Smokejumping

Dick Hulla, 2011

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Episode 21 (15:05)

Thank you for joining us for the twenty-first episode of the “Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness History Project.” In this episode, titled “Smokejumping,” we hear from Dick Hulla, who not only worked as the first river ranger in the Selway-Bitterroot wilderness, but also jumped into fires in many places in the western United States, including the Selway-Bitterroot during the time when the “let-burn” policy first came into play.

Dick grew up in Missoula, and applied to work in the Forest Service at the age in 18 in the late 1960’s, right after the passage of the Wilderness Act. Throughout college at the University of Montana, Dick spent the summers working in the wilderness, where he met and impressed Emil Keck, who oversaw his work maintaining trails and bridges. Dick went on to work as a river ranger, providing vital information to the Forest Service toward what was to become the unique “one-launch-per-day” rafting policy. He later smoke jumped, and earned his pilot’s license, working as a backcountry pilot and firefighter throughout the 1970’s and 80’s. Here, he tells us what is involved in smokejumping on a backcountry fire, and describes the practice of “herding” a wildfire that is to be allowed to burn.

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Crosscutting

Warren Miller using a torch to temper saw teeth

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Episode 20 (17:38)

Thank you for joining us for the twentieth episode of the “Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness History Project.” In this episode, titled “Crosscutting,” we hear from Warren Miller, who took a special interest in using and promoting primitive tools for use in the backcountry, in particular the crosscut saw. Because of his interest, Warren searched out experts to mentor him in the use and maintenance of crosscut saws, and eventually became one of the leading experts in the Forest Service on Crosscut saws, which led to his revising the manual produced by the Forest Service on the subject. Here, he tells us something about the intricacies of sharpening saws by filing, he discusses brands of saws, and tells a story about a particular saw that received a name.

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Managing Wilderness Is An Oxymoron

Warren Miller, 2010

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Episode 19 (12:09)

Thank you for joining us for the nineteenth episode of the “Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness History Project.” In this episode, titled “Managing Wilderness Is An Oxymoron,” Warren Miller explains how the wilderness rangers helped to interpret the Wilderness Act in a practical, tangible way, by educating backcountry recreational users and promoting primitive tool use, among other things.

Warren Miller was born in Salt Lake City, lived there until he was eleven, and then his family moved to Phoenix, Arizona. He attended Reed College in Portland where he majored in physics. After graduating, and spending some time traveling in Europe, he and his brother took a work trip with the Sierra Club, which took them into the Selway-Bitterroot off of Elk Summit. While on that trip, he was impressed with the country and its surroundings; he also met Dick Walker, who encouraged him to apply for a job as wilderness ranger. In his words, “I figured well, I’ll try this for a year or for a season and I stayed there 20 years.”

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Backcountry Bridge Building

Cable suspension bridge over the Selway River.

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Episode 18 (18:32)

Thank you for joining us for the eighteenth episode of the “Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness History Project.” In this episode, titled “Backcountry Bridge Building,” Penny Keck tells us stories of the years in which she and her husband Emil worked for the Forest Service, building and maintaining bridges throughout what is now the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness.

Penny grew up on a farm near Portland, Oregon. While in college, she applied for and obtained a job as a fire lookout in the Moose Creek Ranger District in the summer of 1967. Her boss there was Emil Keck, whom she later married. During the summers, Emil and Penny trained fire and trail crews, manned lookouts and assisted the Forest Rangers with equipment and other work. But during the off-season winters, they built or replaced many of the bridges that span creeks and rivers in the backcountry. Without the use of heavy equipment or large crews, Penny and Emil Keck together built many of the astounding suspension bridges that lead hikers and hunters deep into the heart of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness.

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What is the Greatest Threat to Wilderness?

The beautiful, pristine Selway River, near Bear Creek, 2010. Photo courtesy Debbie Lee

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Episode 17 (22:00)

Thank you for joining us for the seventeenth episode of the “Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness History Project.” This is a special episode, titled “What is the Greatest Threat to Wilderness?” Debbie Lee, our project coordinator, asked many of the oral history interviewees this question, and she received some surprising and enlightening answers. Among the interviewees in this podcast are Penny Keck, a longtime resident of the Selway-Bitterroot area who managed equipment for the Forest Service, as well as worked with her husband Emil to build and maintain many of the bridges and buildings. We hear from Ed Bloedel, who helped write the first wilderness management plans, Eric Melson and Rob Mason who currently work for the Selway-Bitterroot Foundation, and Warren Miller and Bruce Farling, who worked as Forest Rangers in the Moose Creek district in the 1970’s and 1980’s after the passage of the 1964 Wilderness Act. From these varying perspectives, we hear about the possible future of wilderness areas and their importance in the lives of current and future generations.

Slideshow: Scenic landscapes from the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness at various points during the past century, show how little the protected landscape has changed. In this place, it is possible to view wild land as it once was, and to enjoy the tranquility of recreation in a pristine area.

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Domesticity

Sarah Swett, 2011

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Episode 16 (9:47)

Thank you for joining us for the sixteenth episode of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness History Project. In this episode, titled “Domesticity,” we hear from Sarah Swett, with stories about her first backcountry employers, Punk and Carolyn Wolfenbarger, owners of the North Star ranch. For several years, Sarah lived and worked on outfitter ranches in the heart of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, and knew many of the long-time residents of the area. Originally from Brooklyn, she fell in love with the West, the wilderness and with the fibers and textiles that she has used to tell her stories. Although life on a wilderness ranch involved long hours of work, cooking, caring for livestock, making hay, fixing fence or repairing buildings, Sarah used to get up at 4:00 am to knit and weave and spin, creating stories in pictures much like the stories told up and down the river in the backcountry.

For more of Sarah’s work, visit her web page.

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To The Next Generation

Bob Mutch, White Cap, August 1979

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Episode 15 (20:20)

Thank you for joining us for the fifteenth episode of the “Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness History Project.” In this episode, titled “To The Next Generation,” we hear from Bob Mutch, who passed on his love for the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness to his daughter, Linda, and reminisces about the time they spent together in the backcountry.

Bob’s areas of special interest include forest fuel management, fire ecology, fire behavior prediction, wildland fire training, public and firefighter safety, wildland fire suppression, prescribed fire in wilderness management, fire safe strategies for the interface, and international assistance. Since 1994, he has served as a fire management consultant in Brazil, Bulgaria, Ethiopia, India, Italy, and Mongolia for the United Nations and the World Bank, as well as domestic projects in the United States.

After her years of accompanying her father into the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, Linda went on to do her Master’s degree at the University of Arizona Tree-Ring Lab in a fire-related tree ring study on giant Sequoia trees, and has continued the work her father began studying wilderness fire behavior and management.

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