Forest Fire Lookout Association 2016 Conference

What a great gathering of Lookout enthusiasts! People came from all over to attend the 2016 Western Conference at the fairgrounds in John Day, Oregon. I am guessing we had at least 50 in attendance. We showed up late Friday night due to work and missed Fridays events. Saturday was a great day of catching up with old friends, making new friends, discussions, presentations, convoys to Aldrich Lookout, pizza, and music! Sunday morning we convoyed up to Dry Soda Lookout (pictured on left) and were hosted by Mike who is staffing the Lookout. The group fractured here, and we went to visit Fall Mountain Lookout while some of the group headed up to Flagtail and Dixie Lookouts, I believe.

Early Saturday morning, we were treated to a lecture by the local Forest Service Archeologist. Topics of discussion centered around how to save existing Lookout structures, the cultural and historical importance, and why some are more valuable than others. Seems that the Lookouts that fire still uses for detection are the ones most likely to be of value than those not used and needing a lot of maintenance. We discussed the possibility of adding Lookouts to the popular rental system to help with deferred maintenance costs. Also, we touched on the use of cameras and drones for fire detection and elimination of humans in the Lookouts.

   Upper left photo shows our founder Keith Argow giving (I believe) the Doug Newman Award to Rex Kamstra for his excellence as a webmaster. Also, an award was given to (I believe, going off memory here) Ron Fallon as well. There was more discussion, photo sharing, story telling, and networking. Howard Vershoor, the Oregon Chapter President, had a trove of information about all kind of Lookout matters, then we convoyed up to Aldrich Lookout pictured above. Some amazing conversations later, we headed back to the fairgrounds for a pizza dinner and more discussion. I had an interesting conversation with Charlie and Bev previously from Oregon Butte Lookout. They are now caretakers at a remote guard station on Lake Chelan available only by boat. How Cool is that! The evening culminated with Shannon and I playing a few songs, with "The Lookout Life" enjoyed by all. Sunday was a fun day of exploration of Lookouts, made even better by the people who  attended. As we have not attended a conference since Yreka in 2007, I had forgotten how much all these people mean to me. The passion behind these folks is felt from across the room. The enthusiasm is catching, and I hope you will catch it too. So much time and energy put forth by so many, too many to list here off of memory. Hats off to Howard Vershoor, Keith Argow, Gary Weber, and all of you who have made this Association great! For those of you interested in more information go to www.firelookout.org. You will find me in a Lookout Tower when I'm not on the river. Have a good summer. -Joey River