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Commander’s CornerFire season is upon
us. If you haven't turned in your Packets for getting paid for Fire
Duty, you'd better get it done. Don't forget to get it notarized and
attach a copy of your driver's license and SSN card. If you don't
have an application, ask Trudy at the Sheriffs office for one. _________________________________________________________________________ A Wonderful TeamTonto Rim Search and Rescue has proven to be the best team I could ever have hoped to join - so many wonderful people and so much fun learning. Not a training or mission slips by without leaving me a bit more knowledgeable as a rescuer. I scan down the roster and cannot skip over one name that hasn’t played a part in my training or enjoyment of this wonderful team. >From the beginning, I was fortunate to have been linked up with Vynette (Sage) as my mentor. She shared knowledge before I even knew I needed it - but eventually did. I thank her for the “heads - up” before it mattered. So many others followed Vynette in molding this adventurous spirit into a TRSAR team member. In the years to come I hope I am able to return to the organization as much as I’ve received. Margaret Bullard 545 _________________________________________________________________________ When Mountain Lions Meet PeopleSubmitted by Ira Gibel 532 Generally, mountain lions are calm, quiet and elusive. They are most commonly found in areas with plentiful prey and adequate cover. Such conditions exist in mountain subdivisions, urban fringes and open spaces. Consequently, the number of mountain lion/human interactions has increased. This increase likely is due to a variety of reasons: more people moving into mountain lion habitat, an increase in prey populations, an increase in mountain lion numbers and expanded range, more people using hiking and running trails in mountain lion habitat, and a greater awareness of the presence of mountain lions. Even so, the potential for being killed or injured by a mountain lion is quite low compared to many other natural hazards. There is a far greater risk, for example, of being struck by lightning than of being attacked by a mountain lion. WHAT IF YOU LIVE IN LION COUNTRY? Now that people and mountain lions occupy so much of the same geographical areas in the west, encounters are expected to increase. If you live in mountain lion habitat, here's what you can do to reduce your chances of encountering a mountain lion near your home:
WHAT SHOULD YOU DO IF YOU ENCOUNTER A MOUNTAIN LION? There's been very little research on how to avoid mountain lion attacks. But mountain lion attacks that have occurred are being analyzed in the hope that some crucial questions can be answered: Did the victim do something to inadvertently provoke an attack? What should a person who is approached by a mountain lion do--or not do? The following suggestions are based on studies of mountain lion behavior and analysis of attacks by mountain lions, tigers and leopards:
_________________________________________________________________________ Alaska Experience
This is story of three people who lived another day because of whatever you might choose; Blind luck -Guardian Angel -Devine intervention -Fate. Most of you have never had to concern yourselves with being “man overboard”. When I wrote the story of the “Fisherman’s Hat” you saw just how a mere moment in that cold water of the Gulf of Alaska can shock the body of the victim to immobility. Even if the subject fell alongside the boat, it is almost beyond human endurance to get back on board without help of some sort. These three men were super lucky to get that help. Most of the time survival would have been impossible. Bill was pretty much of a loner. He only ran with a very few other fishermen and always looked for pockets of fish that would have been bypassed by the fleet as being too small or too difficult to try for. It was not uncommon to see his trolling poles far out on the horizon or right up near rock piles near shore. Therefore, it might have been inevitable that he would end up in the water. For whatever reason on a trip north of Sitka, Bill lost his balance while working on the back deck and fell in. With his last grab at the side of the boat as it passed him by, he was able to catch the edge of a tire that he was using for a bumper at the dock in town. Why was that still hanging over the side after traveling for hours to get to the fishing grounds? Normally he would have had the boat in very tight shipshape for the run out. With care, he was able to get one foot into the tire, work his arm over the rail, and fall back on deck. Safe again, his heart must have been thumping like a drum. Al was a super good fisherman and had many friends to keep him notified where the best bite was taking place. Al and a couple others had grouped together in a tight circle off “Icy Point” near the outer boundary of “Glacier Bay”. They were