Darkness Before Dawn

Back and forth we go into the "extreme risk category" in Lane County and throughout Oregon, just as businesses are starting to recover during a spring that promised the beginnings of a return to normalcy. Examples of frustration and resistance to state-mandated restrictions are pervasive.

With only one-third of county residents vaccinated, it's time for a greater percentage of the population to receive their Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccinations. In the interest of a return to some semblance of normalcy by summer, we must pull together for the common good.

Priority Earth

Earth Day, an annual event established on April 22 in 1970 to demonstrate environmental protection, has grown from a national event to an international event. U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson, Democrat from Wisconsin, is the founder of the event to create awareness of an environmental ethic.

In the 1990s, the city of Eugene and numerous other local agencies and organizations in Lake County founded Earth Day Oregon, which became an annual event held at the River's Edge Plaza at Eugene Water & Electric Board promoting environmental programs and practices.

In 2020, over 100 million people from around the world observed the 50th anniversary of Earth Day in what was described as the largest online mass mobilization in history. This year's focus is on climate literacy, responsible forestry practices and the benefits of environmental education.

Now, President Joseph Biden has pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions by nearly half by 2030. The United States is rejoining international efforts to fight global warming, after four years of climate denial by the previous administration, and is promoting conservation and renewable energy.

Lady Lookouts

In a recent feature on "The History of Lady Lookouts" in The Smithsonian Magazine, author Dina Gachman notes that "women broke the glass ceiling on fire lookout positions almost as soon as the job was created, spotting smoke from towers on high peaks in the remote wilderness."

Initially, men like Jack Kerouac garnered attention to the job with books like Desolation Angels, highlighting the season he spent on Desolation Peak in the North Cascades.

But by the time I worked for the U.S. Forest Service in the 70s and 80s, women maintained a clear majority among seasonal fire lookouts in national forests.

Just three years after the Forest Service had created the job, Hallie Morse Daggett (above) became the first female to serve as a Forest Service fire lookout, blazing a trail for "many lookouts." In her first year on the job, she reportedly spotted 40 fires, with only five acres burned.

In a year that many have struggled with feeling isolated at home, living in a small, exposed cabin thousands of feet above the wilderness in remote locations might not exactly sound like a good time. It's definitely not for wimps. The job can be grueling, lonely and at times, incredibly stressful.

Having spent time as a lookout myself, I understand why some sought the position as a way of life. My only lookout assignment was on Antelope Mountain on the Prairie City Ranger District on Malheur National Forest. The gig was short-lived; I spent most of my time as a wilderness ranger.

The majority of lookouts, however, were staffed by women. Many were college students. Most were also artists, musicians and writers, who practiced in their downtime. One friend, a lookout on Dixie Butte, was skilled at weaving and had her loom packed to the site to work on her various projects.

Training consists of fire prevention, and lookouts are shown how to use an Osborne rangefinder. They are instructed on radio code and how to maintain the tower, and then sent on their way. It's not the type of position that requires others to motivate. As a lookout, you're basically on your own.

At times the job can be harrowing, especially during a lightning bust when lookout towers are particularly vulnerable. Lookouts are particularly valuable during lighting storms because airplanes cannot fly in a lightning storm, so the job still serves a vital function.

Imagine this scenario. Storm rolls in, rain pelts the tower horizontally, lightning flashes, thunder booms, and you're hunkered on a stool with glass feet to avoid electrocution should lightning strike the building. A frighteningly difficult situation that is not for the faint of heart.

See No Evel

In 1974, working for the Forest Service in Prairie City, Oregon, a friend asked if I would be interested in venturing to Twin Falls, Idaho to watch motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel leap across the Snake River canyon on a motorcycle. Naturally, I said "yes" and we made plans to go.

Evel Knievel, a daredevil motorcyclist who staged self-promoted events for a living, "is probably the only man in history who has become very wealthy by trying to kill himself" by jumping cars, trucks and other obstacles on his motorcycle, noted Johnny Carson when interviewing Knievel. 

In an era of outrageous characters like Muhammad Ali and Elvis Presley, Evel Knievel stood out. After years of jumping cars and busses, he would now jump the Snake River Canyon, and we would be there to witness the unusual event. So we drove from Prairie City to Twin Falls.

We camped overnight at a designated campsite provided by the Sawtooth National Forest. More rangeland that forest, we awoke the next morning for the big event surrounded by grazing cows. Packing up our camp, turns out we were just a few miles from Jackpot, Nevada.

Heading north to Twin Falls, we encountered a crowd that would rival that of Woodstock or any large concert, and with the whole world watching on television, Evel Knievel was preparing his water-powered rocket cycle to fly across a chasm in his gutsiest attempt to cheat of death yet. 

The first thing we noticed was that the angle of the launch chute seemed too sharp at about 70 degrees. We estimated that he might make it high enough but perhaps not far enough. When the rocket cycle ignited, the chute immediately opened, diminishing ithe speed of the rocket.

Yet Knievel made it across the river. However, the prevailing winds floated the chute down into the ravine, where he practically landed in an awaiting boat. It was then that we spotted the black and white bulls-eye target some daring souls had painted on the north side of the canyon.

