Page 29 - Flathead Beacon // 9.9.15

CLOSING RANGE DAVE SKINNER AFTER THE SMOKE
GUEST COLUMN BRIAN LIPSCOMB
CSKT READY TO TOPERATE KERR DAM
HREE YEARS AGO, ENERGY monitoring and operations data. Keepers, Inc., the federally char- Critical to success, we have estab- teredcorporationoftheConfeder- lished contractual agreements with
MOST OF US WILL BE HAPPIER than usual when winter bids
good riddance to our 2015 fire season.
We all knew this year had the poten- tial to be terrible, confirmed in late June with the Glacier Rim Fire just north of Columbia Falls, “human caused” by an idiot. Fortunately, crews beat down the Rim fire before things really started to rock and roll. But I was pretty concerned and more than a little ticked off about how long that thing kept smoking, due to a stubborn hot core which in turn was thanks to a lack of salvage after 2003’s Robert Fire. The bone-dry dead snags and dead down wood made the job far more difficult than it should have been.
After that, I spent a lot of time on Inciweb, the government fire-reporting website. As of the time I write this, the site shows 34 Montana incidents, which include 8 “complexes” of multiple fires under common management.
The touchiest part of the season seemed to be about the 20th and 21st of August. There were so many fires in so many places, it was impossible to keep track. Worse, resources were pretty much tapped out, with a significant num- ber of unstaffed blazes. And of course, it was the 105th anniversary to the day of the Big Blowup in 1910. The Flathead was completely socked in by smoke, just like in 1910, and forecasters were talking wind. Lucky for us, they erred on the good side of the guess.
But I am getting sick and tired of rely- ing on blind luck – I’d rather rely on forest management skill.
The Sheep Fire (above the railroad trestle across from Goat Lick) presented the biggest, most consistent scare. Depending on wind, the fire could (and might still) either jump down into Essex, or blow across the river and blast off the face of Snowslip Mountain, or both. So far, neither has happened, but let me say it wasn’t a particularly smart idea to put the Great Bear Wilderness boundary (and all its management restrictions) so close to the railroad, highway, gas line
and Essex.
Close behind Sheep is the Spotted
Eagle fire (part of the Family Peak com- plex), which had a heck of a run (50,000 acres so far) toward Heart Butte from near Swift Reservoir. That’s at least the third big fire (Skyland and St. Mary) that has burned out of “protected” lands into the Blackfeet reservation in recent memory.
There could have been a fourth, but the Reynolds Creek Fire (4,900 acres) didn’t get that final wind push – thank goodness. Nor did the Thompson Fire (18,000 acres), which could have jumped the rock belt across the divide given a big enough thermal column. Lucky it didn’t.
The fires that I’m most interested in checking out after the smoke is up the South Fork Flathead: The Bear Creek Fire, which made its first big run on Big Blowup Day, down Bunker Creek into the Packers Roost. That put something like 17,000 acres in the record books (now it’s 67,000-plus acres), but the Bear Creek update the day after had this to say: “The fuels reduction thinning that occurred in the past few years around Meadow Creek Trailhead and Meadow Creek Outfitter’s Corrals help[ed] reduce the severity of burning through the trailhead.”
Luck? No, skill. It so happens that some logger friends of mine did some of that thinning the last two years (opposed all the way by Greens) and furthermore, did some parking — out near the Spotted Bear ranger station about ten years ago. I’m really wanting to see the results for myself — a great chance to see before and after logging combined with before and after fire.
But the other fires I want to examine are in the Spotted Bear River drainage, which was specifically left out of both the Great Bear and Bob Marshall wilderness designations, at least in part because of existing roads, and timber suitable for harvest and management. If there is salvageable wood, it should be salvaged quickly, on snow, to capture some lost value and help pay for rehabilitation – not left to luck.
ated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, was cre- ated to manage the conveyance, and then subsequently operate, the Kerr Hydro- electric Project. EKI has been full steam ahead ever since this fall day in 2012.
