College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Department of Forestry

During the summers of 1959 and 1960, Chuck Finan (’62) worked on the Boise National Forest as part of a forest technician position program which the Forest Service supported in the early 1960s. During the first summer, he was doing slash disposal (cutting slash with double bitted axes) as a member of a 20-person fire crew. The second summer, he marked trees for timber sales, ran road center lines, and cruised timber, as well as being part of a fire crew at every opportunity. Those two summers cemented his desire to be a graduate forester. So in the fall of 1963, he applied for full-time work after graduation with the Department of Interior or Department of Agriculture. He had already decided he was going to accept the first job offer he got.

Shortly before graduation, Chuck happily accepted a GS-5 entry-level position on the Yakima Reservation in the state of Washington that paid $4,500 per year. At the time, he didn’t know where the Yakima Reservation was and what they did there, but he was excited to move west and start work.

On the Yakima, he worked in the summer heat and the deep winter snows. He worked in virgin timber that was 500 years old, sometimes marking timber on snowshoes in three feet of snow, when he could get into the woods. While in the woods, he often saw wildlife that was usually hidden from the general public. 

Chuck was taught how to scale logs by the check scaler for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). They scaled logs at the landings in the woods, in the log decks, on logging trucks and on railroad cars. The most dangerous was at the “hot” landings where the logs were skidded in by D-7 bulldozer tractors with wheeled arches that were used to lift one end of the big logs off the ground. 

In the fall of 1962, Chuck was assigned to work on the Coeur d’Alene Reservation when he and another forester were detailed to go to St. Maries, Idaho, to assist in the establishment of a Continuous Forest Inventory (CFI) on the Coeur d’Alene tribal forest lands. They spent 14 days working in the northeast corner of the reservation setting up quarter-acre fixed area plots in the Eagle Butte area.

They learned that prior to 1958 the Tribe only owned 320 acres of land within the reservation. It was only through an act of congress that the Bureau of Land Management lands within the Reservation boundary were given back to the Coeur d’Alene Tribe. 

In the spring of 1963, back on the Yakima Reservation, he and four other men were assigned the job of marking timber in the proposed McCrede Creek Timber Sale near the west boundary of the Yakima Reservation. One day, while marking timber, two bear cubs ran past Chuck, about 10 feet away. He knew that their mother was nearby so he did not make any attempt to bother the cubs. 

In May of 1964, Chuck headed for work at the Northern Idaho Agency in Lapwai, Idaho as a GS-7 Forester.   He worked with the forest manager and two other foresters as well as a Nez Perce tribal member who was a very astute forest technician.  They marked and cruised timber, set up timber sales and checked the timber land for possible timber trespass. 

In the summer of 1965, Chuck was sent to the Coeur d’Alene Reservation to locate the property lines around a piece of tribal land on the flanks of Moses Mountain. The purpose was to eventually have a timber sale on the property. 

Eventually, Chuck was granted a GS-7 forester position to handle the Coeur d’Alene and Kootenai Reservations. His new position changed his working relationship with the BIA staff. Now, instead of being a part of a forestry team, he was the sole employee working on a reservation with 36,000 acres of forested lands scattered over parts of Kootenai and Benewah counties, about 30 miles south of Coeur d’Alene.  There was no radio system, so when he was in the woods he was generally by himself, except for his dog. Reflecting back on his work on the Coeur d’Alene Reservation, Chuck recalls the only times he was really in danger was when he was alone blazing trees on the tribal lands or stumbling through the large brush patches on Grassy Mountain. If he had gotten hurt nobody would have known where he was.

Chuck was promoted to a GS-9 and then a GS-11 position with increases in responsibility. Finally, he was able to acquire a forest technician, followed by additional staff members. When he retired there were two other foresters, two or three technicians, and a secretary.

Chuck retired from the BIA in 1992 and spent time traveling with his family. Bored with retirement, he accepted positions with the State of Idaho and later with Kootenai County, where Coeur d’Alene is located. He spent time as a Consultant Forester before accepting a contract with the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho managing all the trust lands owned by the Tribe and its members. He then spent 16 years managing their forest lands and doing realty work involving farm leasing, land purchases and preparing environmental documents. Finally, at the age of 76, he decided to retire completely and spend time with his wife.  He now concentrates his time doing genealogy searches  and preparing books for family members.