LOCAL CHAPTERS: NEW FOCUS OF RESTORATIONS
The reviews are in for the new format of LOOKOUT NETWORK, and everyone seems well pleased! This is just one of our major efforts to help grow our association. Now take a look at our website: www.firelookout.org. You will see constant improvements here as well. The site is loaded with useful information.....as is our publication. Kudos to Editor Gary Weber and Webmaster Bill Cobb for wonderful work. But remember, they can only share the news if all of us take a moment to be sure they get the news. This is a team effort!

We are already off to a rapid start in 2006. Our Directors report a growing number of inquiries of all kinds about fire towers and lookouts. Many of these calls include a plea to help maintain a structure that has been placed on reserve status due to shortage of funds. Every year the Forest Fire Lookout Association responds to requests like these. In the past decade we have participated in over 50 restoration efforts according to a survey completed last year. We expect to be asked to help in at least twice that number in the coming years.

Are we up to the task? The answer has to be "yes." The real measure will be made in the number of people who respond to the call to help save lookouts. Will our association have the organization in place to provide the communications and support our members will need to carry out these tasks? The answer is "you bet!" We are constantly looking at ways to focus the funding and resources available to our members.

That is where our new local chapters come into the picture. It takes only one member to organize a chapter, but we find that additional members do sign up. Chapters can be organized around an individual lookout restoration project (such as the Trout Lake Chapter in the Eastern Washington Division), or focus on the lookouts in a geographical area (such as the new Salmon River Chapter in Southern Idaho).

Among the benefits of local chapters is that there is a structure in place through which we can marshal volunteers and can direct lookout restoration funding projects. Chapters are also a great way to reach out to local communities and build membership. Finally, FFLA Chapters generate news. Local newspaper stories, or radio and TV spots help citizens learn about the special needs and benefits of fire towers.

In mid-May, the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) aired a radio feature on the unique history and importance of fire lookouts. Produced in Louisville, the show features Kentucky Director Danny Blevins and other Kentucky FFLA members. The producer accompanied them on a visit to the historic Hickory Flats Fire Tower near Morehead. I am also interviewed on the special. Although the questions came by phone from Louisville, WETA, the Washington, DC affiliate of PBS sent a sound engineer to my office to record my responses. The “Living on Earth” program can also be found at http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=06-P13-00019&segmentID=7 online. This is just another example of reaching out to the public. Many of you are doing this every day, and the results suggest we are making the difference.

I am pleased to announce that the Salmon River Chapter in Southern Idaho has been organized under the leadership of Denis Norton. Based in Stanley, they will cover the Salmon-Challis National Forests plus the Sawtooth National Recreation Area and part of the Boise National Forest. We also have a new Southern Maine Chapter led by Ed Walsh, formerly the Maine Director. Bill Cobb is taking over as Maine Director and already has a restoration project under way on Deasy Mountain, one of only three ground house lookouts remaining in the state.

We welcome Vickie Lamoureux of Redding, California as our new Northern California Director. We all send a warm thank you to Marie Hall who has served on the FFLA Board of Directors for five years with a very good attendance record at annual board meetings and western conferences. Marie will continue as a lookout on the Mendocino National Forest and with related FFLA activities.

Keith A. Argow
Chairman of the Board

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