Smith visited BLM as part of a Rotary Group
Study Exchange Program. The program provides
travel grants for teams of participants to exchange visits between paired areas
in different countries. For four to six
weeks, team members study the host country’s institutions and ways of life,
observe their own vocations as practiced abroad, develop personal and
professional relationships and exchange ideas. Rotary sponsored four Chilean visitors on a multi-city tour of Wyoming. They started their visits in Denver on April 25 and
left for home on May 23. At the same time the Chilean visitors were here, Wyoming had a delegation of people in Chile. “I
think all of us had a very positive experience from their visit," said Bob Auflik, chairman of the Rotary Club's Group Study Exchange program in Casper, Wyo. “This included
all the families and Rotary clubs that hosted the Chileans, as well as the
Chilean's themselves. They
were and are such positive people. We all can benefit from these people to
people exchanges in so many ways. In each city they visited they devoted some
time to job shadow various professionals in Wyoming
that closely relate to their own professions back in Chile.” Smith
works in the Forest National Corp., Region of Lagos, in Chile. He is in
charge of the forest-fire program in the Osrno National Park.
Smith also is also the lead in formulating the management plant for the biosphere
reserve of the rain forests tempering of Austral Andes on the regional forest.
He supervises 32 people including a brigade for wildfire combat. Smith notes
that they use native forest and other control instruments in their national
forest. Smith
started his tour at the High Plains District Fire Division with fire-management
specialist Kristi Bulock. They discussed how the Chilean Forestry Program
worked versus how the BLM fire program operates. In Chile, the
state only owns 18 percent of the land, and the rest is privately owned. The state
sold the forest land to the public in 1974. The state still retains control
over the private land through a forest-stewardship contract. The landowners are
paid to cultivate forests. Chile
has more than 5 million acres of planted forest. Types of trees in the forest
include Monterey pine, which Chile uses for cellulose and
lumber, and Eucalyptus trees. It also has 11 million acres of cold rainforests
in the South with bamboo and evergreen trees. The
second most important sector in Chile,
according to Smith, is forestry. Chile provides cellulose, lumber
and plywood from its forests. Other important sectors include copper and iron
mining, salmon farms, vineyards for wine and fruit. Smith said that Chile sells a lot of fruit to the United States
including apples, pears, peaches, grapes, kiwi, blueberries and chestnuts. After
visiting with Bulock,
Smith took of tour of the High
Plains Dispatch
Center. He also toured
the fire ready room with firefighter
Zeb McWilliams, who provided practical insight concerning BLM’s fire-preparedness
and -suppression operations. In Chile, Smith is
in charge of a 10-person fire brigade for the forests and receives help from
the city if the fire gets out of control. Private landowners are in charge of
initial attack of forest fires on their land. All of their forest fires are
human caused; “It’s too rainy for natural forest fires to start,” Smith noted.
“We only had 52 fires last year.” Fires in Chile average 12 to 15 acres.
Landowners are quick to respond, Smith said, because their livelihood is in the
forests. Smith
was especially impressed with all of the fire equipment and the Hummer Fire
Engine, “It would be a dream to get one of these,” he said. “This is wonderful.
We don’t have all these things, only one bus.” Smith was very impressed with
the knowledge, skills and professionalism he encountered at BLM. He mentioned
several times, he would like to see a firefighter-to-firefighter exchange
between Wyoming BLM and his Chilean
National Forest. Chile also
has its own version of Smokey Bear — Forestin the beaver. Forestin works with
kids and teaches them about good and bad fire just like Smokey. Forestin has
his own Web site and
educational materials. Smith ended his tour of Casper with a visit to the National Historic Trails Center with the other three
Chilean guests. The other three guests, which Rotary sponsored, included lawyer
Karin Andrea Neira Mera, tourism manager María Angélica Ojeda Zúñiga and business
administrator María Francisca Klein Martin. Smith,
Mera, Zúñiga, and Martin were all smiles as they toured NHTIC and tried out the
stagecoach, Mormon handcart, and covered-wagon rides. They commented on how
interactive the NHTIC was. Smith shared some of the history about his country
and their own pioneers. He noted, “This place is very special. It’s great.” “This
was a wonderful experience,” Smith said as they parted with BLM employees and
headed out for the rest of their tour of Wyoming.
“I really enjoyed it.”
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