160user I probably worked some fires with you. I was on the Clearwater working out of the Musselshell (Pierce/Kamiah) from 1989-1993. Or maybe partied together at Jerry Johnson hot springs. Might have crashed out in the parking lot at Powell on one of our trips back from a night in Missoula haha. Your pictures brought back some good memories from that time. A few weeks ago I was telling my son about the lookouts and trying to find smoke from their directions and how GPS would have saved alot of hiking.

We’ll have 4-5 more years of high fire seasons

Unbelievable amount of dead standing timber due too pine beetle’s in North American boreal forest

Eventually the fires burn into themselves(past fires/cut blocks/regrowth/etc)

Then it’ll be 60-70-80-90 years of regeneration,,,,,,the cycle will continue



Fishing at high noon with headlamps under the smoke a few years ago on the coast of BC

wrestlecoach -

I, too, have spent a lot of time at the Musselshell, Pierce, Mex mountain, etc, and down on the NF Clearwater. ///////not fighting fires, however, only trapping wolves for radiocollar affixing. Nice country, that.

Jack

That is an interesting picture to say the least. Thanks for sharing it and agree also with and many other the wildfires continue till a plan of attack made and too much deadfall to stop anytime soon.

Small world! I worked at Powell from 92-94. If you were ever to JJ Hot Springs I am sure you met the "Animal" then. Anytime he saw us he wanted to come up and talk about any fires in the area. I always told him the same thing. "I am not talking to you until you cover that thing up". In 92 and 94 if I wasn't working of fishing I was at the lodge. In 92 we 139 fires on the Powell district alone. In 93 we had 3......and I had to work at the lodge for 2 weeks after I was done just to pay off my bar and food tab before I came back to MN.
In 97 when I was working on the Boise I got squished by a tree so they stuck me in a lookout for a couple of weeks. No training, just "do the best you can". If you spotted a smoke and got lucky, you could talk to the other lookouts and see if anyone could get a cross azimuth on it. That was a big help.
Now, don't even get me started on Fred's in Missoula. Obviously, I only went there for the food.

Sounds like up to 1/2 Jasper could be destroyed…
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmo...oving-flame-says-fire-official-1.7274825

That’s what happens when a forest in Alberta, is managed from behind a desk in Quebec


15 years ago the folks in jasper were warning of impending disaster from all the dead standing timber in the park

Interesting stories. It is a very individual rewarding job and very intriguing. All jobs are dangerous if you don't follow protocol. Training, safety and PPE need to be followed and yes there still can be a mishap, but your training needs to prevail in calling the shots at any given minute.

One thing about a career of a Smoke Jumper are the many memories and not one minute of every day is the same.

Gulo,

Buddy and I saw a wolf in 89 on the clearwater. We were supposed to report any wolf sightings, but no one believed us. Saw one while on a helicopter drop off fire east of Elk City in 90. Stood and looked at us as we hiked from landing area to the fire. No doubt it was a wolf. Had been in Alaska for 2 years before this working for ADFG and saw a lot of wolves. Forest Service biologist told us it was a coyote because there were no wolves in the area. I heard that the elk numbers have plummeted since I was there. We went 6/6 one year on 6x6 bulls out of Musselshell work center.

In 1993 I saw (actually 5 of us saw) a wolverine at Powell. I bailed out of the truck, chased and treed it so we all got a pretty good look. The Biologist assured us what we saw was a Marten.