PLSO The Oregon Surveyor Mar/Apr 2019

4 The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 42, No. 2 From the PLSO Chairman Shawn Kampmann, PLS Chairman of the Board MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN Why We Survey What is it about our surveying profession that makes us practitioners so passion- ate and proud of our chosen path in life? Is it the historical lessons that we uncov- er in our title research that gaze deep into our communities’ past characters, adven- tures and deeds, or is it the hunt for the cheap treasures that we unearth such as old Buicks, buckboard axles and springs, chiseled rocks and pitch-varnished wood scribedwith cryptic “X”s and numbers only decipherable by our mystic breed? How lucky are we to be paid to travel to the most wild, remote, Wi-Fi free, awe inspiring wilderness one day, and then the next, be in the core of modern, glass walled, mul- tipath inducing, Starbucks-infested urban canyons? Well, maybe the latter is not re- ally where most of us surveyors want to be, but I digress. Though laying out complex, major infra- structure projects like bridges, airports, harbors, towers and such gives us the satisfaction of being a crucial element of something grand, or building roads, hous- ing developments and parks may reward us with pride in community, I think most surveyors’ DNA instinctually desires to be exploring for that one elusive, key monu- ment that has gone missing for decades, sniffing out the scant breadcrumbs that time has left behind, the prime key unlock- ing the mystery that brings our boundary together like the final piece of a puzzle. This is thepassion that weneed toembrace and share with our next generation of re- cruits to our profession. Sure, the shiny objects of desire, robotic instruments, wireless controllers, GNSS, laser scanning, high-res color 3Dmodeling, GIS &GPR will get their attention for awhile, but these are just tools of our trade. What is most im- portant is initiating them to the Dark Side, that part of our psyche where surveyor in- tuition takes over, where the core of our practice demands the use of all our sens- es, skills and a vest full of primitive tools to find those ancientmonuments that are the key to resolving boundary puzzles. “Like a hound dog sniffing out a bone” is howmy wife laughingly puts it when describing this obsessive ritual. Who of us doesn’t let out a howl of glee when, after hours or days tramping through the forest or field, star- ing into a blur of green, when suddenly, like an apparition, a rusty object comes into fo- cus and the happy dance begins? Eureka! We’ve all probably had that most memo- rable and satisfying moment of discovery that is seared inmemory forever andmine was in the winter of 1994. I was the Sur- vey Manager at R&M Engineering, Inc. in Juneau, Alaska and our survey territory covered the entire 250-mile long Alexan- der Archipelago of the southeast Alaska panhandle. Juneau is landlocked at the base of Gastineau Channel, a narrow fiord wedged between Douglas Island and the 1500 square mile Juneau Icefield, spawn- ing over 40 major glaciers, one of which claims title as the world’s only “drive-up” Mendenhall Glacier, eight miles from the downtown waterfront. It is the largest mu- nicipality in the U.S. in area, covering 3,250