Jance & Jack's Cabin

 

                                           JANE AND JACK’S CABIN

 

As a family we would drive up to Jane and Jack’s cabin near Mill Creek, California.   The cabin belonged to Jane’s uncle and I remember our family making trips to it during the 1950’s while living in Willows.   Jane and Jack Hendricks were friends of our parents and also lived in Willows before moving to Red Bluff in the 1960’s.  Jack and our dad had met while going to the University of California at Davis between 1945 and 1947. 

 It was about a two hour drive from Willows to Mill Creek.  We would drive up to Red Bluff where we turned onto highway 36 leading up into the mountains.   After leaving the Sacramento Valley we would enter the foot hills with scattered oak trees and many rocks from the volcanic eruption of Mt. Lassen in 1914.   As we got higher up in elevation the oak trees would gradually start mixing with pine trees.   Eventually we would drive into the pine and fir forests near the community of Mineral where we turned onto the small winding paved highway to Mill Creek.  

The fond memory of arriving at our destination and smelling the wood smoke from the cabin chimney was always inviting.   As soon as we got out of the car we would hear the sound of the stream that was nearby with a little foot bridge crossing it and a spring box beside it where there was a water melon kept.   The cabin was located up a small dirt road off the highway just above the small community of Mill Creek.   We would pass two other cabins before arriving at Jane and Jack’s cabin.   The cabin was rustic looking with a stone fire chimney, a brown exterior, a shake roof with large pine and cedar trees surrounding it.  There were many large pine cones we would collect to take home or put in the cabin fire place.  Our family would stay upstairs where sleeping rooms were separated by curtains.  Jane and Jack’s family stayed downstairs.  In the morning we would wake up to the smell of pancakes cooking downstairs.   The great adventure would be to hike up the creek to find the water source.  There were two other cabins a short distance uphill from Jane and Jack’s cabin.   There was never any people staying in the adjacent cabins that I remember as the windows and doors were boarded up to keep the winter snow out.  The head waters of the creek consisted of springs scattered on the mountain side and it was impossible to determine where the actual upper head waters were.  There were two large wooden tanks that stored water from the springs for use in the cabins below.   These tanks had water leaking out their sides as they were held together with large metal rings.   The small community of Mill Creek was made up of scattered resort cabins, used mostly in the summer, a post office, a small store including a soda fountain where we would get ice cream or a milk shake.   The store also sold basic food stuff, such as dairy products, lunch meats, bread and some can goods. 

After departing for home I always looked forward to the next visit with determination to find the water source to the creek. 

Later in life, when I was working for the Forest Service on the Greenville District of the Plumas National Forest from 1977-79, we drove to Mill Creek in search of that cabin.    The entire area had become a housing tract for summer homes under a special use permit with the Forest Service on the Lassen National Forest.    It was not the same and now only a memory. 

Paper Work

 A little humor in this story which some of you retired FS and BLM folks might understand.  If you want to read a good book with all kinds of stories of being a young forester, staff assistant and District Ranger I recommend Forest Trails and Tales by Joel Frandsen, who worked in four different states on six National Forests.

Hopefully one day I complete my memoirs of the Sixes National Forest I worked on from 1969-95.  Preface attached.  

Preface

                                  MY CAREER WITH THE FOREST SERVICE

                     A Ground View of the Forest Service from Days Gone By

 

This is a collection of memoirs from my career with the Forest Service starting in 1969 until 1995, after working on six National Forests, including the Modoc, Stanislaus, Six Rivers, Plumas, Siskiyou and Umpqua.     It started out with a few short stories about different events then grew into expanded stories of each Ranger District that I worked on with some separate events thrown in.  It probably could be revised again, including more details on outstanding issues, co-workers, forest contractors and more, but probably would never get completed.  