really loading up with Cohoes. Al’s wife usually was at the helm when he worked the gear in back. As they trolled along catching and circling, she received a call on the radio from a friend, to slow down so they could get Al back on the stern of his own boat. She never heard him go over the side Somehow he had lost his footing while gaffing a salmon, and fell right into the shark filled water. Sharks are always abundant around schools of salmon. It’s easy pickings for a roving shark to snatch a hooked fish. Al had on a float coat and stayed on the surface long enough for his friend to pull him aboard to safety. He was very cold and wet but lucky to have a friend see him fall in and close enough to get him out before the shock took him. Joe was my kind of person. He came from the coal mining hills of West Virginia. He and I often found ourselves hanging out on the same fishing grounds. Joe fished alone and after the start of school in the fall, I would be alone too. Many times, we would tie up together to spin yarns and plan our next day’s efforts. Most of the time when traveling back and forth to town all the boats would have their trolling poles pulled up to the mast and tied off so travel through narrow channels was made easier without rigging sticking way out from the side of the rails. One trip out from town Joe was in a quiet channel so it was a good time to let the poles down to get ready to slip through the last pass and head offshore for the start of his trip. Now trolling poles have lots of lines and cables fastened to them for hauling them up and down, as well as the rigging used to hold the fishing gear. Joe had let down one pole and started to ease the other one down when he lost his balance and fell in. Joe had not slowed the boat down to do this work and was traveling on autopilot at almost eight knots. Just as the boat was moving away, he was able to catch a loose cable dangling along. He quickly wrapped several turns around his arm and prayed that the light cable (only 1/8” in diameter) didn’t break. About that time “Channel Flying Service” happened to be flying by and saw Joe’s boat going in very tight circles due to his weight and resistance on the end of a 40 ft. pole like a trout on a string. The pilot landed and maneuvered up to the boat and managed to shut down the engine. Then by throwing a hand line out to the rapidly weakening fisherman, was able to haul him aboard to safety. I knew all of these people well. We talked every now and then and marveled at how fortunate they each had been. So what was it, Fate, Luck, Devine Intervention, Guardian Angel, or something far above us that gave the subjects the chance to fish another day? John Boyles 510 ************************************************************************ Website Info
We are promoted and you’ll also find our newsletter on the Rim Country Volunteer site; http://www.inpayson.com/TRSAR-Payson-Rim-Country-Area.htm _________________________________________________________________________ Tonto National Forest Maps
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July 2005 Training Schedule
Planned Training Sessions (after next general meeting)
Requested Training Sessions
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Victims of bear attack were wilderness vetsTHE HUFFMANS: Longtime local lawyer and teacher had taken every precaution. Published:
June 28th, 2005 An Anchorage attorney and his retired schoolteacher wife, both cautious veterans of the Alaska wilderness, were identified Monday as the victims of a rare, unprovoked attack by a predatory grizzly bear in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, state and local officials said. Richard and Katherine Huffman were killed over the weekend in their tent while camping along the Hulahula River near the end of a two-week wilderness float trip by inflatable kayak. Alaska Department of Fish and Game officials who investigated the scene said the Huffmans appeared to have set up camp carefully, storing their food in bear-proof containers far from their tent. "All the indications now are it was a predatory attack. It just hardly ever happens," Fish and Game spokesman Bruce Bartley said. "Even more baffling is that these people had taken all the precautions." A gun was found in the camp, troopers said. It had not been fired. The 300-pound bear attacked the campers in their sleeping bags and tore at their bodies but did not devour them, officials said. The grizzly was tracked and killed by North Slope Borough Search and Rescue officials who flew by helicopter to the scene from Barrow. The bear's body is being taken to Fairbanks for a necropsy but showed no obvious signs of illness, injury or starvation that might account for the attack, Bartley said. "It was apparently a healthy male, 5 to 7 years old, which adds to the mystery and improbability," he said. The ransacked campsite was first spotted Saturday afternoon by someone passing in a river raft, according