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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 4, 2005)
P3ge 10 Spilyqy Tymoo, Wqrm Springs, Oregon August 4, 2005 Lohman honored for forestry By Brian Moriensen Spiljuy Tjmoo Rich Iilumn retired as Bu reau of Indian Affairs Assistant Forest Manager at Warm Springs in 2002, but the impact of his work has resonated with his former co-workers, They nominated him for the 2005 Harlc Wilcox Memorial National Achievement Award for the Northwest region. I Ic received the award at the 20,h Annual National Indian Timber Symposium in Visalia, Calif., June 9. Lohman helped guide nego tiations between the BIA For estry Department and the Con federated Tribes' Natural Re sources Branch in the early 1990s. "I think Rich was really a sta bilizing force," said his former co-worker Budd Johnson, who nominated Lohman for the award. "Rich often acted as for est manager, and he really kept the program together." One of the stipulations of the award was that it be kept secret from Lohman until the time it was given to him. "So we worked through his wife," ex plained Johnson. Cheryl Ixhman works in the Office of Historical Trust Ac counting. "She said she was go ing to speak in Visalia, and she drug her husband along," said Johnson. Rich Lohman said he feels honored by the award. "I was pleased that the folks took the trouble to nominate me," he Fires: close to Wolfe Point neighborhood (Continued from page 9) The Eugene crew arrived Tuesday. Roads in the area were closed, because of the number of fire personnel and equip ment and with the increasing dense smoke at the fire's peak at mid-afternoon. The origin of each of the fires was under investigation, Lydy said, by Warm Springs Fire Department and a special arson task force. A hotshot crew from Warm Springs battled the Monday fire before leaving at about 4 p.m. Monday to take on a fire near Wenatchee, Wash. A helicopter, a retardant dropping airplane and a recon naissance airplane were used in fighting the McKinley Fire. The Wolfe Point fire reached a point about 2,000 feet from the Wolfe Point neighborhood about seven miles from Warm Springs, no one was evacuated from the 22 residences on the hillside. The fire started about 11:45 a.m., and was reported at 12:02 p.m. in an area off Webster Flat Road north of Wolf Point. Moderate winds picked up and helped the fire move south and uphill over the ridge that over looks the Wolf Point neighbor hood, but between on-ground and aerial efforts, the fire was thwarted from threatening homes. Crews from Warm Springs Fire and Safety and Fire Man agement fought the fire and dug fire lines and posted structure protecting engines on the cul-dc- sac. Deadline to submit items for publication in the next Spilyay Tymoo is Friday, Au gust 12. Thank you. said. "There were a number of folks writing some things to make it happen, I guess. F.ither that, or they were really happy to sec that I'd retired." Lohman, 59, is a native of Iowa and a U.S. Army veteran. I le worked at the Bl A office in Fverctt, Wash., until 1992, when he transferred to Warm Springs. It was like walking into a firestorm of controversy. Blowdown sale "The blowdown sale hap pened in 1990, and there were rumblings of discontent about it for years." In 1994 the tribes filed a law suit over the blowdown sale, claiming the tribes lost millions of dollars through BIA misman agement. 'Things got ugly then," I-ohman said. The BIA forest manager at the time was transferred, and Ixihrnan was installed as acting forest manager. I Ic mediated in sessions between the tribal Natu ral Resources Branch, tribal com mittees and the BIA. "There was a lot of uncer tainty among the staff, because there was talk that the tribe was going to take over management of the whole forestry program, like they did up at the Lummi Reservation in Washington," Lohman said. "The BIA em ployees could be on the street the next day without a job if that were to happen. So there was a little anxiety about it." Instead the tribes and the BIA tried to pick up the pieces An airplane from the U.S. Forest Service in Redmond dropped fire retardant just up hill from the houses. After battling the fire in the hot and breezy conditions, southeast winds pushed the fire east toward the Deschutes River by late afternoon, when Fire and Safety Chief Dan Martinez pro nounced the fire 45 percent contained by 5 p.m. that after noon. At that point, he said he was planning to send some of his firefighters home. The fire had been contained the follow ing day. As winds picked up in the afternoon, Martinez said he was mostly concerned about the co EAGLE-TECH 31 L PC installation and service for most PC desktop and Network Installation and Management Office Wireless systems Peripheral Service Data backup and recovery service Network Security , Microsoft Office Support Internet Security Planning to Protect Against Online Certified staff including Microsoft Certified Professional, A, Cisco, Linux, .... TECHNICAL SERVICE TO THE WARM SPRINGS & HAD HAS AR2AS " bubmittad photo Rich Lohman with award and keep the program going. "I guess that's how it fell on me, as the next person," said Lohman. Acting manager Lohman worked with five forest managers in his 1 1 years at Warm Springs, and often served as acting forest manager in between the hiring of new managers. But even with his ex perience as acting manager, Ixihrnan was never tempted to apply for the position perma nently. "At first I was upset with the way they treated the previous forest manager," he said. "And after that, I knew that there were cjualificd tribal members." Doug Manion has been the BIA forest manager for Warm Springs for the past three years. "He'll stick around. I think he'll do a good job," said Lohman. "He's worked out incidence fire reaching a bowl adjacent to the Wolfe Point houses and a usual shift in