This is a story of a Forest Service that in many ways no longer exists.   Just like the early days when a forest ranger traveled on horseback covering hundreds of square miles doing trail work, looking for fires, or packing supplies to some remote camp, the era of the Forest Service I was part of is becoming part of history also.   The days when we drove green trucks on dusty forest roads to survey a new logging road, cruise or inspect a timber sale have almost disappeared.   Today some of these roads can longer be found, most Forest Service trucks are white, there are fewer of them, and if you come across a dusty logging road you might be on private timber lands.   Timber management, or as we called it, “get the cut out” was the primary focus in the last half of the last century on many National Forests of the west, especially the Pacific Northwest.  Ecosystem management is the name of the game today and most foresters and engineers have been replaced with biologists specializing in specific fields of science.   There are still Forest Service fire crews and field technicians doing an assortment of jobs, including recreation, wildlife habitat or restoration projects, but very little of that work deals with timber removal, except for some thinning or salvage sales.   If you see a logging truck today on a National Forest road it might be a shock, but compared to the log traffic of the last half of the last century it is hardly a fraction of what it used to be.   The spotted owl has received much blame for the decline of timber cutting on National Forests of the west.   In fact it was getting harder and harder to find the timber to cut or come up with a five to ten year timber sale plan on many Ranger Districts to keep up or maintain what was called the “Allowable Annual Cut” or the Allowable Sale Quantity (ASQ).   For funding purposes timber harvest plans were needed to appease Congress in hopes of getting the funds to keep people employed and the wheels moving to produce timber sales.  

In addition, public sentiment was against the status quo, especially the practice of clearcutting on National Forests.   With the declining timber harvest under the Northwest Forest Plan it was hard to justify and get Congress to finance the many foresters, road engineers and technicians associated with the timber management program of yesterday.  By the mid 1990’s the Forest Service was offering buy-outs and early retirements in order to downsize this personnel.   I was one that took a buy-out in March of 1995, mostly to save my sanity and do something else.

The focus of my writings is centered on the different communities, local issues, housing situations and job activities that I was involved with during my years working as a forestry technician.  At times it might get too technical with terminology and forestry practices that some might not understand.   Except for using a few first names of key individuals I was involved with, the names of most co-workers and supervisors are not mentioned, and of course no last names.    We had a job to perform, sometimes under difficult circumstances, adverse weather conditions and at times there was internal conflict about the best ways to achieve management goals, which led to heated discussions.   In my later years there was always a meeting to try to resolve the issue of the day, which usually led to another meeting.   In the early years I don’t remember any meetings, except an occasional safety or project assignment meeting before leaving the station in the morning.  

On a positive side there was a sense of family with co-workers.  It was hard not to be emotionally connected and share personal problems since much time was spent together traveling in a crew truck, doing field work, at social gatherings, or many days on a fire line and confined to a fire camp with each other.    For better or worse there were relationships with timber purchasers, road builders, loggers and other contractors while dealing with the timber sale contract.   Most of these people wanted to do a good job, but there was always some that wanted to cut corners.  In short it was the highest bidder that got the timber and the lowest bidder that got the job of removing that timber.  As one logging supervisor told me once, “If you were not here we would tear this place down”.   That justified my existence. 

With all the planning efforts, including watershed analysis, environmental assessments, and logging feasibility reports, there was always something that fell through the cracks, mistakes were made and finger pointing was common.  A combination of unrealistic deadlines, workloads and politics was the culprit of many management problems in my opinion.   In many ways there were too many cooks in the kitchen at times without adequate supervision and we were always at the mercy of the political climate, which was usually under the influence of the timber industry that always wanted more timber.   

Today many problems still exist with management of our National Forests.  Rural communities have suffered economic hardships from the decline of timber harvesting, many forest roads are not adequately maintained, and the threat of wildfires has increased due to dense timber stands in need of thinning and climate change.   There is insufficient personnel to perform the many jobs that need to be done these days.   In order to save money some Forests have combined under one Supervisor's office and some District Rangers oversee two or even three Districts.  Today there is too few employees to maintain all the National Forest infrastructure, including roads, trails, campgrounds and other improvements.   The greatest challenge of today is finding the right balance between resource management activities and maintaining an ecosystem that will provide forest products, clean air, clean water, wildlife habitat and recreation opportunities for a growing population.   

PAPER WORK

 

Working for the Forest Service had its fair share of paper work to keep up with.   In the early days working in the field doing silviculture and timber sale preparation work we had plantation survey reports, timber stand analysis reports, timber cruise data cards and harvest unit traverse maps to turn in.   We did not have individual decks, but there was a long wall mounted table where the field crew had their own inboxes.  Here we received memos and directives from the upper echelon to read, initial and pass on.   The most important piece of paper was our bi-weekly time sheet to turn in every other week in order to get paid.  

When I went to work in timber sale administration I had my first deck and the paper work increased.    There were the daily timber sale inspection reports, fire inspection reports, monthly financial reports, audit follow-up reports and all the management directives to keep up with.   Whenever it was necessary to write letters to a timber purchaser I was the one to draft it up for the District Ranger to sign as he was the Forest Service representative for the contract.   In later years this authority was delegated to the District Timber Management staff assistant or lead administrator better known as the Forest Service Representative or FSR. 

