Ranger District and told them of the from one of the masters. wreckage up Indian Creek Road. The crew left a Among those who climbed the steep hillside note on the desk of Jordan’s boss, Jen Ryan. Ryan above a remote Forest Service road in the Elkhorn contacted Dick Komberec, a founding member of Mountains was Penn Stohr Jr. (Associate), who the Museum of Mountain Flying in Missoula. surveyed the rusted engine mount, control column, “We were looking to learn about what we have rudder pedals and other parts of the 1929 “Tin on our forest. I think initially we knew about it, but Goose.” it kind of got lost in time,” Jordan said. Young Penn had just graduated from eighth He’d been the first from the ranger district to grade at Paxson Elementary in June 1957 when he locate the debris, more than 15 rough miles out of rode with his parents to the Missoula airport to see Townsend. Jordan said he drove past it two or three off Penn Sr., who’d been called late on a Monday on times before he saw an engine mount sticking out a sagebrush-spraying job west of Townsend. It was of the sagebrush. the last time he saw his father. After some follow-up exchanges with Komberec “This is an emotional tie-up,” he told the and author Steve Smith, another museum founder, Townsend gathering. a date was set for Aug. 19 to meet and see what was Stohr had followed in his father’s aviation foot- left. steps, rising to the ranks of chief pilot for Johnson “At this time, in so many ways, this is the most and retiring in 2003 as an executive at Evergreen significant Johnson Flying Service event for our International in Oregon. museum’s stated mission since we started” in 1994, Like most others who’d worked for Johnson Fly- Komberec said. ing between 1957 and its sale to Evergreen in 1975, That mission, as stated on the Museum of Stohr was well aware that a wing and most of the Mountain Flying’s website: “To preserve for future fuselage from the Trimotor sat in the Johnson “bone generations, the legends, lore and historical legacy yard” on the east end of the Missoula Airport. of pilots and other individuals whose pioneering What he and evidently everyone else didn’t aviation exploits helped bring America’s Rocky realize was that parts of the plane remained at the Mountain West into the Air Age.”

June 4-6, 2021 in Boise 37 www.smokejumpers.com Smith, whose eyesight is failing, got a ride to The 1957 crash left lingering questions. For one Townsend from Missoula with an old friend, Chuck thing, it remains a mystery who was flying the plane Bryson. at the fatal moment, Stohr or Vallance. “When I talked to Jamison Jordan and first heard “Of course we had always wanted to know more, about the Forest Service going to that crash site, my but we had always been told it wasn’t accessible, the impression was there were going to be two or three Forest Service had salvaged everything and there people along,” said Smith, who has known Penn wasn’t anything to see,” Babowicz said. Stohr Jr., since their high school days in Missoula in Not knowing what to expect, she and her family the 1950s. He wrote extensively about the circum- arrived at the ranger station in Townsend Monday stances surrounding the fatal crash in his book Fly morning, where Ranger Mike Welker, and district the Biggest Piece Back, a history of mountain flying archaeologists Ryan and Jordan had arranged a and Johnson Flying Service. reception. Three foresters were at the spray site serving as Stohr, who lives in the Portland area but spends flagmen and from a half-mile away witnessed the Augusts at Swan Lake, flew in from the Flathead Tri-Motor as it made one pass over its sagebrush with Hank Galpin in Galpin’s vintage 1928 Travel target from the head of Crow Creek and started on Air 6000, one of just a handful still airworthy. the second. An engine seemed to miss, one said. A 12-passenger bus pulled up to the ranger sta- Suddenly the left wing clipped a hillside. The plane, tion with a group from Missoula, including Kom- N-9642, cartwheeled across the uneven slope, “all berec, his son Eric, and others at the Museum of but disintegrating after hitting a huge fir tree,” Mountain Flying. Smith wrote. Instead of the anticipated handful, nearly two It came to rest upside-down some 350 feet from dozen people amassed in a small conference room the initial point of impact. The spray tank con- for what turned into a moving tribute, each taking taining diesel and was thrown free, but turns sharing his or her reason for being there and the gas tanks exploded. The airplane was all but many thanking the ranger district for providing the consumed in . Stohr and Vallance probably unique opportunity. died instantly. Then, in a line of pickups, cars and the bus, the Smith remembers hearing the news on Don hour-long drive to the site began. Weston’s noon broadcast on KGVO Radio. The Once there, Crystal Schonemann from the Missoula Sentinel bannered it across the top of Page crew of the now-famous DC-3 smokejumper plane One that evening, and the Missoulian played it at known as Miss Montana, placed two wreaths against the top the next morning. a rusted piece of airplane. Two weeks earlier, 13 such “Penn Stohr was the miracle pilot of Idaho, a wreaths fashioned by Pink Grizzly in Missoula were real flying legend,” Smith said recently. “When that dropped in the Gates of the Mountains north of happened, western Montana was stunned by it.” Helena, in a tribute to the 12 smokejumpers and Marcia Babowicz has lots of pictures of her one firefighter who died at Mann Gulch in August father, Bob Vallance, but doesn’t remember much 1949. about him, or about what must have been a horrible “I was very, very scared to go there because I time for her mother, Marjorie, and brothers David didn’t know how I’d react to it,” Stohr said the next and Jack, who were 9 and 8. day. “I was frightened that it would be overwhelm- “I’m sure they kept a lot of things from me,” ingly emotional. It was, but it wasn’t probably as she said. deep as I thought it might go. I think I’d already Still, she was thrilled last Sunday when she got reconciled it over the years, and then following in the out-of-the-blue call from Stohr. Years ago Stohr his footsteps probably made it a little better.” had met the late Jack Vallance, a lifelong pilot, but With the others on the hill, Babowicz tried to never his younger sister. Tragically, their brother imagine the terrible crash in her mind, in order to David died in the crash of an Army supply heli- come to grips with it. copter in Quang Tin Province of Vietnam in 1969. “When we were driving up there I was thinking, He was 21. What the hell is my father doing flying in this country?”

