Outdoor Idaho - Never Say Quit II

Bud Moore

Former forest ranger Bud Moore has seen his share of changes in the Forest Service. He was there in the forties and fifties, when rangers wore the white hats. He was there in the sixties and seventies, when timber harvest dominated the agency's agenda. And the eighty five year old Moore has watched as the public's perceptions of the Forest Service has changed.

But today he's optimistic. He sees young forest rangers practicing something he calls "ecosystem management." "The challenge is to go in there and take what we have to take to take care of ourselves as a society and still keep all the connectivity, all the stuff that's important, to make that thing stay alive and function.

bear If Bud has a favorite animal it’s probably the grizzly bear. And he’s passionate about bringing the bear back to the Clearwater forest. “This place is a watered down place ever since the last grizzly left. It’s just no where’s near the same. We’ve lost something great in this ecosystem. The ecosystem’s not whole -- and it won’t ever be whole -- until we get ‘em back.

In his 50 years with the Forest Service Bud Moore has had many accomplishments. In fact, he’s written a book about his early years. It’s called The Lochsa Story. But this old timer is hardly ready to settle into old age. In fact, the day we visited Bud, he was busy making boards from timber he had logged. He’s proud of the fact that he has made the forest work for him, while still providing a place for wildlife.

“I’ve often said I can log for beaver, I can log for salmon, I can log for white tails and all combinations of that. (Our forest) is one of the few havens left where the game migrate into and have a good hideout and a good place and I take lots of wood out of that place.

This mill is really the centerpiece of our economic side of our operation here. I couldn’t keep this place if I couldn’t get something back from it. I believe in working forests. I like to see the land work and work responsibly. It seemed unethical to me to just sit on it, even if I could afford it.” "I think nature has, over eons of time, come up with a scheme that we just can't beat. That's the way I look at it. So we work with that. But we're part of this thing, too, and we have to take something out of it, too, to survive. And so right in there is the challenge.”

“I’ve been very fortunate in that I can look back 50 years; I started here (on the Lochsa) in 1935, it doesn’t seem that I should be that historical. But I guess that’s the way it is. I see it in the eyes of the young people that I talk to and visit; you know, I’m Old Bud, way back somewhere in another world. It’s great to live like that. I count my blessings everyday.”

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