The endeavor to acquire Kerr Dam has been over 30 years in the making. When acquisition takes place on Sept. 5 our Tribes stand ready to take owner- ship and operate the Kerr Project.
For the Tribes, establishing a corpo- ration to break into the wholesale power market will be unprecedented — we will become the first tribes in the nation to own and operate a major hydropower facility and operate it as an Independent Power Producer.
The moment will be marked in his- tory as a milestone. For those of us at EKI, it will also mark a moment of pride knowing intimately what we have accomplished to get to this point, and understanding what is needed to suc- ceed long beyond the initial days of pro- ducing, and marketing Kerr power in the wholesale marketplace.
Our staff here at EKI includes 26 of some of the brightest, highly-skilled and hardest working individuals in the energy industry. It consists of hydro- power operators, accountants, engi- neers, HR and IT specialists, attorneys, and power marketing experts.
Our staff reflects the value the Tribes place on creating meaningful employ- ment, that can support a family. And it demonstrates competency of the Tribal workforce with many of the jobs filled by highly qualified Tribal Members.
To meet modern needs of operating a major hydro facility, EKI has concen- trated on developing and implement- ing a computerized maintenance man- agement system, allowing for precise execution of maintenance and creat- ing a record of this maintenance neces- sary for regulatory compliance, and the development and execution of a compre- hensive dam safety program.
From a business perspective, we now have a robust internal accounting sys- tem to manage the considerable quan- tities of transactions anticipated in the wholesale energy marketplace. To manage the risks associated with a high volatility in this marketplace, we have created, and are executing, a thorough Energy Risk Management Policy.
Our IT systems are in place, including newly laid fiber and interconnectivity to the facility for communicating vital
counterparties across the region, and have all the power scheduled for gener- ation on Sept. 5 sold.
From a resource management stand- point, managing the Flathead Lake and the Lower Flathead River will look like business as usual. When it comes to operating a hydropower facility that is part of a large complex system that extends from Montana through Canada to Bonneville Dam, there simply isn’t a lot of wiggle room to stray from the cur- rent Federal Energy Regulatory Com- mission license. This includes abiding by mandated lake levels as part of the Memorandum of Agreement between EKI as the operators, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; and working within the parameters of a drought manage- ment plan that is coordinated across the Columbia Basin, critically important during years such as this one where the snowpack was minimal, and instream flows are low. It also includes EKI mesh- ing into the operation and management of the entire Columbia River Hydro Power System through a seamless tran- sition into the Pacific Northwest Coor- dination agreement, a regionally-based accord for comprehensive management of hydro resources in the Columbia River basin tiered off the US – Canada Columbia River Treaty.
Bottom line, we are ready.
But more importantly, 80 years after the dam was constructed, against the wishes of many tribal members, and at great expense to the community whose loved ones were lost in the construc- tion — acquiring the Kerr Project will be a time to reflect on how something that impacted such a culturally sen- sitive place so important to the tribes and represented destruction to a way of life might now bring renewed hope and opportunity.
In another 80 years, I won’t be serv- ing as the Chief Executive Officer of Energy Keepers, Inc., but I do hope that the foundation we have worked so tirelessly to provide continues to serve the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, the local communities, and the region. It is a foundation of success, our work here today will be a platform to weather the ups and downs of an energy marketplace. But most importantly I hope it provides a means to heal some of the wounds that opened when the dam was initiated so many decades ago.
We are all ready for this.
“THE FIRES THAT I’M MOST INTERESTED IN CHECKING OUT AFTER THE SMOKE IS UP THE SOUTH FORK FLATHEAD: THE BEAR CREEK FIRE, WHICH MADE ITS FIRST BIG RUN ON BIG BLOWUP DAY, DOWN BUNKER CREEK INTO THE PACKERS ROOST.”
Mike (Uncommon Ground) Jopek and Dave (Closing Range) Skinner often fall on opposite sides of the fence when it comes to political and outdoor issues. Their columns alternate each week in the Flathead Beacon.
Brian Lipscomb is president and CEO of Energy Keepers, Inc.
SEPTEMBER 9, 2015 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
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