Check the NSA website 38 National Smokejumper Reunion she said. surreal, one of those things like, Is this really hap- Her conclusion: “Those pilot guys are crazy. I pening?” can say that because I’m from a family of pilots.” Something else occurred to Babowicz about the Babowicz was impressed and enraptured by the men who flew these mountains, even as she stood stories she heard from men who knew her father and in the wreckage. Stohr and the planes they flew. “They were pioneers,” she said. “I never thought “It was overwhelming, really,” she said. “Just of it like that.”

Paradise With A Wind Chill by Gary Shade (Missoula ’69)

“The two most important dates in our lives are mer, and that I was to report within two weeks for when we are born and when we figure out why.” departure out of , and please con- —Samuel Clemens firm my acceptance. OMG and double WOW! nbeknownst to me at that time, 1977 was The wire didn’t state the position I was to fill, my last year jumping. At the beginning but that didn’t matter. When I showed my bride Uof the season, I went with a spring detail the message, she put up a strong face and, with a down to our base in Silver City, N.M. tear rolling down her cheek, stated, “It’s okay. You While there, a newspaper want ad was being should go.” handed out regarding employment in Antarctica. I No, that ain’t happening. But the seed had took one look at the ad and was immediately been planted, and the southern pole became a hooked. The posting started out with Shackleton’s lifelong interest of mine. As a memento, I kept want ad, in the London Times, 1900, recruit- the scrap of ad and stuffed it away for another ing men for a bit of adventure and hard work to lifetime. Antarctica: Fast-forward again to the present day. The op- “Men wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, portunity and funds became available for me to bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, con- do one thing on my “bucket list” – and that was stant danger, safe return doubtful, honor and recog- an easy choice, since I had only one item on the nition in case of success.” list: Experience Antarctica. Well, any good (single) jumper worth his With much research, I found the exact op- parachute could not resist that bait, so I sent in a portunity that satisfied my many interests, an resume, just for the hell of it, and promptly dis- expedition/cruise with Oceanwide Expeditions missed any notion of hearing from the contractor. – www.oceanwide-expeditions.com. This company Fast-forward almost a year. I did not show up specializes in North and South polar excursions. for the 1978 season as I found myself with a new What caught my fancy was a 20-night cruise in- bride, kid on the way, and a great new “real job” volving landings on the Falklands, South Georgia as recreation forester on the Rogue River National Island, Elephant Island, and the Antarctic Penin- Forest. We had just moved into a very nice Forest sula. Service employee house. As a group of world travelers and adventurers, Then, out of the blue, a Western Union tele- I know that many of the readers of Smokejumper gram was delivered to my door. It was from the magazine would have a keen interest in this type Antarctic contractor, Holmes and Narver, stating of vacationing. that I had been selected for a spot on their crew I have returned from my voyage and will going to a research station for the Antarctic sum- briefly share what I found.