Needless to say, we were disappointed at the poor showing by the white-suited, star-spangled banner adrenaline junkie from Butte, Montana. "I'll bet he had that scam all figured out from the beginning," noted my companion with disgust. "What a total butt job."

Afterward, we motored back to Prairie City to spend a few days in the Strawberry Mountain Wilderness, where I was working as a backcountry ranger. That sojourn into the southernmost of the Blue Mountains would turn out to be the highlight of the trip.

Dominating the scenery the head of the John Day River is Strawberry Mountain, elevation 9,044. The wilderness itself varies between 3-5 miles in width and is 18 miles long, and includes such mountains as Pine Creek, Indian Creek Butte, Strawberry and Rabbit Ears.

We approached the wilderness from the back side through the Logan Valley. With five glacial tarns, including High Lake, the ecosystem is extremely diverse and includes five of seven of North America's life zones within its boundaries. The wilderness also includes spectacular views in every direction.

Later that year, I left Prairie City for good. The next season I would be working on the Lake Wenatchee Ranger District on the Wenatchee National Forest in Washington. But we'll always remember that ill-fated attempt by Evel Knievel to jump the Snake River Canyon in Twin Falls, Idaho.

Point Roberts

When is a peninsula an island? When it's Point Roberts, Washington. The area is about as remote a location as can be in the lower 48 states. Point Roberts appears like it should be part of Canada, but the small strip of land lies just south of the 49th parallel, which makes it part of Washington State.

The only way to travel to the rest of the U.S. is via the 24-mile drive through Canada. Unfortunately, due to U.S. and Canadian COVID travel restrictions, no one drives in or out of Point Roberts, vaccinated or not, despite the fact there's only been one reported case since the pandemic began.

They've tried a ferry, but because of rough seas, the boat often can't make the crossing over to the mainland. In spite of the difficulties of access to and from Point Roberts, the residents seem to have survived so far without doctors, medical facilities, veterinary clinics or even drug stores.

Canadians who own homes and properties in Point Roberts have also been shut out. They've become accustomed to crossing the border for cheaper prices on eggs and milk at the oversized grocery store in Point Roberts. Talk about being wedged between a rock and a hard place!

Texas Two-Step

As if Texas hasn't had enough natural disasters like hurricanes and drought, a polar vortex recently unleashed a frigid Arctic blast, terrorizing Texans and overwhelming the state's energy grid, initiating power outages and creating a humanitarian crisis for more than one million people.

To add insult to injury, the unusual storm made a mockery of the state's politicians and its much vaunted independence. Right-wing talking heads like Tucker Carlson on Fox and even the state's governor, Greg Abbott, have blamed the outages on wind power and the so-called "Green New Deal."

Carlson called windmills a "silly fashion statement" and noted that "green energy means a less reliable power grid." Worse, Abbott, who one would assume knows better, said that "the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal." Both statements are, of course, complete hogwash.

Texas generates only 25 percent of its electrical energy from wind power, with the rest coming from thermal sources like gas, oil and coal generating facilities. The real issue is the state's dubious energy grid, called the inaccurately named Electrical Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).

As public relations coordinator for Eugene Water & Electric Board, I attended an enlightening conference sponsored by the American Public Power Association in Texas in the late 1990s in Austin. The city's public utility was recognized as a national leader in the development of wind energy.

Unfortunately, the state's electrical grid, managed by the ERCOT, is woefully unprepared to manage a catastrophic blackout. Texas has consciously distanced itself from federal oversight to avoid federal regulation and maintains its own grid, unique in the nation.

Why is Texas the only state to manage its own energy grid? Well, probably because it's Texas, and they like to do things their own way. As a result of their so-called independence, the state is unable to acquire power from neighboring grid like the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA).

Ten years ago, a Texas  commission predicted that a catastrophic storm could severely impact the state's energy grid, but nothing was done. Fixing ERCOT will require actual governance by statewide leadership instead of blaming the sorry shape of their electrical grid on wind turbines.

Question Reality

"Question reality" was a popular slogan found on bumper stickers, typically positioned on the back of Volkswagen buses, back in the 60s. Popularized by hippie psychologist Timothy Leary, many have pointed out the fact that the phrase can be traced to the Greek philosophy Socrates.

The slogan focused on the counterculture movement, which opposed escalation of the Vietnam War, and supported the free speech and civil rights movements, Earth Day and other popular issues of the day. Later, a variation of that phrase on bumper stickers morphed into "question reality."

So it was interesting to participate in a Zoom session with students from the UO chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America as they interviewed public relations and advertising professionals, all recent graduates, in a question and answer session recently.

The final question, as posed to the professionals in attendance by the moderator of the Zoom session, was this: "What have you been doing, other than work, to navigate through the pandemic." To a person, they all responded with "reality television" like "The Bachelor" and others.

My "reality television" has been the news: the daily pandemic numbers (and now vaccination numbers), the presidential election and most recently, the impeachment trial. As I heard the professionals respond to the question, I couldn't help but think that the 24-hour news cycle provides plenty of reality.

There is, of course a certain paradox in the defense team for a reality-show president complaining about the use of visual images in the impeachment trial that  the longtime star of "Celebrity Apprentice" could appreciate. Perhaps it's just a case of "live by the sword, die by the sword."