Sean C. Morgan
Neil Miller, a former teacher, snow plow driver and an experienced firefighter, has succeeded Jim Basting as an Oregon Department of Forestry Sweet Home Unit’s forest protection supervisor.
Basting, who worked for the ODF for some 42 years, retired earlier this year.
Miller, 45, grew up in Wallowa, graduating from high school there. He attended Eastern Oregon State College at La Grande, earning a degree in education. He taught elementary school from 1989 to 1994 in Wallowa.
“I started working for forestry back in ’85 as a seasonal,” Miller said. After teaching, he went to work for the Oregon Department of Transportation.
“I got into education, I think, a little too early in my career,” Miller said. An opportunity came up to go to work for ODOT, and he took it.
Mostly, he worked in winter maintenance plowing snow, working on fires in the summer and the roads in the winter. He worked for ODOT in Meacham along Interstate 84 from 1994 to 1999, in Elgin from 2000 to 2007 and Enterprise from 2008 to 2011.
“I’ve seen more snow here than I have at home,” Miller said, joking about last week’s weather.
Since he arrived in Sweet Home, he’s seen the whole gamut – nice weather in January, flooding in early February and the late snow last week.
“I’ve definitely seen what the west side is all about,” Miller said.
He took the job and moved to Sweet Home to advance his career and to be closer to family, he said. His wife’s family is all on the west side of Oregon, and they have ties to Sisters. Now they won’t have seven- or eight-hour drives when they visit relatives.
He’ll do more in the new position than he did as a forest officer, he said. The fuels and weather are different on this side of the Cascades, and he’ll be working more on the law enforcement and urban interface aspects of forestry here than he did in eastern Oregon, where his unit worked on 40 to 60 fire calls per year, most of them started by lightning.
The Sweet Home Unit handles 25 to 30 calls per year, with more of them involving a human component than in eastern Oregon.
He has worked on fires on the west side and out of state, he said, so he is familiar with the local fuels.
He shares responsibilities with Chad Calderwood, the other forest protection supervisor. He supervises the law enforcement, including three forest officers, and is in charge of prevention programs, working with Smokey Bear and on the upcoming fire prevention poster contest.
Miller is enjoying living in Sweet Home, he said. “It’s definitely different. There’s a lot more people here than I’m used to.”
Wallowa has a population of about 800, and the county has a population of 7,000, he said.
Living in Sweet Home gives him and his family more opportunities, with larger schools and more after-hours activities, Miller said. There are more choices for shopping, and he is looking forward to taking in Oregon State University games. He’s also looking forward to fishing the Santiam and McKenzie basins.
“Sweet Home seems like a really nice place,” Miller said.
Miller enjoys camping and the outdoors, reading, watching movies, golfing and family activities.
Miller is married to Kristin, and they have one son, Alex, 8.