June 4-6, 2021 in Boise 39 www.smokejumpers.com There are many cruise lines offering expedi- as 25 degrees Fahrenheit and the wind chill is tion/cruising around the planet. The venues are around zero. I went in November, but temps seem many with a wide range of opportunities, includ- to be constant through their summer months of ing many types of ships. I can only comment on November to March. my experience with Oceanwide Expeditions. Biosecurity is a serious issue, especially on I found that my experience with them ex- South Georgia. Outerwear and boots are sanitized ceeded all my expectations, and, though costly at and inspected before every excursion ashore. Old, $500 per night, the thrills far exceeded the costs. ratty Velcro is discouraged as bugs and mate- The $500-per-night cost seems to be some kind of rial are easily trapped in the material. Wash all price point to shop around for South Pole expedi- outer gear before going down. tions. The month one chooses to travel will deter- I could write a short book on my journey, but mine what wildlife will be observed. Financial this format doesn’t allow for lengthy descriptions. issues may limit ones choice of locations – South I will just try to use a few descriptors: other- Georgia Island or the Antarctic Peninsula. Each is worldly, spectacularly magical and, most impor- a very different experience. tantly, one constantly experiences the unexpected. South Georgia is a place I will call “Paradise” Every day I would say to myself, It can’t get better because of the amount of interaction one has with than this, but the next day it always would. wildlife, and topography. The peninsula is other- Sir Shackleton in his book South stated most worldly – less wildlife, but one has the experience eloquently: “We drifted along in a strange unreal- of being on another planet; quite extraordinary. ity.” Oh, I actually did have a good idea. I had Research will give one a lot of information on understood that once on land, if nature calls, one this type of cruising, but I learned some of the can’t relieve him/herself on land. The guides will things that won’t appear in the marketing material: have to take you back to the ship. The outrageous Well, with my personal plumbing being more First, the cost of Internet was $37 per 100MB than 73 years old, when nature calls it’s with a and not always working. A can of Coke or a beer 9-1-1 number. So I took with me half-a-dozen sets cost $3.50. Laundry services were offered, but of man diapers in the form of underwear. I found started at $3 for set of underwear. Did my own that to be quite reassuring and comfortable. Fig- laundry in the bathroom sink, but just knickers. ured I might as well get use to this notion of man My bad decisions diapers – as in the not-too-distant future, Amazon Didn’t own a balaclava and thought my extra- will be delivering these, by the case, to my door in large bandana would work just fine; first bad deci- plain brown paper wrappings. sion. The second dumb decision was not getting familiar with my new camera and smartphone photo capabilities. I thought I would use the time on board and on land to OJT my photo skills and equipment knowledge. The photographic op- portunities were immediate and overwhelming. I should have taken the time be at the top of my picture-taking game before the trip. In summary Many of the cruise lines offering these expedi- tions/cruises are European. They like Euros, and make sure one’s cruise is in English. Electric sock- ets on board are Continental. Be sure to check if boots and outer coats are offered or not. All outer- wear needs to be waterproof from head to toe. Gary Shade takes Smokejumper the Antarctica. (Courtesy G. I found that ambient temperatures are as low Shade)

