KEEPING WATCH

Video of Patrick McMarron recording fire conditions from the radio in July of 2021 on Hells Half Acre Fire Lookout [Muffled sound] radio announcer: temperatures 85 to 90 in valleys, 75 to 80 on ridges; minimum humidity: 15 to 25% valleys, 22 to 32% ridges; 20 foot winds lower elevation, Northwest 5 to 15 miles per hour; ridgetops, Northwest 5 to 15 miles per hour Haine’s index for low, LAL3; chance of running rain 0% break tonight sky weather mostly clear smoke minimum temperatures: 45-55 valleys, 55 …

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:42:11

[Chris] So one of the things that we’re interested in, in this project that we’re doing is, um, the increasing obsolescence of the

[Patrick] Oh, you’re going to get me started.

[Chris] Uh, yeah. So if you just talk a little bit.

[Patrick]Yeah, well, obviously, as far as technological advancement goes, I’m at the sticks and rocks stage, but, you know, this is as if these have a huge historical significance or and I’m talking some of the stuff I tell people at St Mary these this is probably the first lookout here is probably in the thirties it’s what they call a rag top.

00:00:42:11 - 00:01:05:07

[Patrick] There is no there’s no look out as a post here, maybe a tree. And the guy who lived in the tent and then from there you escalate. In the thirties there were about 50 lookouts in Reveille County in the Bitterroot National Forest. It gave a lot of people jobs and yeah, I guess be redundant. But there is there are things to be said about a human being being here, you know?

00:01:05:07 - 00:01:29:20

[Patrick] Yeah, you can set up the machinery and you can monitor the weather and the winds and everything else, but just walk around the catwalk every 15 minutes or so. You see things that, you know, when you’re here long enough, there’s a difference. You can tell also on these steep canyons, especially here, it’s just canyon country. Fire crews are working on a fire down here and they have to stay overnight on it.

00:01:29:20 - 00:01:56:25

[Patrick] They can’t radio out. They can radio here, but they can’t radio. They can’t reach dispatch. So the lookouts are all relaying messages that can get really critical, that can be, you know, a life or death situation. And there are a lot of just little, you know, things. I know we’re in the modern age. The whole management of the Forest Service is changing to, you know, new people who don’t really understand the significance of having to pack all your supplies in.

00:01:56:25 - 00:02:18:16

[Patrick] On a mule train is this is a little different here. You can drive here, but there are quite a few lookouts. There’s still pack in. So and also, you know, financially, you know, what does it cost to pay a lookout through the season? Probably what it costs an hour for the helicopter. You know what it costs in a day for the aerial reconnaissance.

00:02:18:18 - 00:02:36:29

[Patrick] And there are aerial reconnaissance winds clear enough to see fire season and then go along between the lookouts and radar ridge lookout. And we radio back what to look at, what to look for, what we saw. So end of sermon is that enough?