On Saturday at 9:00 a few of us hiked up to Sunbeam Creek to finish up the our hand-dug trenching through the wooded area. I had only been there an hour when I got a “Call-Out” from Forestry to send out some hose to the East Twin Fire, after which I returned to Sunbeam Creek for more digging until it was time to stop for lunch. After lunch, we went back up to Sunbeam for more digging, and once again got a call-out, so I hiked back down, drove to the Forestry warehouse, and sent out more fire fighting equipment.
When that was over I hiked back up to the waterline, and discovered that Glen and Kjell had brought up the big roll of 2” black poly pipe, so we began laying it down in the trench, weaving in around and under the roots and rocks that we couldn’t remove. We only got about half of the job done, before we had to quit for the day.
The next morning, a Sunday, we were back up there stringing the pipe in the trench, when I got another call-out. I drove into the Forestry warehouse, and discovered that I was called in only to give out a case of orange juice to a fire crew. It was an expensive case of orange juice for the government. Sending out that case of orange juice cost the government 6 hours of my wages at double-time because it was a weekend (6 x $14.86=$89.16).
Later that day, when I was back home shearing one of my goats, I noticed a big, ever increasing, plume of smoke billowing over the back of Mt. Lucille. It was another one of Forestry’s slash burns that had gotten away from them. Later that same day, another slash burn at the East Twin also escaped in the warm, strong wind. It was no surprise to me then that that evening, to get another another radio call-out to issue more fire fighting equipment, and I had to be in the warehouse the next morning (Monday) at 7:00 to issue out yet more equipment for the Dore (Mt. Lucille) Fire and the East Twin Fire.
After issuing the equipment and doing the paperwork, and a bit of my regular mapping job, I took off work at 11:00, using some of my vacation time to go back home and shear goats. As I was outside shearing, I could watch the Provincial Water Bomber work the Dore Fire, but the smoke continued coming over the mountain all day long. I managed to get three goats shorn before finally quitting at 6:00 to fix my supper.
The next day, yet another slash burn escaped, this time up the Holmes River, which burned through a plantation of young newly planted trees. One would have hoped that the people responsible for lighting up the slash burns, would have learned something from their previous mistakes.
I was appalled at all these forest fires caused by the Forest Service in their attempt to burn the waste on their cutblocks. Not only do they cost so much to put out, but they also put so much smoke into the air that the mountains on both sides of the Valley are obscured.
View my paintings at: davidmarchant2.ca
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