Check the NSA website 40 National Smokejumper Reunion ODDS AND ENDS

by Chuck Sheley with improved accuracy, indicate that Congratulations and thanks to Jerry a firefighter may soon be jumping Bushnell (NCSB-72), Leonard from airplanes to put out forest fires. Wehking (FBX-85), Rich Krenkel According to plans now being tested, (MSO-71), and Doug Bucklew firefighting tools are to be dropped by (CJ-67) who just became our latest the jumper before he leaves the plane. Life Member(s). It is claimed that one good ‘smoke chaser’ can do wonders in controlling a Grant Beebe (NIFC-90) was selected as forest fire if he gets there on time and the BLM’s Assistant Director of Fire and parachute appears to be the answer.” Aviation in a January 2020 announce- ment. Grant started his career in fire- Just got word (March) that Jerry Spence fighting on one of my Type II crews out (RDD-94) is the new Base Manager at of U.C. Davis. In the 10-person rookie class Redding. I remember way back to the 2000 at NIFC in 1990, three were from the Davis Fire reunion in Redding. Jerry handled the floor Crew. Of the other two, Manny Diaz is a M.D. mic at the Saturday evening dinner. It was a living in Woodland, CA, and Dan Scudero is pretty amazing thing as he, and a few others, one of those in the NSA database for whom we ran the floor putting the mic in the hands of have no contact information. jumpers at the dinner. Fred Brauer (MSO-41) spoke a few words. Amazing, we heard from a Camp Fire: In the local Chico newspaper, there smokejumper legend—long gone now. In any was an article this morning (2/11/20) about the case, congratulations Jerry. They made a good “forgotten deaths” from the Camp Fire. Inter- pick for the job! esting because these people are not included in the initial fatality list. Paradise was a retirement Marty Mitzkus (MSO-99) has accepted the position community and many of the deaths in Nov. 2018 of Deputy Forest Supervisor on the Nez Perce- were elderly people trapped in their homes. Clearwater National Forests. However, today’s article told about a 24-year- Marty jumped Missoula in 1999 and West old young man with muscular dystrophy who Yellowstone 2001-03. passed shortly after the fire. Since that day over KIVI news Boise reports (April 7) that the BLM 50 additional deaths have occurred that are smokejumpers are making face masks to give to linked to the fire by medical experts. people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Benny Mitchell (GAC-60): “Chuck, wanted to let The most recent Good Sam Fund assistance went you know that I have read the Jan. issue at least to the wife of a former jumper who was killed in three times cover to cover, especially “The New an while working. The funds will help ” and the review of the . with bills and personal needs. Thanks again to “I am in lockstep with every word in these all of you for your support of this fund. articles. You are ‘spot on’ in all respects. The FS doesn’t fight fire to win anymore.” Herb Fischer (MSO-57): “I think dropping retar- dant out of a 747 makes about as much sense as Don Havel (FBX-66) passed this along from the Jan. hauling out of a mine in a Lincoln Town 1940 Hunting and Fishing magazine: “Prelimi- Car—you can do it, but why? (Herb has an amaz- nary trials with a specially designed parachute, ing 30,000 hours of flying time. (Ed.) in which jumpers were able to steer themselves

June 4-6, 2021 in Boise 41 www.smokejumpers.com Lynn and Alberts Bill Moody Receives Selected for Al Dunton Prestigious Award

Leadership Award Bill Moody was honored at the Ed Lynn, Missoula Smokejumpers, was selected Aerial Fire Fighting Conference held in Sacramen- posthumously due to his extensive dedication in to this past March. The “Walt Darran Award” is serving others as a humble and quiet leader. As presented annually to recognize significant contri- noted in his nomination, “He led by example and butions by individuals or organizations to aerial was universally respected by other jumpers as a firefighting. field going, fun loving, and hardworking guy.” Ed From the awards program: “Bill is an outstand- mentored and trained others as a smokejumper, ing personality who has devoted his life to halt professional faller, teacher, and as a coach. He was and reduce the adverse consequences of landscape a critical part of the Missoula Smokejumper saw fires affecting our precious environment, human program and took an important leadership role in lives, and the assets of our societies. And to en- Region 5 as part of the Porterville Organized Crew hance the safety of our dedicated firefighters in the program on the Sierra N.F. Ed rookied at Missoula air, on the ground, and between these two spheres in 1995 and worked for both the Grangeville and – the smokejumping community. McCall Smokejumpers before returning to Mis- “He is a professional who began his career as soula. He was diagnosed with an inoperable brain firefighter, Smokejumper Base Manager, as well tumor in the fall of 2018, while on fire assignment, as regional/national fire/aviation specialist and in- and passed away on December 26, 2018. structor, national fire team aviation specialist, and the author or project leader of several fire-aviation Seth Alberts, Great Basin Smokejumpers, was operations guides. selected due to his leadership attributes displayed in “It is (presenter quoting) not only your profes- mentoring and training others. His constant drive sional work and your tireless efforts after retire- to do the best job possible, while taking on any ment from the US Forest Service in December challenge, is noteworthy. The basis for his selection 1989 that you had formed a consultant business. is Seth’s effectiveness at developing and inspiring This did not only allow you to continue instruct- others to continually improve their own knowledge, ing fire aviation courses in the United States, skills, and abilities. Seth rookied for the Great Basin Canada and in Mongolia. Since 2004 you had Smokejumpers in 2012, served as the Great Basin accompanied Evergreen Aviation in the develop- Smokejumper Lead Rookie Trainer, and is currently ment of the supertanker project and the acting Loft Assistant Manager. primary author of the B- Opera- The award is presented annually to one BLM tions Plan and related papers on potential fire uses and one U.S. Forest Service smokejumper who of the B-747.” goes beyond the requirements of the job and dem- Congratulations, Bill, from the NSA and our onstrates excellence in leadership. membership.

