The past year of 2006, has brought a few milestones to the saving of Ohio fire towers, I will try and touch on a few of these in this report.

Ohio received full fledged chapter status this fall when our membership finally grew to the official number needed. This status then prompted Keith Argo national chairmen to appoint a chapter director, and thus that is why I am writing this report, as he appointed me as director of the Ohio chapter.

The Ohio Fire Tower Restoration Project forged ahead after getting started in the autumn of 2005, at the same time the newly restored Mohican Fire Tower re-opened to the public, once again the stairs were safe again to climb the 80 foot Aermotor tower, however access to the cab in by appointment only. Two additional towers were restored and repainted in the late summer of 2006, with the help of several interested and dedicated division of Forestry employees, Bob Boyles and Rick Maier, Bob Cumbo from Parks, and Dana Peters from ODOT Vinton County. Those towers are the Brush Ridge / Tar Hollow tower and the Scioto Trail tower, both received a paint job new steps, and interior work in the cabs, great job folks.

Collectable Smokey Bear - Fire Tower patch fund raiser in plugging along and at this writing the third patch in the series of eight patches has been released for sale, these patches have been produced to sell as a means to obtain much needed funds to help in restore the remaining towers in much need of repair, they are produced under the Smokey Bear license because the designs include the image of Smokey. Please check them out on the FFLA Store web-page.

A full color poster and a small three fold brochure were also produced this year, in efforts to promote awareness of the plight of the Ohio fire towers. A special thanks to Aaron Kloss Fire Wise Coordinator, Ohio div of Forestry for the outstanding job he did with the design of both. They look really good for having a zero Dollar budget for the towers project.

For the year 2007, I list many goals; a few of them are …

- Have all eight state owned towers registered in the NHLR.

- A number of privately owned towers also registered.

- More renovations done to the remaining state owned towers.

- Informational displays at the Ohio State Fair, and the Paul Bunyan Festival, as well as the Forest Heritage Festival to promote the FFLA.

- Several new patches issued, more towers restored and opened.

Steve W. Klan Sr.