Hiking up Sweeney Creek a couple of years ago I was intrigued by a grove of trees between Peterson Lake and Duffy Lake. I believe it was made up of White Fir or commonly called “Piss” fir by loggers for various reasons. This grove was fascinating because when the trail entered it it became dark almost like evening in the middle of the day. The trees were thick and there was nothing else growing inside this grove. This is something I had not seen in all my miles of hiking in the Bitterroot Mountains. According to the Forest Service fire map this grove no longer exists and was destroyed by the Lolo Peak fire.
I am sick and tired of hearing so called experts say the Lolo Peak fire could not have safely been put out when it was small. To believe that falsehood one must ignore history and the facts. Years ago, timber was important to the Forest Service (note the name) after it was formed under the Department of Agriculture to preserve a natural resource and to manage it. Managing then meant recognizing timber as important and making sure that fire did not consume thousands of acres like the 1910 fire.
After being founded, the Forest Service started putting people on top of mountains strategically. Those “lookouts” were to watch for fires and when one was spotted they were to go put them out. Later they began building “Lookout” buildings on tops of the mountains with the plan to make sure there were no “unseen” spots where fires could start and not be observed. Originally the people who manned the lookouts responded to fires they spotted. Later these lookouts were connected by the old crank phones to other lookouts and Ranger Stations or Guard Stations. Fire crews were stationed to strategically respond to fires quickly even if they were reported at night. Fighting fires at night is very effective as the fires are generally sleeping and barely moving if at all.
From 1910 until the 1970s this system worked very well to keep the fires from becoming conflagrations. In the 1970s the Forest Service started the “let it burn” program and even purposely burnt some of the lookouts down. Now many of the remaining lookouts are manned by untrained people looking for a two-week vacation on top of a mountain!
I served on Thunder Mountain Lookout, among others, in the Southern Bitterroot during the 60s. Thunder Mountain was connected to the Alta Guard Station (the first ranger station) by a phone line and I had a crank phone with the number of rings to reach the Guard Station and several homes were on that line. As a lookout I was expected to and did maintain the phone line. Radios were used by then and lookouts called in fires and crews were immediately dispatched. When the fire crews were not busy on fires they were working on brush crews and working to keep trails open to allow easy access to fires if needed. The lack of cleared trails today has interfered with suppression of many fires.
It is appalling to me that the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) as well as the Forest Service think that their purpose is to “. . . what we’re trying to do with fire suppression is protect these homes” as was stated by Jordan Koppen in a Lee Newspaper article in the October 21 edition. Where in the world is it mentioned in the original founding documents that these two agencies are to protect homes? The Forest Service purpose was to protect the timber and the DNRC purpose is to protect natural resources in which category trees fit. Not homes.
The Lolo Peak Fire started July 15th and there was a conscience decision by Forest Service personnel not to fight this fire even though experts said if it was left to burn it would burn into the Lolo and into the Bitterroot. The conversation from the lookout was probably something like, “The fire is creeping in timber and is a tenth of an acre in size.” To say this fire was dangerous to fight ignores several facts. In the old days even, smoke jumpers jumped into these fires (even at night if necessary). Small crews were dispatched at night. If any of those crews were ever to say that the mission was to places “inaccessible” they would have been fired on the spot. If the fire was on cliffs you did what you could. Put lines around the fire so when it came off the cliffs it would hit a line.
You would have a hard time convincing me (as one who fought fires and directed crews to fires at night in rugged terrain) that fighting this small fire was more dangerous to fight when small and creeping then when it is 50,000 acres costing over 32 million dollars involving hundreds of men and risking the lives of many residents not even considering the toll the smoke had on the residents of Ravalli County and Missoula County. Some of whom will suffer for years from the consequences of breathing hazardous and dangerous air.
The fire could probably have been put out by six men early on with a few water drops to assist. Compare that cost to leaving the fire burn under the guise of creating more “healthy” forests. I hope to see, someday when Smokey the Bear is no longer killing birds and other animals and destroying timber, that the Department he speaks for is doing what it was originally charged to do and successfully did for years.
Dallas D. Erickson
Stevensville