The timber sale inspection report was utilized on a daily basis for each timber sale visited.  There were four copies to this report.   The front page went to the office file folder for that contract, one went to the timber sale purchaser, one went to the logging supervisor on the job and one went to the Forest Supervisor’s office.    The timber sale inspection report documented any mutual agreements, acceptance of work, minor contract change agreements and notices of non-compliance with the contract.   The copy of this report that was sent to the Forest Supervisor’s office went to the timber staff assistant in charge of contract administration.   In most cases we never heard back on our reports and while working in Gold Beach I thought I would see if anybody was reading them.    I filled out a fictitious report describing a breach of contract of the worst kind, tractor logging in a stream.   A few days later the timber staff assistant called me and asked what the hell is going on.   I replied that I was just checking to see if he was reading my reports. 

 

Sometime in the 1980’s the Forest Service went to computers and we were assigned an electronic inbox to receive emails of all kinds dealing with management letters, documents and directives from the Chief of the Forest Service, the Regional Forester down to the Forest Supervisor.    Over time more and more stuff accumulated in this electronic inbox and it could take an hour a day to go through it all.  Sometimes a report requiring some kind of reply was overlooked and there would be a phone call from somebody in management wanting to know if I had read whatever or how I was going to resolve some contractual issue.   The delete button got a lot of use. 

While working on the Cottage Grove Ranger District I went out to the fire warehouse one day to replenish my supply of timber sale inspection report forms from the storage room where all kinds of forms were stored.   After looking at all the different forms I came across one called the Negative Report.   This report actually had instructions that said, “Use this Report if you have nothing to Report.”   It was an obsolete form, but I sure had a good time with it.  

Early Child Development

 Found this one in my files written many years ago.  The statistics may have changed, but the need is greater than  ever. 

PAY NOW OR PAY 3x LATER

As a society we invest more money into our penal system than we do for early child development.  The first 5 years of a child’s life are the most formative, and therefore the most important.  During these early years children must receive emotional stability, security, proper nutrition, adequate health care and learn basic language skills.  Research has demonstrated that early child development programs benefit children, families and communities.   These programs must be made available to all children no matter what their ethnic, religious or sociol-economic background.  Nationally in 2001, 1 in 3 blacks and 1 in 6 Latino boys were at the risk of imprisonment during their lifetime.  In 2010 the annual cost to keep a person in prison was $31,307. 

When it comes to fixing the deficit, we must be careful what is cut.  Eliminating early child development programs now would increase a child chances of going to prison later by up to 39%.  And paying for that person to go to prison will cost nearly 3 times more a year than it would have cost to provide him with a quality early learning experience. 

Just think of the vast sums of money we pay lawyers, mental health workers, prison guards and other law enforcement personnel versus what we pay those involved with early child development programs.   My wife worked for less than $8/hour for a child development center at the U of O.  She was responsible for 5 children from the age of birth to 1 year for 8 hours per day. 

The center was a single story building with limited space for a growing clientele, with no plans for expansion.  Next door the university constructed a 1 million dollar building to accommodate law students.  Much of the money for this building came from Nike.  Where are our priorities? 

 

Maybe if we change our priorities we would not have the largest prison population in the world.

 

Clearcutting

 With family here this last week took a break from writing.  This story is about clear cutting on National Forests during my career with the Forest Service.

Forest roads constructed to access these clear-cuts is a separate story.  Then comes the economics of it all, the speculative bidding in the 1980's, followed by the government buyout of timber sales, the bottom dropping out of the lumber market, the rise of the chip market, the export market and much more.   

Its hot this afternoon--104

Comments always welcome

HISTORY of CLEARCUTTING

 

The practice of clearcutting or the text book name of regeneration cut has been around for a long time.   Back in the glory days of logging it was all clearcutting and high grading of logs.   Logs showing any defect or undesirable species were left in the woods.   Logging fires were common with the use of steam donkeys and very little regards for fire prevention during the dry season.   Most reforestation was from natural regeneration.     

Over the last 70 years there have been different versions of clearcutting.    This included the leaving of shelter wood and seed trees, which all ended up being clear-cut over time.  After WWII, clearcutting increased on National Forests of the Pacific Northwest.   It involved cutting native forests or what is called old growth today.   The larger coniferous trees, with average diameter of 40 to 50 inches were cut leaving smaller trees under 12 inches in diameter standing and all hardwood trees.   Many of the standing trees were damaged during the falling of the larger trees and most were completely destroyed during skidding or yarding operations.   After logging was completed most units were covered with cull logs, slash two to six deep and an occasional standing tree that survived the carnage.    To add insult to injury, any remaining trees between 12 to 4 inches in diameter that might hinder the planting of new trees were required to be cut and left.  This was called “whip falling.”

