October 8, 1969 (12 pages)

Pe OS alga Be eee 4 © bag @ yt “in wee <>. 10 The Nevada County Nugget Wednesday, October 8, 1969 ot” ge BETTIE DECKER California Division of Forestry lookout at the Banner Mountain Fire Station waves to visitors from her perch on the catwalk of the lookout.tower ’'70 feet straight Up." THIS INSTRUMENT is an azmuth and it is used to spot fires in forests. Bettie Decker, CDF Banner Mountain lookout, shows how it is used to site fires which threaten the wildlands, Complete Supply OF BUILDING MATERIALS Pasco . PAINT YUBA RIVER LUMBER CO. TOWN TALK, GRASS VALLEY 265-4521 ol YARD Small bridge to be replaced A small deteriorated bridge on State Highway 20 about 10 miles west of Grass Valley will be replaced by the State DiviSion of Highways following opening of. bids on the project Wednesday. The work also includes reconstruction tion of the highway on new alignment at Indian Springs Road. This will correct a sharp curve thre, A. Teichert and Son of Sacramento is low bidder on the project at $93,734. Four firms entered bids, according to officials at the Marysville district may begin in about a month, It will take eight weeks, There will be one lane for traffic during working hours on some phases of construction and two lanes open at all other times. PLAY IT ‘Be alert to Cancer’s Seven Danger Signals. Call your local office of American Cancer Society for more information Girlin glass tower is really . a forest spy Those who climb the 81 steps "70 feet straight up" to the © fire lookout station atop Banner Mountain can on a "clear day" see Mt. Diablo 125 miles distant — and on a "rare clear day" portions of 17 counties. : So claims Bettie Decker, who keeps watch from her "glass tower" in the sky for wisps of smoke which herald fire. Mrs, Decker, an agile lady with a winsome smile, is the lookout for the California Division of Forestry at its fire and weather station located five miles from Nevada City by Banner Road — "or three miles as the crow flies." The lookout, who is completing her fifth year at the CDF outpost, brought five summers of fire watching with her. Those summers were spent at the Tahoe Forest Lookout at Duncan Peak out of Forest Hill. From early June until "the first big storm" the lookout lives in a compact cottage nestled at the foot of the tower at a 3,904 foot elevation. Home in off-fire season is a 15-acre ranch above Indian Flat three miles out of Nevada City. The lady lookout is as familiar with an azmuth as the ayerage housewife is with a skillet. The azmuth isa fire finder and dominates-the high glass cubicle where Mrs. Decker takes and logs readings. : She said determining fire locations with the azmuth is simple. However, to the uninitiated it appears complicated. According to Mrs. Decker, the Banner Mountain Lookout covers 20 miles. Readings recorded there are coordinated with those reported irom other lookouts, and thus the forests have an elaborate spy system. Lookouts perform seven days a week during fire season. Normally Mrs. Decker has three days off. However, Jamie Emerson, the relief and a trainee, has departed the station for college. Mrs. Decker now absorbs the full schedule. When lightning flashes and thunder rolls, Mrs. Decker stands on a-small wooden stool which has insulated legs. The tower is grounded but the stool is there — "just in case." Duty requires the lookout to log lightning strikes, a sometimes difficult task when the landscape is illuminated and glass in the tower reflects flashes, Electrical storms were more spectacular. at her former Post at Forest Hill. St. Elmo fire often made all metal glow and jumped from a wood stove to her bed. She.ate, slept, and worked in the tower while stationed there. Winds above 25 miles per hour tend to make the-tower Sway. Mrs, Decker recently retired to the ground when a 45mile gust hit. An earthquake of several years ago rocked the placidity of most tower sitters in the area. Mrs. Decker remained calm, believing the disturbance was her son running up the stairs, How does she watch the weather? By seeing "how many clouds there are," and “what the sky looks like." Technically she tests for fuel moisture by weighing a small bundle of sticks for their moisture content. She arrives at relative humidity and dew point by manipulating a dry bulb, a wet bulb, and a psyehlorometer: (a small fan). She averages out the wind for the day. These results combined with other reports form the "big weather report." Banner Mountain Lookout also is the site for a microwave station and a radio building which shelters radio repeaters for agencies such as the highway patrol, the sheriff's department, and others, Mrs. Decker admits to occasional loneliness and "sometimes talking to the squirrels" but hastened to explain "this is normal for lookouts,"' She said she reads alot and "tries to write some." Mrs. Decker's 18-year-old son, Steven, grew up with lookout stations and forests for part time homes. He now serves with the California Division of Forestry fire fighting crew, and hopes to make forestry a career. The guest roster at the foot of tlie tower-reads like a page from an international hotel register. This summer visitors came from New Zealand, England, Germany, Austria, Hong Kong, Japan, and Poland as well as from many states in the union, "These mountains are not unlike the Swiss Alps," confided a group from Austria. From a Korean minister Mrs, Decker learned that "the Sutter Buttes, near Marysville, are the shortest complete mountain range in the world," Mrs, Decker, who reported for duty this season with a foot in a cast, was equal to the handicap. She devised a rope with a hook and lifted up items from ‘the ground some 70 feet below. Later she utilized the equipment to drop forest literature to those who had visited her in her high perch, "It leaves their hands free to hang on lained, said i i e §

