West End News: August 6
Many local Forest Service employees and retired employees are being dispatched to the large wild fires in the western states and Alaska.
Tim Norman, from Tofte, who is a retired fire behavior specialist with the U.S. Forest Service just returned from a month in Alaska. He was stationed on a huge fire along the Yukon River about 50 miles from Fairbanks.
Tim was the operations manager on a fire that was half a million acres in size. To put that in perspective, that would be half the BWCA Wilderness burning in one large fire. The operations manager is arguably the toughest job on any fire, requiring vast experience, years of training, solid judgment and the ability to make decisions that carry life and death consequences. It is a lot like being a battlefield commander, but hopefully without any loss of life.
At one point, the smoke from the fire was so intense that aircraft couldn’t supply the fire camps located hundreds of miles from the nearest road. The local people broke out their salmon nets and gathered berries to keep the hungry firefighters going until the supply flights could resume.
Tim slept for nearly three days straight when he got home. The heavy responsibility and rough working conditions in Alaska kept him up all hours and provided for plenty of stress.
Tim was very impressed the hospitality and skills of the native Alaskan Athabaskan people that he worked with there. He commented that the fun part of being a wildland fire fighter is getting to know all the different cultures in this great and diverse country that we call the United States.
The Birch Grove Foundation is celebrating its 30th year of existence this year with a “Back to the Future” party on Saturday, August 15. The festivities kick off at 3 pm and include a Birch Grove retrospective, tours, dinner, a presentation and a movie on the new large format theater style movie screen.
Caroline Wood, the Birch Grove Foundation Director, is calling 2015 “a year to remember.” Not only is it the 30th anniversary of the beloved community center, but it has been, by far, the most successful year of fundraising in the Foundation’s history. More than $70,000 in grants have been received this year in addition to the income that the Foundation collects through its various activities.
The Birch Grove Community Center mostly serves the townships of Lutsen, Schroeder and Tofte. If you haven’t stopped by recently, I strongly urge you to stop in for a tour on the 15th. It has become a truly remarkable and lovely gathering spot for the entire West End.
Cook County School District 166 is holding another operating levy referendum during the normal general election this November. The previous operating levy referendum expires in December.
I plan to vote yes for the referendum and strongly urge everyone to join me in voting yes. Our schools are the single most important key to the future prosperity of Cook County. It isn’t the only key, but it is the most important key. Without top notch public education, everything else becomes much, much more difficult.
In my opinion, the system of holding referendum elections every few years for regular school funding is not good public policy. It was an idea that was popular 20 years ago, but has proven to be a wasteful, time consuming and unnecessary process. There are far better ways to hold schools accountable for their spending while making sure that we spend enough to make Minnesota’s public education system fair and equal and right up there with the best in the world. It’s an investment that will pay rich rewards. I urge the state legislature to revisit school funding soon and design a system that is efficient, fair and effective.
The blueberries and raspberries are reaching their peak ripeness this week. In the West End, it seems to be a so-so year for blueberries, but the raspberries are abundant, if on the small side.
I’ve heard stories of very abundant blueberries at the end of the Gunflint Trail and in the Pagami Creek burn near lake Isabella. As a bonus this year, the biting insects are nearly nonexistent. Now is the time to head for the berry patch and gather a little taste of the sweetness that is our beloved West End.
Tweet