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The Oregon Surveyor
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Vol. 39, No. 6
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area was high elevation and had a
lot of Alpine Fir, a species that is very
resinous with dense limbs nearly
all the way to the ground. This fire
burned with such high intensity that
it killed nearly all the Alpine fire. You
could tell the direction of the fire
movement by finding some of my
survey stakes that were very charred on one face and the
other was like a new stake with no fire damage at all.
When we pulled off the job, we had nearly completed
the traversing and had about a fourth of the project
re-monumented. I used 60-penny spikes for my hubs and
fortunately we found all but one of the more than 500
hubs that had been set. I strongly suspect the one had
been pulled by wildlife before the fire. Some of the hubs
stood an inch or so out of the ground because the duff had
burned away, but they were all firmly set. In some cases,
the guard stakes were still in place even in areas of intense
burning. A majority of the original corner evidence had
been found before the fire. In some instances, the scribing
on some of the stones was improved by the heat and the
burning of duff, and on some of the corners that I had
monumented the aluminum signs had melted and dripped
to the ground.
We were back on the project while mop-up crews were
still putting out hot spots. We stomped out a few smokes
ourselves. It was interesting to be posting line with smoke
still rising. It is too bad we couldn’t know in advance where
fires were going to burn so that we could prepare the area,
sort of as it worked out on my project. It is interesting
how much corner evidence is still detectable immediately
after a fire, but it is soon lost due to mother nature and
reclamation efforts by other contractors in the area who
are not aware of the importance of survey evidence.
Have a happy new year, and I hope to see you at the
conference.
By Leland Myers, PLS
Chairman Comments
From the PLSO Chair
I would also like to acknowledge the companies that are sponsoring our meeting this year. Make sure you let them know
how grateful we all are for supporting the profession! At the time of writing this column, our 2017 sponsors include:
•
Klein & Associates, Inc.
•
David Evans & Associates, Inc.
•
Otak
•
Tenneson Engineering Corporation
•
The Crew
•
Ferguson Land Surveying
•
CMT Surveying and Consulting
•
KPFF
•
Premiere Northwest Insurance
•
Clark College
Join us in Portland this coming January 2017!
Continued from page 3
Y
our Board of Directors had an issue presented to it
by J.T. Haglund regarding pursuing federal funding in
the Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) program.
His intent was for the PLSO and other private and public
groups to develop a strategy to facilitate action that
ensured the protection of Public Land Corners in the
future. As we all know, our government agencies (Forest
Service, BLM, etc.) are not able to react in a timely manner
to issues like corner preservation/restoration due to
funding procedures. J.T. is seeking help to find the best
way to cause the government to follow existing rules
for protecting monuments. Discussion ensued on the
importance of the project and how to work within the
BLM/Forestry/BIA infrastructure to make sure the public
office understands that boundaries are valuable. I hope we
haven’t heard the last word on this important issue as it so
happens I have personal experience with it.
In 1990 I witnessed the consequences of a major forest fire.
I had a cadastral survey contract with the Malheur National
Forest on the headwaters of the John Day River above
Prairie City. Almost daily, my son, who was working with
me, and I would watch thunderheads build all around us.
We eventually had several lightning-caused fires all around
us. One day while we were eating lunch a mile apart from
each other we saw major smoke columns coming up
behind us. It was very spooky to see rapidly spreading fire
approaching from different directions. We decided to pull
out of the job that evening for about a month while the
fire suppression crews fought what became known as the
Snowshoe Complex Fire. I don’t remember exactly how
big the fire ended up being, around 40,000 acres I think,
but I do know it burned through all the area I had under
contract.
This survey included numerous alternate sections that were
a grant for the construction of The Dalles-Boise Military
Road. It was interesting reading about the fraudulent
activities that transpired in the construction and land
grants. Our contract also included work along several miles
of Strawberry Mountain Wilderness boundary. Much of the