Researched by Gator N.
2008-09

• RESEARCH REPORT
• LEARNING PRODUCTS
• BIBLIOGRAPHY

Who I Interviewed and What I Learned

    I interviewed my mom Kim Newell.  My mom served as a fire fighter for the forest service.  She was also a fire prevention officer and patrolled the forest.  She would talk to the campers of how to prevent forest fires and how to put out campfires.  Kim also told what to put on four-wheelers and answered questions the campers had.  Kim worked seven years in the forest service.  My mom got interested because she loved working outside and in the mountains.  To become a firefighter my mom had to take a week long firefighter training.  To run the fire engines you have to take another week long school on fire engines.  You still though got on the job training and classes while you were working.
    Kim enjoyed being outside and working on the mountains.  What she didn’t enjoy about forest service is really big fires and getting up really early in the morning. I asked Kim “What is a typical work day?”  My mom said there really is no typical work day in forest service. You always do something different.  But usually you report to the office, ride in the trucks, and are called in if there is a fire.  She also put up fire prevention signs and burns brush in the spring to eliminate large fires.  Areas with a lot of fire danger my mom and other people burn out with a controlled fire.  Kim also burns the leftovers of logging units.  Then scientists plant new trees.
    My mom hasn’t been in any real dangers but some dangers are the flames of the fires when you’re fighting fires or the running chain saws when you’re cutting down burning trees. Once there were big flames so a bulldozer had to bulldoze over them in southern Oregon. One time my mom saw some bears running across the road.  I don’t know if this was on the same day but she once saw some big elk with some cougars following them.  My mom thought the cougars were following the baby elk to attack them.  At the time my mom did forest service they got paid hourly.  If you did overtime you got paid extra about ½ the amount you usually get.  Each time you fought a fire you got paid something called hazard pay.  My mom stopped doing forest service because she had me.   After she had kids my mom stayed home.  During forest service Kim was on a ladder that collapsed when going on a roof top and broke her back with me in her.
    Kim doesn’t really know much about the history of forest service but my mom believes they set up for apartments who do different things.  My mom believes that firefighters, biologist, and people who help keep the habitat are most important in the past to help the forest.  She doesn’t know when they started forest but thinks they started forest service because they didn’t want to ruin the resources that came out of the forest.  My mom thinks they wanted to control the resources.  My mom doesn’t know what has changed about forest service but thinks a lot of things changed.  Kim doesn’t know if there are any new fields of forest service but thinks there is more restrictions on the different areas of forestry.
    My mom thinks fires are a major problem.  Fires are restricted in some forest areas. She also thinks that not able to take chain saws, or not able to have motorized vehicles in some areas, or even letting fire burning are major problems in forest that we’re facing today.  My mom predicts that the forest service will do a good job preserving the wilderness, trees, replanting, and taking out noxious weeds.  My mom thinks the forest service is going to do a good job protecting the forest and is going to have a good future. Kim thinks forest service is a fun job and encourages any one who likes to be in the mountains to work for the forest service. 

My Volunteer Summary

    I first volunteered at the ranger station on the 13th of February, 2009.  First of all we got a little tour of the Ranger station from Gary.  Gary then showed us what we needed to do.  We needed to sand and paint two big signs.  That may sound easy but the signs were each probably 4 to 10 times bigger than stop signs. One of the signs was separate.  One sign said: CAMPERS           DROWN IT       STIR IT          FEEL IT         THANK YOU.  The other sign had a picture of Smokey and said: HELP PREVENT WILDFIRES.  We then first of all started to take out the staples and nails that were in the signs.  Riley kept on doing that while I started sanding the edges of the sign.  What I used to sand was a drill that had some type of sanding tool that span on the end.  I got some sides sanded when Riley got done taking out the staples and nails.  Riley then started using the other drill and sander to sand the edges of the sign.  Riley’s dad was sanding while I was so we didn’t have a whole lot of edges to sand.  Soon we got done sanding the edges so we started sanding the face of the sign.  One of our drills ran out of batteries but the other was a plug in.  We then soon got out an electric sander what I think it is called to help us sand.  There were tons and probably trillions of dust particles so sometimes we got a vacuum to help clean up it up. Sanding was probably the hardest thing but we finished sanding all the signs at 12:00.  We then went to lunch.
    When we came back we first rolled the table out of the way to help clean off the dust.  We then cleaned up the sanding tools and rolled the table back in its place.  We started cleaning dust off the table then took the signs off the table to clean off the whole table.  The table use to be covered in dust.  It was then time to start painting.  First we painted over the dullish yellow on the Campers sign with yellow paint.  We then painted yellow over the red letters on the Smokey sign.  The red letters may look better but the yellow letters are easier to see especially at night.  We got our pictures taken while we were painting the Smokey sign too.  We then painted the last sign.  We first started by painting the flames of a fire and then painted the letter.  Painting was the trickiest part, one drop of paint on the wrong spot leads immediately to a wet rag.  When we were done or close to done Gary printed our picture and gave us t-shirts.  After we were done painting we washed out brushes, rags, and started putting stuff away.  I washed my brush about three times.  When packed up we told Gary that we were going to leave and left.  

Bibliography

Ferguson.  Ferguson’s Careers In Focus Environment Third Edition.  New York: Facts on File, Inc, 2004.  Pages 13, 14, 15, 48, 49, 50, and 51.

Hooper, Rosanne.   Life in the Woodlands.  Chicago: World Book, Inc, 2001.  Pages 4, 5, 6, 7, 14, and 21.

Newell, Kim.   Personal Interview.  January 17th, 2009.

Stone, Lynn M. .  Temperate Forests.  Vero Beach: Rourke Enterprises, Inc, 1989.  Pages 4, 6, 7, and 9.