January 2

4C Overcast.
Another quiet day yesterday, got all the Christmas boxes stored in the attic. Changed the filter in the hot tub and re - "chemicaled" it.
Our local families came in the afternoon and we had our traditional Chinese cuisine New Year dinner. Then an early evening and were in bed to watch "The Good Wife".

I was a bit less tense so I decided to play things out calmly.

“I’m with the Forest Service, we got a fire report for this area and you have one up there. I decided to

 land here and talk to ever who’s in charge.”

“Well that’ll be me, I’m Charleson (Name changed). What do you want to talk about?”

“Well number one, this fire up river. There has been no lightning so I presume you are burning off 

game range.”

He shook his head, “Naw, we don’t do that. I don’t know how it started.”

He knew and I knew that I couldn’t prove anything, so I said, “Okay, if you say so but I need you to

 take your men and stop its spread. You don’t have to worry about the upper slopes or this end of it 

but I want the upper end cut off.”

He shook his head, “Only got these two and one more here right now and we got work to do.”

“Okay fair enough, I’ll bring a crew in probably ten men or so and we’ll do it. I see you have packhorses

 in the corral so I’ll have to rent a couple to move in the supplies.”

He looked at the ground for several seconds, “Gimme a couple minutes.” He jerked his head at the other

 two and nodded at the cabin. The three of them went inside.

I had noticed a corner of a structure when I had first approached the cabin so I went around to have a 

look. It was a screen enclosed smoke house and there inside were two hind quarters of what appeared 

to be from a deer. A small fire was smoldering under them.

I went back to the front and in a moment the trio came out.

“Okay we figure we can work it in, might take us a couple of days though. How much?”

“How about if I pay you for two fourteen hour days? If you’re finished early, no problem.”

“That’ll work.” Was his reply.

“Okay it’s a deal.” I said, and then offered him my hand. We shook.

Before I turned away, I looked up pointedly at the two way radio antennae I had noticed earlier then

 added, “Nice looking meat you got hanging back there.”

I walked back to the plane and we continued on our patrol.

A couple of days later after doing some inquiring I drove down to Trutch where “Charleson’s” father

 lived. I had found out that he was the owner/manager of the guiding outfit.

He was an older man, weathered from his years in the bush and alpine. I introduced myself and said,

 “I’m sure you were radioed about my visit to your camp the other day. I’ll leave the cheques for your 

son and your two men with you if that’s okay.”

He nodded and invited me in for a cup of coffee. We had a pleasant visit and while we were talking I said,

 “These mysterious fires are a bit of a nuisance so I’m thinking we may pick a decent viewpoint in the valley 

and establish a patrolman to keep watch. If it works it would be something we would do annually.”

H smiled a bit, then said, “You seem like a nice young feller, maybe too smart fer yer britches so let’s cut

 the bullshit. Y’know damn well we light these fires. We need feed for the critters and since we’ve been 

gettin’ all that brush, willow and grass to grow the elk, deer and moose populations have doubled. How 

can we make this work?”

“Mr. Charleson, I know that there hasn’t been much of a Forestry presence around here, but that is all 

changing. In that valley timber doesn’t have any commercial value. In other areas burning like you do is 

done under permit and sometimes it is a joint effort by the private sector and government. If you want to

 cooperate I’ll advise my boss and we’ll take it from there.