Pe OS alga Be eee 4 © bag @ yt “in wee <>. 10 The Nevada County Nugget Wednesday, October 8, 1969 ot” ge BETTIE DECKER California Division of Forestry lookout at the Banner Mountain Fire Station waves to visitors from her perch on the catwalk of the lookout.tower ’'70 feet straight Up." THIS INSTRUMENT is an azmuth and it is used to spot fires in forests. Bettie Decker, CDF Banner Mountain lookout, shows how it is used to site fires which threaten the wildlands, Complete Supply OF BUILDING MATERIALS Pasco . PAINT YUBA RIVER LUMBER CO. TOWN TALK, GRASS VALLEY 265-4521 ol YARD Small bridge to be replaced A small deteriorated bridge on State Highway 20 about 10 miles west of Grass Valley will be replaced by the State DiviSion of Highways following opening of. bids on the project Wednesday. The work also includes reconstruction tion of the highway on new alignment at Indian Springs Road. This will correct a sharp curve thre, A. Teichert and Son of Sacramento is low bidder on the project at $93,734. Four firms entered bids, according to officials at the Marysville district may begin in about a month, It will take eight weeks, There will be one lane for traffic during working hours on some phases of construction and two lanes open at all other times. PLAY IT ‘Be alert to Cancer’s Seven Danger Signals. Call your local office of American Cancer Society for more information Girlin glass tower is really . a forest spy Those who climb the 81 steps "70 feet straight up" to the © fire lookout station atop Banner Mountain can on a "clear day" see Mt. Diablo 125 miles distant — and on a "rare clear day" portions of 17 counties. : So claims Bettie Decker, who keeps watch from her "glass tower" in the sky for wisps of smoke which herald fire. Mrs, Decker, an agile lady with a winsome smile, is the lookout for the California Division of Forestry at its fire and weather station located five miles from Nevada City by Banner Road — "or three miles as the crow flies." The lookout, who is completing her fifth year at the CDF outpost, brought five summers of fire watching with her. Those summers were spent at the Tahoe Forest Lookout at Duncan Peak out of Forest Hill. From early June until "the first big storm" the lookout lives in a compact cottage nestled at the foot of the tower at a 3,904 foot elevation. Home in off-fire season is a 15-acre

ranch above Indian Flat three miles out of Nevada City. The lady lookout is as familiar with an azmuth as the ayerage housewife is with a skillet. The azmuth isa fire finder and dominates-the high glass cubicle where Mrs. Decker takes and logs readings. : She said determining fire locations with the azmuth is simple. However, to the uninitiated it appears complicated. According to Mrs. Decker, the Banner Mountain Lookout covers 20 miles. Readings recorded there are coordinated with those reported irom other lookouts, and thus the forests have an elaborate spy system. Lookouts perform seven days a week during fire season. Normally Mrs. Decker has three days off. However, Jamie Emerson, the relief and a trainee, has departed the station for college. Mrs. Decker now absorbs the full schedule. When lightning flashes and thunder rolls, Mrs. Decker stands on a-small wooden stool which has insulated legs. The tower is grounded but the stool is there — "just in case." Duty requires the lookout to log lightning strikes, a sometimes difficult task when the landscape is illuminated and glass in the tower reflects flashes, Electrical storms were more spectacular. at her former Post at Forest Hill. St. Elmo fire often made all metal glow and jumped from a wood stove to her bed. She.ate, slept, and worked in the tower while stationed there. Winds above 25 miles per hour tend to make the-tower Sway. Mrs, Decker recently retired to the ground when a 45mile gust hit. An earthquake of several years ago rocked the placidity of most tower sitters in the area. Mrs. Decker remained calm, believing the disturbance was her son running up the stairs, How does she watch the weather? By seeing "how many clouds there are," and “what the sky looks like." Technically she tests for fuel moisture by weighing a small bundle of sticks for their moisture content. She arrives at relative humidity and dew point by manipulating a dry bulb, a wet bulb, and a psyehlorometer: (a small fan). She averages out the wind for the day. These results combined with other reports form the "big weather report." Banner Mountain Lookout also is the site for a microwave station and a radio building which shelters radio repeaters for agencies such as the highway patrol, the sheriff's department, and others, Mrs. Decker admits to occasional loneliness and "sometimes talking to the squirrels" but hastened to explain "this is normal for lookouts,"' She said she reads alot and "tries to write some." Mrs. Decker's 18-year-old son, Steven, grew up with lookout stations and forests for part time homes. He now serves with the California Division of Forestry fire fighting crew, and hopes to make forestry a career. The guest roster at the foot of tlie tower-reads like a page from an international hotel register. This summer visitors came from New Zealand, England, Germany, Austria, Hong Kong, Japan, and Poland as well as from many states in the union, "These mountains are not unlike the Swiss Alps," confided a group from Austria. From a Korean minister Mrs, Decker learned that "the Sutter Buttes, near Marysville, are the shortest complete mountain range in the world," Mrs, Decker, who reported for duty this season with a foot in a cast, was equal to the handicap. She devised a rope with a hook and lifted up items from ‘the ground some 70 feet below. Later she utilized the equipment to drop forest literature to those who had visited her in her high perch, "It leaves their hands free to hang on lained, said i i e §