National Reunion June 4–6 Boise

Check the NSA website 42 National Smokejumper Reunion SOUNDING OFF from the Editor

infrastructure. They Paradise/Camp Fire). Sterling want the state to City was a “company town” create a 20 percent operated by the Diamond carve-out for lo- Match Lumber Company. cal workers and The “company” owned tribal workers. everything. “The effort The six kids grew up in escalated on Tuesday a two-room house owned by when representa- the “company.” I’m guessing tives from the the kids raised themselves tribes stormed a with the guidance of the government disaster older sisters. When the by Chuck Sheley recovery task force shut down in the (Cave Junction ’59) meeting with their winter, the paychecks Managing Editor demands. ’When you stopped, and scrip books are working in our territo- would be drawn but only for ry, and you’re negotiating and use at the company store. As Can We Ever Stop building contracts to touch all Tennessee Ernie Ford said in Making Up For this, you have to consult with his song, “You owe your soul us.’” to the company store.” Past Wrongs? “This is our land, and we’ve My Dad went to work as It has been almost 18 months been here our whole lives, and a full-time logger at age 14 as since the Camp Fire and not we’re staying here,” one tribe a “whistle punk,” the person a day passes without another member said. who would relay the signals to fire-related issue appearing in I had a tough time read- the loggers working down the the newspaper. It seems like it ing this article. When I grew hill from the donkey engine. will never cease. up, I remember a small Na- Logging was dangerous work. From the local news: “Most tive American (NA) piece of A cable that broke between the of Butte County’s Native land in Chico near where my donkey engine and the logs American tribes have joined grandparents lived. There were would snap like a whip cutting an effort asking the state of no NA settlements in the area in half any unfortunate worker California for a designated of the Camp Fire. I guess they in the way. timber was share of the work in ongo- feel that everything is “our just as hazardous. ing cleanup efforts after the land.” From there it was on to Camp Fire as well as a great- Before my Dad died, he the mill pond using a 16-foot er say in the disaster recovery wrote a bio. His mother died to maneuver the process. when he was four and his Dad logs from the pond into the “Their goal is to leverage was left with six children. They mill. On to the “green-” their status as sovereign na- lived in Pittsburg, CA, where chain, considered the toughest tions into contracts in the next Italian was spoken as much as job in the mill, piling green phase of the cleanup, which is English. His father got a job lumber. On to fighting forest the removal of hazardous dead in “the woods” and moved the fires when the woods “shut or dying trees from near public family to Sterling City (above down,”—up to three weeks

June 4–6, 2021 in Boise 43 www.smokejumpers.com on a fire without a change of needed to survive. He started father and family grew up “our clothes or a hot meal.” a trucking business hauling territory.” In reality, this per- At age 15 he moved down freight up the hill to Paradise son has probably never been the hill to Chico. “Had a and Sterling City and dropped up the 3,200 feet to the hills. Model-T and less than $2.00 out of Chico State after a year. How far back are we going in my pocket.” Found a job Later he managed a grocery to take this line? We can play at a service station where store and then went to work the century game back to the he could sleep in exchange for the Army in 1942 as an days of creation, if you want. for opening the station at 6 ammunition handler at the Certainly, my Dad never had a.m. Showered in the gym at Sierra Army Ordnance Depot anything given to him. How Chico H.S., went to class, and at Herlong, Calif. many 15-year-olds do you see pumped gas from 4:30 until Even without much of an moving out and working their closing the station at 10 p.m. education, he retired as the top way through high school while It was a six-day-a-week job, civilian in charge of the Depot, working in a gas station and and he was not able to take just below the Commanding showering in the gym? part in any sports, which was Officer. From ammunition If Native Americans want a one of his reasons for coming handler to the guy in charge job in the tree removal indus- to Chico. of one of the largest muni- try—we have a million trees It took a long time to tions bases on the West Coast. to bring down in the Camp graduate from high school Quite a step. Fire area—get some training with this schedule, but he Our family has been in this and go to work. Demanding a finally made it. I’m guessing he area for almost 120 years. I job because of your heritage— was probably 20 years old with have a tough time with a per- good way to get someone the amount of working time son calling the area where my killed.

