July 10, 2019

Due to the events that occurred in the course of last night the mood at the campsite was very quiet. The previous night had been filled with a lot of commotion. On top of the incident we also had two high school girls named Amelia and Priscilla get dropped off at around one in the morning. We were slow moving this morning. On top of our normal tasked items, we also had to tear down everything and pack up once more. Dr. Black made sure that we would not return to that campsite due to the events from last night. Once we packed up, we headed to the Fuel Management building where we would be lectured.

When we arrived into the Fuel Management building, we all felt so nice to be in a ventilated area with some cool air. We walked into a classroom type setting that was filled with maps and a white board. Once we all sat down, we met Brad Donahue who was the Assistant Fuel Manager Operator (AFMO). Brad spoke to us about the system that the Fuel Management has within it and in particular what he oversees. Mr. Donahue told us that during the summer the crew is about hundred people and when the camping crew is added he oversees about two hundred to three hundred people. Donahue mentioned that the Warm Springs people were special because they were home to the “Hot Shots” crew. This crew is a special group that goes to fight fires. They were currently in Alaska, helping out for thirty to thirty-five days.

Outside of the projects that had started within the reservation borders, Donahue overseas someone who is specifically in charge of two outside project. The first of those is the Mt. Hood project. Once Brad finished, he introduced us to the Fuels Planner. The Fuels Planner was Bob Sjolund. Bob spoke to us about how he started getting involved with firefighting as a structure firefighter and then he got schooling. He spoke about how he taught some classes as well, so he was more comfortable to talk to a group. Brad and Bob both spoke about who they answer to on a day to day bases. The first people that they answer to is the tribe but when a fire occurs, they answer directly to the superintendent of the tribes. They mentioned that most fires within the Warm Spring Reservation occur due to nature (lightning) and that very few are due to arson.

Bob showed our class a video that was based off of what the four “R” that each farmer should know when dealing with prescribed fire. The following are the four “R’s” that we must know if we ever want to try prescribed fire: 1. The Right Time 2. The Right Place 3. The Right People and 4. The Right Choice.

The next thing that we did was leave the Fuels Management building and went into their workspace in the woods. When we arrived, we were given five minutes to collect flowers and then to go over what prescribed fire looked like. They mentioned that not all fire is bad fire. We went over to a location that honestly didn’t make me feel good about what prescribed fire was. The lot that had been burned looked like it was pretty torn up. Bob and Brad expressed that even though the lot looked physically black and charcoal, nature needed this to occur in order to produce stronger and wider trees. Not only does the life expectancy of trees go up with prescribed fire but it also helps relive species of plants to attract wild life.

Once the small tour was over with the two men took us on a thirty-minute drive away from their lots to a location to eat lunch. We went to the Deschutes River next to the tribe’s longhouse for lunch. We spent another two hours at the river wetting our feet and getting some “nature pedicures” in the words of Stacey Mespile.

The Fuel Management department gave us an opportunity to stay the night on their property to make up for what had occurred during the previous night, so I was very appreciative of their actions towards trying to keep us safe. We were able to end the long day with some lukewarm showers that were pure bliss.

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Life Lesson:

Even though you may feel like something is burnt to the ground there is still time for the beautiful parts to grow from the ashes.