Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
It’s a little lonely at the top, but that’s all right with one University of Utah sophomore.
Molly Dempster, 20, an art and photography major from Salt Lake City, Utah, is working as the Green Peter lookout for the Oregon Department of Forestry Sweet Home Unit.
Dempster succeeds Jane Strom, who retired from the lookout position after last year’s fire season.
“I always thought that being a fire lookout would be kind of cool,” Dempster said. “I just really enjoy being outdoors.”
She went to Seattle to attend art school last fall, she said, but she didn’t like the big city much. Salt Lake City is big, but it’s more spread out. In any case, she prefers being outside.
She said she grew up in a tent, backpacking in the summer and skiing in the winter.
“We’ve definitely been raised outdoors,” she said. Her older brother, a geography major who enjoys climbing, is working at Yosemite National Park, climbing and gathering lichen samples.
Dempster is living at the lookout station. Usually, she gets two days a week off and will go hiking and visit friends.
When the weather turns bad, the ODF will keep her on at the lookout, the little structure and antennae of which are visible at the top of Green Peter from Foster Lake and around town.
On top of the mountain, Green Peter Reservoir, Foster Lake and Sweet Home are clearly visible below. Toward the east Sunday, a burning field was visible somewhere outside of Lebanon, and the Willamette Valley floor stretched beyond it. The lookout can also see well into the mountains to the east, and the scars from the 1,000-acre Rocky Top fire from last year are still visible above Green Peter. Past Mt. Jefferson, a column of smoke from a fire on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation is visible.
The view is incredible.
“I think my favorite part is waking up in the morning,” Dempster said. “You go to sleep when the sun sets and wake up when the sun rises.”
The valleys below are covered in a layer of clouds, she said. It’s quiet and peaceful under the rising sun.
“It is a bit lonely,” she said. “I don’t mind it though. Most of my backpack trips are solo. I don’t know. I’m all right with it.”
About every 15 minutes, she walks around the lookout station watching for smoke. If she spots smoke, she calls it in to a dispatcher who sends firefighters to find it and put out the fire.
When Dempster isn’t looking around, she reads and plays a little guitar she has there. She also crochets and makes hats. She took sketch books with her and spends time drawing in pen and ink.
She said she’ll take “a better appreciation of friends – and plumbing,” with her when she leaves. It’s like when she goes backpacking. It helps her to appreciate all the modern conveniences.
Dempster started work on July 3 and will work through Sept. 15.
She hasn’t spotted many fires, as this year has been quiet so far. She has spotted a few fires outside the district.
“Most of the smoke I see is field burning,” she said.
Dempster said she was a little unsure whether she would be able to see smoke on the landscape, but “you can tell.” She found it fairly easy after looking at the landscape every 15 minutes, although some days are “super hazy,” and it can be harder to spot.
SBR