The Indian War Of Idaho, Montana and Canada by Bob Graham (Missoula ’52)

n this article, I do not wish to get into much exist between the tribe and the federal govern- detail—just some of the highlights and inter- ment. Iesting events. This all came to a head Sept. 14, 1974, when I will bet that there are very few people who the tribe notified officialdom that it was taking know the United States was in a war in the fall of over the functions of government, including taxes, 1974. commerce, and complete authority over the entire The Kootenai Indian Tribe passed a resolu- scope of the tribal lands. This last part included tion Sept. 4, 1974, that notified the United States all U.S. Forest Service grounds, and notified me, Government that the tribe was reclaiming its ab- as I was the ranger there at the time, that I was to original lands located in northern Idaho and west- keep all of the Forest Service employees out of the ern Montana, as well as some lands in Canada. national forest. This resolution claimed 1,368,280 acres of land. This created an immediate problem for me The government was given five days to comply as we were in the midst of prescribed burning a with the return of these lands to the tribe, and pretty big chunk of forest acreage. This ranger lacking action by the U.S., a state of war would district was selling and logging close to 50 million

Check the NSA website 44 National Smokejumper Reunion board feet per year by 1974. This always added up 3. No Forest Service activities on the aborigi- to a heavy slash-burning season. nal lands. This was modified to allow us to man- The community leaders held a meeting the age the burning, but nothing else. night of Sept. 14 and appointed two committees 4. Lumber mills would not accept logs. Small to represent the local authorities. loggers could continue to log, but not deliver logs The first committee was to be the contact for to the mills. the tribe and to negotiate with it on all matters. There were four men appointed to this group, in- 5. Clear title of 128,000 acres transferred to cluding the mayor, chairman of the county com- the tribe and fair compensation for each of the missioners, the county extension agent, and me. original aboriginal lands of 1,680,000 acres. The second committee was the law enforce- ment group, and I was also appointed to that Most of the demands were modified or clari- group. During the war, we had one-third of the fied somewhat through the negotiation process. Idaho State Police (ISP) stationed here as well The tribe would call me two or three times as a whole bunch of other federal and state law a day and night and ask for a meeting with the enforcement officers. This group usually met soon tribal officers and our four negotiators. We would after the negotiating committee met with the meet in the tribal offices and afterward meet with tribe. the other government officials and relay our con- We put up all of the State Police officers in the cerns of meeting. basement of the local hospital. For the security Foremost for the tribal meeting was the need of these officers and their numerous vehicles, the to get to the broadcast burns and other USFS ac- ISP stationed a couple officers on the hospital tivities. The tribe allowed us to attend to whatever roof. Remarkably, two burglars chose one of these was presently burning. nights to burglarize a home directly across from Another high priority was to stop the highway the hospital, under the full view of the two roof blockages. The blockages were removed, but the officials. It was the culprits’ last activity for some signs remained up and the fee was still charged. time. Most of the days of the war were occupied by The tribal office was downtown in Bonners many meetings, including a daily phone call be- Ferry, Idaho, directly across the street from the tween me and the Forest Service Chief’s office for sheriff’s office. The sheriff’s office was an old Bill Longacre. Much of the Chief’s meetings were frame building, and the second floor was actually concerned with the official USFS participation in an attic with a window facing the tribal office. the war. Throughout the conflict, law enforcement In 1974, the USFS was just beginning to form officers with arms and cameras kept watch on the its own law enforcement cadre—more or less a tribal personnel from this attic. SWAT-trained, fully armed force led by Bill Lon- The following is a partial list of the demands gacre. About 15 of these officers were assigned to the tribe presented to the negotiating committee: Bonners Ferry to protect the ranger station. I had to make certain all of the Forest Service 1. Tribe would set up four roadblocks on the employees left the station by 5 p.m. Then Lon- highways and charge fees for drivers and vehicles. gacre’s men would move in and hide in each of the Our response to this was that the governor has stations structures, including the ranger’s house declared that anyone stopping traffic would be that my family and I occupied. arrested. The tribe said the state has no authority The chief and his staff decided we needed the any longer to arrest. SWAT team, but no one was to know we had them present. I was not even to tell the law en- 2. Do not harvest crops and bring in all live- forcement group nor any of my employees. stock. Later during the war, this was modified to Our instructions from the Chief were some- allow small farmers to operate, but large farmers what of a surprise. If the tribe or their representa- would require tribal permits. tives were to move on the ranger station, we were