Slash burning was the common method to treat the slash, usually after the fall rains arrived.    On some units the top soil was destroyed from the extreme heat due to the large amount of fuel and intensity of the burn.    In the 1970’s the Forest Service required the removal of all unutilized material over 10 inches in diameter and 10 feet in length to lessen the damage to soils from slash burns.    Originally two logging operations took place, the first to remove the merchantable material and the second to remove the unmerchantable stuff, which was decked or piled on the landing for a separate sale to commercial wood cutters or made available to the public for firewood by permit.   These decks consisted of large coniferous cull logs and hardwoods, mostly madrone and tan oaks.    Better utilization of all wood fiber improved with the timber industry.   They removed coniferous cull logs that could be peeled and used for filler material in plywood and other cull logs were chipped for pulp and paper production.   Tan oak was also utilized for pulp, and madrone, along with wood waste was used as hog fuel used to operate cogeneration plants that most mills have to generate steam and electrical power.   

By the 1980’s soil scientists with the Forest Service were finding that too much removal of woody debris on clear-cut units was not beneficial to the soil over the long-term.   They wrote up contractual requirements for a certain amount of woody debris be left per acre on clear-cut units based on so much cubic feet.    This material consisted of cull logs and where not a safety concern standing snags were left standing.   By the late 1980’s 8 to 12 wildlife trees per acre were required to be left scattered over the clear-cut units.  These trees could be snags, cull trees or green trees and had to be at least a certain size such as 30 inches in diameter and 60 feet in height.   During winter storms some of the wildlife trees were blown down to add to the woody debris.     

Streams and riparian areas were protected according to their classifications.   Class 1 streams, mostly domestic water supplies received full protection with 100 to 200 foot buffers.  Class 2 streams were fish bearing streams requiring 100 foot buffers.  Class 3 streams contributed to fish bearing streams and had 50 foot buffers.  Class 4 streams were seasonal streams with no buffers.  Some of these buffers varied in width based on slope and topography.   On steep clear-cut units some of these buffers were destroyed from logs rolling downhill.   Some units were so steep that directional falling was required by jacking or lining trees uphill.  This was expensive doubling the failing costs from $12 per thousand board feet (MBF) to $25/MBF.  Not sure if these stream classifications are still in use today. 

Today clearcutting is not practiced on National Forests.   With many second growth plantations there are thinning sales where the average log is 12 inches in diameter and very few trees over 20 inches are cut.    Clearcutting on industrial forests is widespread, even on second growth plantations where trees range between 12 to 20 inches in diameter after 40 years of growth, depending on the site conditions.    Many small log mills cannot handle logs greater than 20 inches.

Clearcutting results in even-age forests of a monoculture of mostly Douglas-fir better known as tree farms.    Logging costs are lower and production is higher than with select logging or thinning where costs can double with less production of loads per day.    The demand for forest products is only going to increase, especially when the average American uses 700 pounds of paper products per year.

Grandpa's Tractor

 A good time was had by all

Historic Cabins & Places

 This story is about places that intrigued me in my younger days and still do.   Just wish I could go back and see some of them.  Maybe some of you have seen some of these places.

Mike

ps--over the years I have written many stories and starting to put together an index of my writings as some of you may not have seen some of them as the mailing list has grown.    One day hoping to complete My Career with the Forest Service and get it published.   

                                         HISTORIC CABINS & PLACES

 

A few years back I bought a book titled UNCLE SAM’S CABINS by Les Joslin.  It is a visitor’s guide to historic U.S. Forest Service Ranger Stations of the west.   It has many pictures of old cabins used as ranger stations, guard stations and pack stations, along with the history of these places.   Some of these are no longer used by the Forest Service, some are rented out to the public, others have fallen to disrepair and some have been burned down.    Some of the older cabins were rustic, dating back to the early days of the Forest Service when there was only a District Ranger, maybe his assistant and a few seasonal fire guards all on horseback patrolling the forests from these remote cabins.

I have seen a few of these places in my travels, either while working for the Forest Service or on my own.    The Gold Beach Ranger Station where I worked from 1979-88 is shown in the book with a short story about its history along with the old station at Agness, 35 miles up the Rogue River from Gold Beach.     For those of you familiar with the Tiller Ranger Station there is a good write up on that place with pictures and many more.   

