Aug. 26, 2023
Caroline Puckett
After a week like last week, this week was very nice and Friday was very different from most of our days.
Very early Friday morning thunder and lightning struck across the valley resulting in multiple fires and a lot of stress for everyone at Starker.
After meeting with Lys in the morning, we were informed that we would be staying at the office all day in case we were needed to respond to a fire. We spent the morning building a second shelf in the truck bay.
After few hours, we sent Joe up to the office with a couple questions. When he got there, two fire trucks were gone along with all of the foresters. It turned out they were just patrolling and that we should get the truck ready incase we needed to leave. We waited around building the shelf until about noon and then headed out to the first fire of the day.
The first fire was in Starker’s Beaver Creek tree farm and relatively small. We had it all trailed and mopped up at 4:30 p.m.
Kathy and Anthony clearing brush establishing a fire line.
We then moved onto the second fire of the day. This was the Starr Creek Fire and it was a bit bigger. It was our job to focus on mopping up a small portion. ODF wanted a 25 foot border so fire would not reach the other side of the line. It took us a couple hours using water to make sure there were no flames, smoke or hot spots in our section. We ended up leaving at about 8:30 p.m.
Hosing down hot spots.
Smoky skies make a pretty sunset.
Charred grasses and branches.
Hosing down another hot spot.
Joe and Kathy.
This made the first part of the week pretty uneventful, but it was a good week as the weather was cooler than last week and we mostly did stream surveys.
My work week started on Tuesday and I was partnered with Joe. We had quite a drive as our two stands were Eddyville. But, for the first time this summer, the stands were right next to each other so it was like one big stand. It was very hilly and had quite a bit of brush down by the streams. The walking wasn’t awful but we unfortunately didn’t finish it.
On Wednesday, we returned to Eddyville to continue the stands. Because of how close the fish stream was, we had a lot of streams that entered the stand. Sadly every single stream that could’ve been there, was there. Joe and I worked extremely hard, skipped lunch and still ended up having to stay a little late because we didn’t want to have to come out a third time. As Joe and I put it, we needed to WLLW, “Work Like Lys Would.” She’s very fast.
Thursday was a very nice day. Kathy, Joe and I got the opportunity to lay out a research plot with Stephen. When laying out a stand, pin flags are put down to designate where trees are supposed to be planted. We actually went back to the same stand where Emily and I previously helped flag where the burn piles were supposed to go. It was a little hot but it was pretty fun and the time flew by. I always enjoy learning new skills so I appreciated being able to see another part of the reforestation side of things.
Despite Friday being what it was, this has been a pretty great week and I hope next week can be the same, but maybe without the fires. We were productive and we’ve definitely made some progress with the stream surveys.
Next week is my last week at Starker so you’ll only read one more post from me.
— Caroline Puckett