Faith Independent - Pioneer Review

Grand River Roundup
By Betty Olson
Hallelujah, we’re getting moisture!!
A shower Friday night left
.40 in our rain gauge and early
Monday morning I checked the
gauge again to find another .37
before it started to snow. South of
here there were reports of up to
an inch of rain. Now the ground is
covered in snow and the weatherman
is predicting a snowstorm for
tonight (Monday). Too bad the
Forest Service didn’t wait until
after we got this moisture to start
their “controlled” burn that
burned thousands of acres on
Wednesday!
As warm as the weather was
earlier in the week, you would
have sworn summer was already
here. I had to take my jacket off
in the lambing shed before I
melted down and after the shower
on Friday night the grass started
to green up.
Casey sold wool in Belle
Fourche Wednesday and Missy
was working in Buffalo. Against
the advice of neighboring
landowners, the Forest Service
started a prescribed burn on
Wednesday on what was supposed
to be just over a hundred
acres of government pasture
northwest of Lodgepole. It’s been
terribly dry in this area and Tuesday
night the weatherman forecast
high winds for Wednesday.
Not exactly a good time to be setting
fires!
Wednesday afternoon I heard
local fire units over the fire radio
headed toward Lodgepole to fight
the fire that had gotten away
from the Forest Service and was
being driven by high winds onto
the neighboring ranches. It
wasn’t long until every fire department
in the surrounding area
had units fighting what is now
called the Pautre Fire. The firefighters
managed to save the
ranch houses, but over 14,000
acres of pasture and hay land
were burned, most of it on private
land. One out-building was
burned and hundreds of miles of
fences will need to be replaced.
One rancher had 95% of his ranch
go up in smoke and several others
lost the majority of their land to
the fire.
John Iverson from Thrivent Financial
came Thursday afternoon
to update some of the insurance
policies. He came back Friday and
brought his sweet wife, Shelley
(Olson) Iverson with him. Shelley
hadn’t been back to visit the
ranch where Grandpa Claude
Olson was raised since she was a
teenager and came julebakking
with a bunch of the Olson and
Doll relatives. Shelley was interested
in seeing the picture I’d
shown John the day before of her
Grandpa Claude Olson and his
brothers Check and John with
Jack Sturdevant butchering a
buffalo at the Lane Ranch back in
the fifties. It is a really cool picture!
I went to Hettinger Saturday
evening for the meeting with the
Forest Service and the ranchers
involved in the Pautre Fire. That
got lively! Landowners were really
ticked off about the Forest
Service going ahead with the prescribed
burn after several of them
had asked them not to because of
the horribly dry conditions. The
Forest Service admitted that they
were responsible for the damage
they caused and said that they
will pay for everything.
I’ve been on the phone with
Rep. Noem’s office, Sen. Thune’s
office and Sen. Johnson’s office
and they all want to make sure
that the folks that lost so much
are made whole. Rep. Noem and
Sen. Thune sent letters to Secretary
of Agriculture Tom Vilsack
and Chief of the U.S. Forest Service,
Tom Tidwell, to request
timely assistance for landowners
in Perkins County affected by the
Pautre Fire and asking that they
immediately halt any controlled
burns in the area until weather
conditions improve. The Perkins
County commissioners is meeting
with the Forest Service on Tuesday
to discuss how they are going
to address these issues.
As if we don’t have enough
problems with the federal government,
Ron Traver emailed me a
story from an Oregon newspaper
that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service is thinking about protecting
the black-backed woodpecker
under the Endangered Species
Act and they are considering two
populations of the woodpecker -
one in California and Oregon, and
another in South Dakota and
Wyoming. That’s the last thing
we need!!
All these discussions about fire
fighting this week reminded me
of this old story:
One dark night outside a small
town, a fire started inside the
local chemical plant. Before long
it exploded into flames and an
alarm went out to fire departments
from miles around.
After fighting the fire for over
an hour, the chemical company
president approached the fire
chief and said, “All of our secret
formulas are in the vault in the
center of the plant. They must be
saved! I will give $50,000 to the
engine company that brings them
out safely!”
As soon as the chief heard this,
he ordered the firemen to
strengthen their attack on the
blaze. After two more hours of attacking
the fire, the president of
the company offered $100,000 to
the engine company that could
bring out the company’s secret
files.
From the distance a long siren
was heard and another fire truck
came into sight. It was a local volunteer
fire company composed entirely
of ranchers. To everyone’s
amazement the little fire engine
raced through the chemical plant
gates and drove straight into the
middle of the inferno. In the distance
the other firemen watched
as the ranchers hopped off of their
rig and began to fight the fire
with an effort that they had never
seen before.
After an hour of intense fighting
the volunteer company had
extinguished the fire and saved
the secret formulas. Joyous, the
chemical company president announced
that he would double the
reward to $200,000 and walked
over to personally thank each of
the volunteers.
After thanking each of the
ranchers individually, the president
asked the group what they
intended to do with the reward
money.
The fire truck driver looked
him right in the eye and said,
“The first thing we’re going to do
is fix the dang brakes on that
truck!”
Legal Advertising
Friday noon before
Wed. publication
The Faith Independent
April 10, 2013 • The Faith Independent • Page 7
NWAS Spelling Contest to be
held in Dupree, public welcome
to attend Awards Ceremony
The Northwest Area Schools
Spelling Contest is scheduled to
be held Wednesday, April 17 at
Dupree School. Students from
Bison, Dupree, Eagle Butte,
Faith, Harding County, Lemmon,
McIntosh, McLaughlin, Smee and
Timber Lake Schools will be participating.
Students in grades 1 though 8
will be competing in both the
Written Word and Oral Contest.
Awards will be given to the 1st
through 5th place winners in both
contests.
The public is invited to attend
the Awards Ceremony that is
scheduled to begin at 12:15 in the
Dupree School Gymnasium.