There were some Forest Service cabins in wilderness areas.   These cabins always intrigued me as I would give thought of what it would be like to work out of one of these remote places.  When I worked as a seasonal recreational aide on the Summit District of the Stanislaus National Forest in 1970 there were three or four cabins along with corrals in the Emigrant Wilderness used by wilderness rangers on horseback and trail crews.   They were shown on Forest maps along with the trails.   When not occupied by Forest Service personnel they were subject to vandalism by the public.   There was a cabin in Marble Valley in the middle of the Marble Mountain Wilderness, not sure it is still there.   The Trinity Alps Wilderness had a few cabins, some were used by livestock people who had grazing allotments and some were private cabins on mining claims.   Most of these cabins in the Trinity Alps were not shown on maps, except for an old abandoned pack station, called Trinity Summit Guard Station.  Not sure how many of these cabins still exist.   One of the most classic wilderness ranger stations is the Moose Creek Ranger Station in the middle of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness in Idaho.    Never have been there.   

 

Another good book about the early settlements in the Rogue River Canyon is ILLAHE by Kay Atwood.   There are many pictures and maps of old miner’s cabins, trails and small farms where early pioneers scratched out a living in what is now the Wild Rogue River Wilderness.   Stories of bachelor miners living off venison, beans, coffee and tobacco in their one room cabins up some dry gulch off the beaten trail.  Some of these original pioneers came from the Klamath River area over the Siskiyou Mountains ending up at the confluence of the Illinois River and Rogue River near the present day community of Agness.   Some of these cabins have been preserved including the Billings Ranch at Mule Creek.      

The Bohemia Mining District on the Cottage Grove District of the Umpqua National Forest is a unique area to explore.  Many of the buildings are gone, except for the old post office building as I remember.  There are still some working mines in the vicinity.   The Musick Guard Station was constructed in 1934 by the Civilian Conservation Corp to provide fire protection and maintenance of trails in the mining district.  It has been preserved and is available for the public to rent.

During the winter of 1972, while working on the Orleans Ranger District a co-worker and I drove up to the Red River Ranger Station on the Nez Perce National Forest in Idaho to look at a job opening there.    The nearest town was Elk City, 13 miles away with a population of 200.    There was a foot of snow on the ground, it was cold and desolate.  It made Orleans look civilized.   Neither one of us applied for the job.    The Red River Station closed in 1998 and was consolidated with the Elk City Ranger Station.   Always have to wonder where life would have taken me if I ended up there?

The Illusion of a great fire

 

THE ILLUSION OF A GREAT FIRE

 

On the Orleans Ranger District of the Six Rivers National Forest there were two fire lookouts, Orleans Mountain with a permanent structure at over 6000 feet in elevation and Shelton Butte at a little over 3000 feet overlooking the Klamath River.   There was no permanent lookout building on Shelton Butte, just a flat area where the Forest Service parked a trailer during periods of high fire danger to serve as living quarters for the lookout equipped with a two-way radio and an Osborne fire finder or alidade.     In the summer of 1972 the District Fire Management Assistant (FMA) put a seasonal fire crewman on Shelton Butte during high fire danger.    Shelton Butte had a better advantage of detecting fires down in the Klamath River canyon than did Orleans Mountain perched on the high ridge dividing the Salmon River drainage to the east from the Klamath River on the west side of the ridge.   Lookout personnel would have visitors on occasions, both during work hours and after work hours.    Visitors could be passing tourists or a friend of the lookout.   On one weekend the Shelton Butte lookout had a friend visiting.  I believe the friend was another seasonal fire crew member.    At sunset the lookout excitedly called in a large fire burning along the ridge line to the far west.   The FMA was puzzled since no other lookouts were reporting this fire, especially Orleans Mountain which had a longer view, even to the Pacific Ocean on a clear day.    The Shelton Butte lookout was asked to pin point the fire with the Osborne Fire finder, which gives the azimuth reading, but again he reported the entire length of the ridge was burning.   The FMA sent a fire patrolman up to the lookout to see what was going on.   Within an hour the patrolman arrived only see the glare of the sun setting through the trees along the far ridge line.   He discovered the lookout and his friend had been smoking some Humboldt tobacco and were higher than a kite and interpreting the glare of the sun through the trees on the far ridge line as a fire.  

After the patrolman reported to the FMA of what was going on over the radio the FMA relayed to the patrolman that they were fired and to vacate the lookout immediately.