June 4-6, 2021 in Boise 45 www.smokejumpers.com to show force, but not to confront them. If the the offer. They said they could hide the weapon tribe persisted in the threat, I was to let them have on me where no one would know I had it. I again the station. refused their offer, but ever since, I’ve wondered I reminded the higher-ups that my family lived where they were going to hide it. on the station. The position of the Forest Service’s While all this was going on, I had some of the Washington office was to let the tribe have my leadership of the law enforcement agents over to dwelling, also. our house for tea and crumpets late one night. The second of the established committees, the Our oldest son, Bill, and his best friend, Gary law enforcement group, had identified possible Aitken, who happened to be a Kootenai tribal targets for the tribe to overtake to gather more member, drove up in a pickup and pulled into our national attention. driveway. Bill jumped out and ran up our side- One of the highest priority targets was the walk and came into the house. ranger station. And after a couple days into the Very shortly after Bill came in, numerous war, some of the federal officials participating armed officers charged in the front door, thereby thought the tribe would accelerate the media at- ending my tea session. tention by taking a hostage, probably one of the The tribe really won the war. The politicians four negotiators, and more than likely me, since I got involved and made concessions such as rec- was a lowly federal official. ognition of their sovereignty, some acreage, some One of the federal officials suggested they give homes, and access to government funded pro- me a hidden weapon to carry at all times. I did grams, such as grants through the Environmental not think that was a good idea and turned down Protection Agency and Northwest Power funds.

RECORDING SMOKEJUMPER HISTORY

Rescue Mission In The party. (The call erroneously stated the victim was at the ranger station. She was actually about 20 South Fork Primitive Area miles away.) by Jack Demmons (Missoula ’50) Veteran pilot Bob Johnson took off from (Originally published in the October 1994 edition of Missoula’s Hale Field at 6 p.m. with Dr. Leo P. The Static Line.) Martin (MSO-40) and nurse Cathryn Ward. (The Big Prairie strip was about 75 miles northeast of uring Wednesday and Thursday, Sept. Missoula.) 17-18, 1941, there was high drama in Dr. Martin had trained at Missoula under Dthe South Fork Primitive Area of Mon- Frank Derry (MSO-40) and had also taken tana. (That area is now part of the Bob Marshall some training in parachuting at Moose Creek Wilderness Area.) in the Nez Perce National Forest. He was not a Two Travelairs of the Johnson Flying Service, smokejumper, but had taken parachute training based out of Missoula, were standing by at the on his own so as to be jump-qualified for rescue Big Prairie Ranger Station’s landing strip. A rescue operations. (Medical journals in the United States mission was in progress. referred to him as the only “jump doctor” in the A call had been received in Missoula on Sept. nation at the time.) He was a native of Coram, 17, stating that a woman in a hunting party had Montana. been shot by another hunter – from a different Upon landing, they found that the injured

