Dave Baumgartner Oral History Interview

Oral history interview by Mary Heers with Dave Baumgartner. Topics include: Bridges and explosives; Studying forestry, soil and watersheds; Graduation from USU and a career of employment with the Forest service; Work with watershed issues in Colorado, timber/fire/recreation/water issues in Wyoming, and timber/fire issues in Idaho; Problems with over cutting timber and not replanting local tree species; A time when a dust cloud blew his hard hat off; Near accidents related to fires; A time he chased a fire for twenty-one days; Fighting fires with fire by creating fire lines, and burnt out root holes being toasty places to sit on cold nights.

Mr. Dave Baumgartner worked for the Forest Service for 35, beginning in 1969. He worked as part of a fire crew, and then a hotshot crew. He began his career in the Pike National Forest in Colorado; then he worked in Dubois, Wyoming, Cody, Wyoming, Hailey, Idaho; eventually, he worked on fires in every state in the western United States, and a few outside of the western United States.