Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Klamath tribune. (Chiloquin, Or.) 1956-1961 | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1960)
Page 4 KLAMATH TRIBUNE APRIL 1960 State Forestry Dept. Undertakes Reservation Fire Protection Job i irCLj fr- ..... A. j. " ' ' . - 1 f S I l 01 N- it V, . ,1 ' '. . 3: At top, left to right, Billy Craw ford, Bob Madam nml Hank Davies map out fire protection strategy on a portion of the Res ervation. Arlen David, bottom, coordinates fire protection activi ties as the new dispatcher. Since the beginning of termina tion months ago the residents of the Klamath Reservation have become accustomed to change as the machinery of the termination law moves along to the day in Rol when the change will he complete. During the spring of I') the fire protection of the a VTZ M V - - ft 4 -f t I 1 p li reservation forest lands was con tracted v the Indian Service to the I'S Forest Service, who, in turn. contracted the portion roughly lying west of a line run ning north and south through Realty, and private lands east of Realty, to the State Forestry De partment. This protection area is made up of the large block of land retained by the Indians under trusteeship by the U.S. National Rank; the allotted lands which have now been deeded outright to the former settlers: lands sold without sustained yield require ments; the 01.500 acre block re cently purchased by the Crown Xellerback corporation, and part of the tribal lands which are to go on sale in the near future but but were under contract with the forest service for protection. There is a small amount of ad ditional lands which have been in private ownership for a num ber of years. To take care of this fire protec tion obligation, the State Forester has set up an administrative or ganization at Klamath Agency, where the tribal council has turn ed over some of the facilities to the State on a temporary basis. This includes the tribal council chambers, two garages, a ware house and also three residences. Equipment includes a number of trucks and transports, as well as several caterpiller tractors. Final decision as to the disposition of the property is to be made later in the fall. Res Cummings, staff forester from Roseburg, is assigned the job of setting up the district and Rob Madscn, formerly of the re habilitation division in Salem and protection division at Prineville, lias been appointed to the District Warden position, and he will re main at the Agency in charge of all State District activities after Les has completed his job there. Other state employees assigned to the district are: Harry Mar shall, Senior F"orester, primarily concerned with management of state properties in Klamath and Lake Counties; ICarl Rrown, As sistant District Warden, who will do inspection work on the reser vation as well as deal with prob lems of reforestation of state lands; and Hank Davies, Assist ant District Warden, working in the fire prevention, detection and suppression fields, primarily. Although Victor Sisson has elected to accept a transfer to an other station within the Rureau of Indian Affairs, he will remain on the Klamath Reservation this fire season in a liaison capacity. Hilly Crawford has accepted a field foreman job with the state organization, freeing h i m self from the confinement of the dis patcher job to work more in the field. Arlen David has become the new dispatcher and will direct much of the work activity of the seasonal people in fire protection and in the prevention and sup pression of fires. Joe Dumore, Dean Rarks, Virgil Wilson. Rim er Duarte. Lorctta Wilkic, Dorothy Moore, and Herb and Marianna Snell, as well as many others employed in protection work in past years will also be working at their accustomed jobs in preventing fire loss this sum mer. Two changes in policy will be apparent to those familiar with the operation of the Agency or ganization through the years. The first is the policy on burning per mits. In the past, seasonal permits were sometimes given for certain areas and situations, and a phone call was required at the time of buring to make it legal. It has been decided that such seasonal permits will no longer be issued. State law, for example, does not allow a permit to be written for longer than ten days. In most cases permits may be obtained by contacting any of the Forest Warden stations R e a 1 1 y, Sprague River, Yamsey G. S., Litle Wocus G. S., Three Creeks G. S., or Klamath Agency. The warden at each of these stations will be charged with making the necessary inspections and then will be empowered to make any limitations he feels necessary, write the permit, or refuse it if he finds the situation too dang erous for safe burning. Permits may be obtained from the dis patcher at the Agency for any area until the Wardens occupy their stations. Since most private ly owned lands are included in the state area, this should satisfy most permit requirements. The US Forest Service office at Rly will have the protection responsi bility in the Sycan Marsh area and in certain other areas east of the Sycan River and will write the permits there. The US Forest Service at Silver Lake will pro tect the north part of the reserva tion east of the Williamson River, while KFPA continues to protect the Long Bell block and some ad jacent lands. The second proposed change is that the side roads will not be closed to travel on the reserva tion as in the past and this means that no entry permits will be required. There is risk in allow ing this additional freedom, but it is felt that local residents have long demonstrated their fire con sciousness and will continue to cooperate with the protection ef fort. It is hoped that if more trav el does result, that fires spotted by people in the area will be put out andor reported by them, thus actually improving the quality of fire protection. On April 28 the annual budget hearing was held at the Agency. (See story on page 3 regarding this meeting.)