Check the NSA website 46 National Smokejumper Reunion woman, Barbara Streit of Missoula, had been rain-swollen South Fork River. Dr. Martin said shot about 20 miles from the ranger station, in later that Miss Streit never once uttered a single the Young’s Creek region. She had been shot at a cry. distance of 50 yards by a 180-grain, soft-nosed, The four smokejumpers and Norman Streit hollow-point bullet fired from a 30.06 rifle. The came across the party seven miles from Big Prairie bullet had gone through both knees. Miss Streit and gave assistance. Then, three miles from the had been preparing to enter Montana University airstrip, they met a Forest Service mule-drawn, upon her return from the hunting trip. She would rubber-tired cart, to which she was transferred. have been a senior. Arriving at Big Prairie, Barbara Streit was quickly The report received at the station said she was placed in Bob Johnson’s Travelair. The nurse and in critical condition, suffering from loss of blood her father went along. The smokejumpers boarded and was in shock, and that the hunting group Dick Johnson’s ship and both groups took off in was moving her down the trail. Dr. Martin, nurse the face of a crosswind, with Dick’s ship acting as Ward, and several employees of the ranger station escort along the route to Missoula. took off in the darkness to try to meet them. At Hale Field she was taken in an ambulance In the meantime, Bob Johnson contacted Hale to a local hospital, where doctors removed about Field and stated that smokejumpers were needed, 200 bullet fragments from both knees. She recov- since the injured person was a long distance from ered and lives in Missoula today. the ranger station. A 60-mile round trip was to be The Great Falls Tribune commented Sept. 19: taken to Nine Mile, west of Missoula, and back in “The saga of a fearless girl, an intrepid doctor, order to secure parachutes and jump gear. dauntless airmen, and sweating rescue workers Very early in the morning of Sept. 18, Dick ended at Missoula’s municipal airport this after- Johnson was airborne in another Travelair, along noon … thus ended a 95-mile trip (20 by trail with Barbara Streit’s father, Norman C. Streit, and and 75 by air) …” smokejumpers Karl Nussbacher (MSO-41), Roy Among the jumpers, Wag Dodge survived the Mattson (MSO-41), Bill Musgrove (MSO-41) of 1949 and passed away in and Wag Dodge (MSO-41). It was raining in the 1955. We do not know the whereabouts of Karl South Fork area and conditions were such that it “Bear Wrestler” Nussbacher (he later changed his was impossible to drop the jumpers. They landed name to Glades), Roy Mattson or Bill Musgrove. at Big Prairie and shortly headed up the trail. Dr. Martin joined the Army Air Corps in 1942 In the Young’s Creek area, members of her and became head flight surgeon for the base at hunting party had slowed the loss of blood and Walla Walla, Wash. He was a captain and taking applied splints to both legs. Miss Streit was placed flight instructions. He and his instructor pilot on the rump of one of Tamarack Lodge’s pack were shooting practice landings. Dr. Martin’s wife horses, Old Sylvia. With a man on each side – along with her parents – was watching. steadying her – with legs held straight out in front Suddenly the cabin trainer hit a power line, – they started down the long trail. Dr. Martin and exploded, and crashed in flames. Both pilots died. others in his group met them 18 miles from the Dr. Leo Martin was later buried at Missoula. Big Prairie station. Dick Johnson died in March 1945 in the crash Dr. Martin administered first aid, and once of the Johnson Flying Service Travelair he was again Miss Streit and the rescuers headed to the piloting south of Jackson, Wyo., while taking part northwest. They had to stop at the Hahn Creek in a game survey. Bob Johnson passed away in Guard Station since Barbara Streit had taken a December 1980. turn for the worse. It has now been 53 years since that rescue out Dr. Martin gave her what was called in those of Big Prairie. The Young’s Creek area is still a days a “canned-blood transfusion.” This was at primitive region and the Big Prairie airstrip has 3:30 the morning of September 18. At 7:30 a.m. been closed for a long time to civilian aviation. the group started out again. The going was slow The roar of Travelair engines over the South Fork along a slippery trail, and they had to cross the Primitive Area has been stilled forever.

June 4-6, 2021 in Boise 47 www.smokejumpers.com Death Wish by “Swede” Troedsson (Missoula ’59

n 2016 I attended a memo- Roger replied “St. Mary’s favorite. The view is spec- rial service in Dillon, MT, Peak.” tacular, and the lake contains Ifor Bill Murphy (MSO- I wonder what crossed the beautiful Yellowstone Cut- 56). When Bill retired from the widow’s mind when she found throat fish. USFS, he became active in the out that the peak has the same When my attorney in- NSA Trails Program, and was a name as Craig’s first wife. quired as to why I selected strong supporter of NSA. The last time I revised my that lake, I described the spec- Several former smokejump- will, I had my attorney include tacular beauty surrounding ers who were active in the Trails the name of a high mountain the lake and that there were Program came down from Mis- lake where I want my ashes mountain goat beds on the soula to attend the service. scattered. Lake Geneva is just north shore. My wish was that Among them was Roger Savage next to the Continental Divide my ashes be deposited on the (MS-57). Roger had retired as and flows south and down into goat beds. I would consider it a pilot with a major airline. Hamby Lake. I have visited a great honor to have a moun- Roger told me a story about over 150 lakes on the - tain goat take a dump on my Craig Smith (MSO-57): head N.F. Lake Geneva is my ashes.

Craig had been a col- lege classmate of mine. When Craig had been my room- mate, he recruited me into the smokejumper program. In 2000 Craig died of Parkinson’s disease at the early age of 62. Craig wanted his ashes scattered on a certain moun- tain peak in the Bitterroot Mountains that he and Roger climbed when they attended college. Craig and his first wife, Mary, divorced and Craig remarried. Craig’s second wife asked Roger if he would rent an aircraft and fly her over the peak that Roger and Craig climbed so she could scatter Craig’s ashes on the peak. Roger consented. He rented a plane and as they ap- proached the peak, the widow L-R: Cliff Hamilton (CJ-62) and Bob Stockman (FBX-67) visit Lampasas memorial inquired as to the name of for Darrell Eubanks (IDC-54) and John Lewis (MYC-53). (Courtesy C. Hamilton) the peak. Without thinking,

Check the NSA website 48 National Smokejumper Reunion