Day 6
Very grateful for the Warm Springs Fire Management crew for letting us
use their showers and camp in their back yard.
[Note the caption: careless people are the problem. Truth, Smokey.]
Tiny tree frogs and giant moths gathered around our tents overnight. It was nice hearing the frogs sing overnight, and the level ground/soft grass was appreciated as well. Last night was a very different vibe than the previous night, in a good way. Another cool and unusual experience.
A very early morning (4:45ish) made for a timely pack up. The general improvement in efficiency of setup/teardown got us on the road faster too.
Claude S. who is the Timber Sales Manager, gave us a presentation on the responsibilities of timber sales in Warm Springs. The unit of measurement in timber sales is "board feet" which measures 1" x 1' x 1'. Warm Springs logs approximately 25,100,000 board feet each year. That's a lot of board feet.
Heading out to a timber project site with Claude and Yevette L. who also works in timber sales.
My personal favorite fact we learned on our logging site tour: the sapplings that are planted to replace harvested trees are grown from pine cones (from the reservation) collected by forestry staff. Here are two different careers that sound really appealing to me. Planting baby trees (at $0.15/tree) and climbing trees to collect the fresh, bright green pine cones that produce the baby trees.
Claude and Yevette brought us out to a site named "Timber Sale: East Beaver 2017 to 2019" on logging block #80, which covers approximately 43.15 acres and is expected to produce ~2 million board feet. One half of the tree (one tree in two halves in picture) will yield about 500 board feet.
The four machines involved in a logging operation are as follows. 1.) A machine called a "timbco" falls the tree. 2.) A "skidder" (pictured below) moves downed trees to the next machine. 3.) The "delimber" then cuts the tree to appropriate length and removes the tree's branches. 4.) Finally, a "loader" puts the logs on a transport truck to be taken to a mill for processing.
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Yevette took us to a second logging site that had been cleared by two different contractors on either side of the road. Similar to yesterday's tour of prescribed burn areas, we were able to see firsthand the difference in logging styles.
After lunch at the second site, Yevette spoke briefly about her personal history and experience, the importance of education and spirituality, and of the hardships she had to overcome in her lifetime. It was as inspiring as it was humbling. Her open-mindedness seemed paramount to her success, as did her emphasis on community and collaborative efforts between tribes.
Yevette is publishing a book titled Birds of Warm Springs, that will provide details about what can be learned from observing the native bird species in the area. She meets with the Autobahn Society on September 3rd this fall to present her project and gain their support for the book. She could (and hopes to) do this for other tribes once she finishes.
Coincidentally, I had attended a speech Yevette's youngest daughter (who had an equally impressive background) had given at Heritage University this past semester.
--
I would call this next part an "amazing stroke of luck," but I'm quite sure luck had little if anything to do with it. A more probable explanation is that Evette pulled off some incredible last-minute planning and got us into the end of the Warm Springs Tribal Council meeting at the Museum at Warm Springs. This was another surreal, once in a lifetime experience.
The elders spoke about the importance of caring for the environment, and importantly, of doing so in a manner that respects and protects their culture as well. Their language, knowledge, traditions and beliefs, as well as the plants and animals that they've held sacred for centuries, all must be protected. I felt humbled, inspired and hopeful that I might be able to contribute in any small way to this or a similar cause. Among other things, this day served as a reminder of the importance of what we're doing here, and with our major.
--
Beautiful sights on the way in and so many mountains!
We picked up pizzas for dinner because we arrived at our site in Deschutes National Forest with about ten minutes of daylight remaining. Set up in the dark, pizza party campfire, then bed.
[Note the caption: careless people are the problem. Truth, Smokey.]
Tiny tree frogs and giant moths gathered around our tents overnight. It was nice hearing the frogs sing overnight, and the level ground/soft grass was appreciated as well. Last night was a very different vibe than the previous night, in a good way. Another cool and unusual experience.
A very early morning (4:45ish) made for a timely pack up. The general improvement in efficiency of setup/teardown got us on the road faster too.
Claude S. who is the Timber Sales Manager, gave us a presentation on the responsibilities of timber sales in Warm Springs. The unit of measurement in timber sales is "board feet" which measures 1" x 1' x 1'. Warm Springs logs approximately 25,100,000 board feet each year. That's a lot of board feet.
Heading out to a timber project site with Claude and Yevette L. who also works in timber sales.
My personal favorite fact we learned on our logging site tour: the sapplings that are planted to replace harvested trees are grown from pine cones (from the reservation) collected by forestry staff. Here are two different careers that sound really appealing to me. Planting baby trees (at $0.15/tree) and climbing trees to collect the fresh, bright green pine cones that produce the baby trees.
Claude and Yevette brought us out to a site named "Timber Sale: East Beaver 2017 to 2019" on logging block #80, which covers approximately 43.15 acres and is expected to produce ~2 million board feet. One half of the tree (one tree in two halves in picture) will yield about 500 board feet.
The four machines involved in a logging operation are as follows. 1.) A machine called a "timbco" falls the tree. 2.) A "skidder" (pictured below) moves downed trees to the next machine. 3.) The "delimber" then cuts the tree to appropriate length and removes the tree's branches. 4.) Finally, a "loader" puts the logs on a transport truck to be taken to a mill for processing.
--
Yevette took us to a second logging site that had been cleared by two different contractors on either side of the road. Similar to yesterday's tour of prescribed burn areas, we were able to see firsthand the difference in logging styles.
After lunch at the second site, Yevette spoke briefly about her personal history and experience, the importance of education and spirituality, and of the hardships she had to overcome in her lifetime. It was as inspiring as it was humbling. Her open-mindedness seemed paramount to her success, as did her emphasis on community and collaborative efforts between tribes.
Yevette is publishing a book titled Birds of Warm Springs, that will provide details about what can be learned from observing the native bird species in the area. She meets with the Autobahn Society on September 3rd this fall to present her project and gain their support for the book. She could (and hopes to) do this for other tribes once she finishes.
Coincidentally, I had attended a speech Yevette's youngest daughter (who had an equally impressive background) had given at Heritage University this past semester.
--
I would call this next part an "amazing stroke of luck," but I'm quite sure luck had little if anything to do with it. A more probable explanation is that Evette pulled off some incredible last-minute planning and got us into the end of the Warm Springs Tribal Council meeting at the Museum at Warm Springs. This was another surreal, once in a lifetime experience.
The elders spoke about the importance of caring for the environment, and importantly, of doing so in a manner that respects and protects their culture as well. Their language, knowledge, traditions and beliefs, as well as the plants and animals that they've held sacred for centuries, all must be protected. I felt humbled, inspired and hopeful that I might be able to contribute in any small way to this or a similar cause. Among other things, this day served as a reminder of the importance of what we're doing here, and with our major.
--
Beautiful sights on the way in and so many mountains!
We picked up pizzas for dinner because we arrived at our site in Deschutes National Forest with about ten minutes of daylight remaining. Set up in the dark, pizza party campfire, then bed.
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