to North Slope police. The passer-by, a resident of Kaktovik, 12 miles downstream from the site, tried to approach the camp but was chased away by the bear. He reported the scene to police in Kaktovik. The attack occurred in the heart of the refuge's coastal plain, a tundra region coveted by the oil industry for its oil potential and by environmentalists for its wilderness values. The Hulahula runs from the Romanzof Mountains north across the coastal plain to the Beaufort Sea. Kaktovik, an Inupiat village of about 300 residents, is the only community in the area. With Congress poised to make a decision about oil drilling in the area, the refuge has seen an increase in visitor inquiries, said Richard Voss, the refuge manager for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He couldn't say whether there was an increase in wilderness travel because independent travelers like the Huffmans are not required to get permits. Last year, 60 to 100 people, including hunters, floated the Hulahula, he said. In Alaska, about six people a year are injured by bear attacks, Bartley said. Two-thirds of them are hunters who surprise bears in the wilderness. Every other year, on average, somebody is killed, usually by a brown bear, he said. Usually the bear is defending itself after being surprised or is protecting its young or a fresh kill. That's really not much, Bartley said, considering there are people all over Alaska's bear habitat, along with 35,000 brown bears and three times as many black bears. "If bears wanted to eat you, they would. We'd lose one a day," he said. On the other hand, hundreds of bears are killed every year by people defending life or property, Bartley said. Such killings always increase after a widely publicized killing by a bear, he said. "Quite frankly, there'll be a spike after this," he said. Bartley could remember very few unprovoked fatal attacks by bears in Alaska -- one on a camper in Hyder in Southeast in the 1990s, another on a solo kayaker in Glacier Bay in the 1980s. A child was killed by a brown bear in King Cove a decade ago, though in that case people fleeing into nearby brush may have triggered a chase response, he said. A special case could be made for bear advocate Timothy Treadwell, whose body was devoured along with that of his girlfriend after they camped extensively in the midst of brown bears and heavily used game trails on the Alaska Peninsula. Treadwell's unconventional approach was often criticized by biologists. "Everything that he did wrong, these folks did right," Bartley said. A Fish and Game wildlife biologist, Cathie Harms, said the campsite was "a model of how to do it right." She said the ultra-cautious biologist who investigated the ravaged camp concluded "this one is as clear-cut as he's seen of a predatious attack." The Huffmans were so careful with bears that they customarily stopped one place to cook and eat dinner, then floated on to a different site to camp, said Veronica Galvan, whose sister is married to one of three Huffman children. The Huffmans went on a three-week wilderness float trip last summer, Galvan said. Richard Huffman, 61, was a lawyer who has worked in Anchorage for electric and telephone utilities since 1975. He served as a captain in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Corps and worked two years for the Anchorage municipality before going into private practice. According to his law firm, Kemppel, Huffman and Ellis, Huffman received his bachelor's and law degrees at the University of Kansas. A partner, Don Ellis, said Huffman had been making long camping trips for several years. He declined to say more Monday. Katherine Huffman was a long-time teacher for the Anchorage School District. She had a long history of camping and backpacking and was married for a time to wildlife photographer and Mount McKinley climber Johnny Johnson. "She was real savvy, a real smart woods-person," said a friend, Steve Hagedorn, who accompanied her on a 55-mile backpack trip in Denali National Park in the 1970s. She brought that love of nature to the classroom, said Carol Comeau, Anchorage schools superintendent, who co-taught second grade with Huffman at Ocean View Elementary in the mid-1970s. "She had high expectations for discipline and respect. But the kids had a great time," Comeau said Monday. "They spent a lot of time outdoors doing winter activities. She just loved the outdoors." Huffman later taught at Birchwood and Lake Otis elementary schools. She retired in 2002 but continued to substitute. The Huffmans were married in 1989. Richard Huffman had three children by a previous marriage. The children were on their way to Alaska on Monday. "It's just sad," Comeau said. "I've been thinking about her all day, remembering. It's just an absolute Alaskan tragedy."_________________________________________________________________________
Body found near
Marine's abandoned vehicle
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