BuzzH
Well-known member
Well today is my last day with the FS. My first day was in Powell Idaho right out of high school in 1987. Worked seasonal from 1988-1994 in Montana at Ninemile, Superior, Alder, and Wisdom. Did a mix of timber, silviculture, and a bunch of fire. Did my last fire detail in 1994 in helitack. After the tragic fire season in 1994, figured I'd about seen it all in fire and decided to switch gears and get into research. Started with FIA in 1995 and worked until 1998. Decided to try some riparian/wetland stuff and worked for Turner Enterprises from 1998-2001 really great job, but it wasn't the woods.
Went back to the FS doing Research, specifically Forest Inventory and analysis in 2001 and stayed until today. Pretty happy to say I stayed mostly out of the office. Winters were always in the office, but was always great to hit the field each spring.
One of my co-workers puts together maps for us that show all the research plots we did over the years when we retire. I was a bit surprised to see that I had done 1,587 plots collecting all sorts of tree data, vegetation data, etc. in what is the longest running inventory in the U.S., Next year will be 100 years. There's about 120ish plots missing that I did in Montana, mostly in Western Montana that I did between 1995-1998.
It's a pretty good job over-all if you don't mind mostly 10-14+ hour days, getting to work locations via horse, mule, jet boats, atv's, jet boats, rafts, dirt bikes, etc. and mostly a metric shit ton of hiking. Good too if you don't mind being out in the woods everyday.
Doing anything for that long, you definitely have stories, some good, some not so good, and some even tragic. Probably wouldn't do anything different if I could start over.
I got to work in what is the very best of the public lands still remaining in the U.S. and I'm grateful for that. Worked with some excellent people and also thankful for that as well.
Not letting any grass grow...headed to Montana this afternoon to help a friend with a moose tag there.
Looking forward to seeing what everyday being a Saturday is like, everyone I talk to says it doesn't suck.
Went back to the FS doing Research, specifically Forest Inventory and analysis in 2001 and stayed until today. Pretty happy to say I stayed mostly out of the office. Winters were always in the office, but was always great to hit the field each spring.
One of my co-workers puts together maps for us that show all the research plots we did over the years when we retire. I was a bit surprised to see that I had done 1,587 plots collecting all sorts of tree data, vegetation data, etc. in what is the longest running inventory in the U.S., Next year will be 100 years. There's about 120ish plots missing that I did in Montana, mostly in Western Montana that I did between 1995-1998.
It's a pretty good job over-all if you don't mind mostly 10-14+ hour days, getting to work locations via horse, mule, jet boats, atv's, jet boats, rafts, dirt bikes, etc. and mostly a metric shit ton of hiking. Good too if you don't mind being out in the woods everyday.
Doing anything for that long, you definitely have stories, some good, some not so good, and some even tragic. Probably wouldn't do anything different if I could start over.
I got to work in what is the very best of the public lands still remaining in the U.S. and I'm grateful for that. Worked with some excellent people and also thankful for that as well.
Not letting any grass grow...headed to Montana this afternoon to help a friend with a moose tag there.
Looking forward to seeing what everyday being a Saturday is like, everyone I talk to says it doesn't suck.