winds toward the southwest. "At 2:30 (p.m.), we were con cerned about it dipping into the valley," he said. "The fire cre ates its own wind. I thought this thing would turn south." With the help of the dropped fire retardant and the wind stay ing on course, the fire stayed atop the ridge. Backfires were used to control the blaze, as fire crews allowed the head of the fire to head toward the river. Wolf Point residents watched as fire crews kept vigil over the neighborhood, some spraying their rooftops with water while mm there for 20 years. I le was the best cjualificd of those who came through, in my opinion." Manion attended the timber symposium in Visalia when Lohman was presented the award. Started in Idaho Before moving to Warm Springs, Lohman worked for the Pugct Sound Agency of the BIA. The agency serves 12 small tribes, mostly without res ervation land, based in Everett. "No matter what you did or how you prioritized your activi ties, there was always one tribe or another that didn't think we were doing it right," he said. "And that's the downfall of working in a place like that. The office was in downtown Everett. It wasn't on a reservation." lohman graduated from the University of Idaho with a B.S. in Forestry in 1968. He went to Idaho for its forestry program but also because the out-of-state tuition at Idaho was less than the in-state tuition at Iowa State University. He served as a helicopter pilot in the U.S. Army in a ca reer that included a tour of duty in Vietnam. He began working for the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1978. "When I got out of the Army, my first forestry job was at Fort Lewis," he said. "They've got 50,000 acres of nice forest land, and they have a nice for estry program. Of course, most others offered cold water and ice to the fire crews and the fire command post at the intersec tion of Wolf Point and Webster Flat roads. Only local traffic was allowed on either Webster Flat or Wolf Point roads while the firefighting efforts resumed. While smoldering hotspots remained in the burned area of the fire, Martinez said it's im portant for area residents to leave them alone and not try to douse or ground them by them selves. "It's not what the fire does. It's what the fire brings out," he said, meaning rocks become loose in the fire, and snakes, Eagle-Tech Systems now offers cost effective on-site business PC and Network Services in the Warm Springs and Madras area. work people don't know about it. They don't do any dear-cutting, and it generates several million dollars a year. "I was out there for four years. I wasn't getting any pro motions there, because the people who were there weren't moving, so you start looking around. The BIA was expand ing its hiring at that time, so I applied." Lohman has not stopped working in the three years since his retirement, as he is still in demand as a forestry consult ant to tribes in the Northwest. He has been involved in the Inter-tribal Timber Council (ITC), an advocacy group for tribes that have timber on their reservation land. The council has been successful in getting leg islation passed to improve In dian forest programs. The ITC serves about 70 reservations, from Alaska to North Carolina. Theron Johnson, a BIA check-sealer and a member of four ITC committees, describes Lohman as having a productive yet "low-key manner." . "Rich also was involved in what we call the TIDT team,' the Project Interdisciplinary Team," Johnson said. "They're the ones that come up with the timber sales and other projects. He was the co ordinator for that, and that's where I was most involved with him, because I was also part of that PIDT team. He always got the job done." burned out of their habitats, move to non-burned areas. Lydy said that with the dry grass and summer conditions, Warm Springs Reservation resi dents need to be extra careful "The grass is really drying out," he said. "It's a very high fire danger. A lot of burn per mits will be eliminated because of that." Additionally, four camp crews, including about 40 people, from Warm Springs have been dispatched to fight fires around the state. Two crews are in the Gold Beach area and one each are near LaGrande and Vale. laptops Threats Court upholds dam spills (AP) - A federal appeals court last week upheld a lower court order demand ing that the government spill water through five Northwest hydroelectric dams to help young salmon migrating to the Pacific. The US. Army Corps of Engineers was forced to al low substantial flows to by pass energy-generating tur bines following a June 20 order by US. District Judge James Redden of Pordand. Redden ruled that the salmon were imperiled when swimming through those dams' turbines as they headed to the sea hun dreds of miles away. The Bush administra tion called the order an "untested experiment," and "micromanaging the Co lumbia river" while urging the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse Redden's order. A three-judge panel of the appeals court ruled unanimously that the judge "did not abuse" his discre tion in ordering the in creased water flows, which are to last through August. The Bonneville Power Administration, which sells the electricity generated by the dams, estimated spill ing the water rather than running it through turbines will cost $67 million in lost revenue, which could be saddled on utility custom ers in Idaho, Oregon, Mon tana, and Washington. At the request of salmon advocates, fisher men and Indian tribes, Redden ruled that "as cur rently operated, I find that the dams strongly contrib uted to the endangerment of the listed species and ir reparable injury will result if changes are not made." Environmentalists, who brought the case, said the government hasn't been meeting its obligations to protect the threatened salmon and eventually want to close four dams in southeastern Washington. . : . i 1.