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Grand Ronde resources dispatched to help fight fires
throughout Northwest
6 OCTOBER 1,2007
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By Dean Rhodes
Smoke Signals editor
While most of us were preparing
for pow-wow and enjoying a mild
mid-August, about 25 members of
the Grand Ronde Wildland Fire
fighters traveled to heat-seared
eastern Oregon, Idaho and Montana
to, well, fight fires.
In mid-August, the Tribe's Natu
ral Resources Division dispatched
a three-person engine crew to the
Warm Springs Indian Reservation
in central Oregon to help extin
guish hot spots.
Another three-person engine crew
went to Burns, prepared for poten
tial fire-starting lightning strikes.
But by far the largest phalanx of
Tribal firefighters, a 20-person hand
crew, helped fight the 300,000-acre
East Zone Complex fire and 99,000
acre Chippy Creek fire in northern
Idaho and western Montana, re
spectively. Hand crews perform the back
breaking work of digging out fire
lines to hopefully stop fires from
consuming more territory.
"Every year, we normally have
about 29 people out," said Natural
Resources Division Manager Mike
Wilson.
Jeff Nepstad, Tribal silvicul
ture and protection coordinator,
manages the Tribe's firefighting
resources, which are part of one
of 11 Geographic Area Coordina
tion Centers in the country. He
relays available Tribal firefighting
resources to officials at the Siuslaw
National Forest's headquarters in
Corvallis, and they in turn send the
information to the Portland office of
the Northwest coordination center.
When firefighters or equipment
are needed, a request is relayed in
reverse order and Tribal firefight
ing personnel and equipment are
dispatched.
Since the fire season in Oregon
was relatively mild especially
in western Oregon most of the
2007 fire program facts
The Grand Ronde Fire Program
was dispatched to 15 fires this
year four involved the hand
crew for 41 days and 11 involved
the engines for 122 days.
The estimated Bureau of In
dian Affairs reimbursement
for Confederated Tribes of
Grand Ronde labor, engine
rental, lodging and per diem
is $529,000. .
The Tribe had 53 red-carded
employees this year and
Natural Resources Division'
employees Colby Drake, Jake
McKnight, Chuck Chapin,
Gabe Clift, Jeremy Ojua,
David Harrelson and Bryan
Fendall "stepped it up" in su
pervisory roles.
For more information or to
apply for next year's Fire
Program, contact Jeff Nep-
. stad, Tribal silviculture and
protection coordinator, at 503-879-2377
or jeff.nepstad
grandronde.org.
Tribe's firefighting resources ended
up in Idaho and Montana, two
states particularly affected this
summer by forest fires.
"There's been a lot of action in
Montana," Wilson said.
At one point, there were 23 large
wildfires in Montana and Idaho.
Wilson said the Tribe's fire pro
gram has been increasing slowly
over the years. "We have a good
core of trained and qualified per
sonnel," he said.
Rules allow fire crew members
to work for 14 consecutive days
in the field, not including travel
days going to a'nd coming home
from assignments. The jurisdic
tion in which the fire occurs pays
crew member wages and the Tribe
receives rental fees for use of its
Tribal employe Roger Slough working on the Chippy Creek fire.
engines. The Tribe's hand crew
left Grand Ronde on Aug. 16 and
returned just before Labor Day.
"It's job creation and provides rev
enue for the Tribe," Wilson said.
The Tribe made about $160,000
on fire engine rentals in 2006,
Nepstad said, and averages about
$90,000 in profit each year. He
added that no Tribal money is used
to support the fire crews; rental
fees fund the entire program.
Fire crew personnel train from
April through June and then find
themselves in the field, battling
blazes, in July, August and Septem
ber as western forests dry out and
thunderstorms or human accidents
spark fires. In preparation, person
nel take five days of interagency
training classes- conducted by the
Bureau of Land Management, For
est Service, state of Oregon and
Bureau of Indian Affairs.
"It's hard, dirty work out there,
but they have to know their class
work," Wilson said. "It's not just
grunt work."
"Everybody has to watch every-
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Photos courtesy of Jeff NepstadSilviculture & Protection Coordinator
Tribal employees Kyle Koonce, left, and Luke Puerini fought fires in northern Idaho and western Montana.
body's back," Nepstad said.
Although most firefighters are
young men, two women were
on this year's Tribal hand crew,
which included Tribal and non
Tribal members. -
One of the women, 23-year-old
Tribal member Becky Weston,
said her first year as a hand crew
member might affect her future
career choice.
A 2002 graduate of North Eugene
High School, Weston currently at
tends Lane Community College
and is preparing to transfer to the
University of Oregon.
"Since the fire thing, I've been
asking myself, 'What do I want to
do? " Weston said.
Weston, the daughter of Tribal
member Delores Edwards and her
husband, Douglas, said she enjoyed
being outdoors, the physical chal
lenge of hiking up to 13 miles in one
day while carrying a heavy pack
and meeting new people.
On the Chippy Creek fire, Weston
worked 14 consecutive 16-hour
days, digging fire lines, looking for
hot spots and doing grid walk
ing in a line, separated by about 20
feet from other fire crew members,
searching for small fires that could
grow into troublesome blazes if not
extinguished.
"I enjoyed meeting new people,"
Weston said. "I was out there with
a whole bunch of guys, which was
cool. I enjoyed joking around, hav
ing a good time. It was my first
time and I had everyone helping
me out a lot."
Tribal firefighting resources are
important every fire season, Wilson
said. According to the U.S. Small
Business Administration, almost
50 percent of forest firefighters
in the United States are Native
Americans.
"We ask them to spend 14 days
away from their families," Wilson
said. "It's a stressful situation. We
expect a lot out of them, and they
do a great job." D