A Good Day At Deschutes National Forest

Monday, July 13

The first night was most dreary. I barely slept and am very tired. We woke early to a very wet camp. Our first meeting with the Forest Service was with two fuels technicians at Phil’s Trailhead just west of Bend, Robert and Nick. Both seemed eager to teach us about what they do and appeared to really love their jobs.

Left to right: Nick Swagger and Robert Newey with the USFS.

Overlooking Deschutes National Forest from Lava Butte

 Like many people in the Forest Service, neither was originally from the Bend area but fell in love with the area. This has been a common theme of a lot of the people we have met in the last couple years. When you come to visit, it is easy to see why. The landscapes are truly beautiful and the amount of outdoor activities that are available to do in such a small part of the state is astounding.  After moving to a couple of sites and talks about fuels and various management techniques they use to manage the national forest for the public, we moved on to our next stop, the seed extractory.

The US Forest Service employs a unique type of service at its Bend Seed Extractory plant in Bend, Oregon. According to Kayla Herman, the plant manager, seeds from all over the country are processed here, up to 200,000 pounds a year.  I was surprised to hear that this plant and one in Wyoming are the only two of its kind. These two government facilities are sent samples of various plant containing seeds so that pure seeds of the desired plant can be identified, qualified, quantified and then sent back to the customer. This is done at a cost but it is essentially a non-profit initiative as it only pays for the cost of the facilities and the personnel.

Kayla Herman, Plant Manager at Bend Seed Extractory in Bend, Oregon.

After a quick tour of the Bend Seed Extractory, we moved to the US Forest Service Office where we had lunch. During lunch we heard from several current employees about the jobs they do at the facility. Not only were there biologists but also public relations specialists, event coordinators and landscape architects. It was neat so see the students engaged in talking to the various different employees.