Invite to invent-Forest Service’s Technology and Development Center opens its doors

These are the people who invented
the "can do" reply.

And also spark arresters for chain
saws, protective chaps for sawyers,
emergency fire shelters, the rounded
parachute used by smokejumpers
and a little gadget that knocks pine
cones out of trees.

By SHERRY DEVLIN of the
Missoulian

And they’re just getting started, their
boss said Thursday, as the U.S.
Forest Service officially opened the
doors of its new Missoula
Technology and Development Center
on Highway 10 West.

"Stay tuned," said Dave Aicher, the
center’s manager.

They’ve been around since the late 1940s, but quietly and in out-of-the-way places. Now, with a new
double-story tin-and-timber building just past the airport, they’re conspicuous. Word’s getting out,
Aicher said.

Thus the hundreds of Forest Service friends and retirees in attendance for the grand opening and
tours of the center. Thus Aicher’s plan to show off – from here on out – his employees’ inventions,
innovations and adaptations.

Each of the Missoula center’s 50-plus employees is working on anywhere from three to 15 projects at
a time. Their expertise, Aicher said, includes engineering, forestry, metal fabrication, explosives,
recreation management, textile design, Web design, sociology, human physiology, reforestation,
video production and chemical analysis.

The center works like this: Someone in the Forest Service has a problem that needs a technological
solution. They put in a written request to the Technology and Development Center. A steering
committee reviews the request. If it says "yes," MTDC’s experts go to work on a solution.

In the early days, a half-century ago, the center modified Dodge trucks to better haul firefighters and
firefighting gear. They invented the first fire shelters – an innovation credited with saving more than 300
firefighters’ lives over the past 30 years. They tested the earliest snowmachines. They developed
contoured fiberglass pack boards to replace hard-to-carry wooden models.

A few ideas didn’t quite work, like the modified chain saw that rolled across a hillside and "cut" a fire
line. Problem was, it also threw rocks at its firefighter-operators.

Most of the early work was fire-related: how to get people and equipment quickly and safely to
wildfires, said retiree Dick Hallman, who worked at the center from 1970 to 1994.

"We were a quick-response engineering group," he said. "It was great. We could go anywhere to find
and solve problems. I really enjoyed getting out in the field. The Forest Service has a lot of talent all
through the outfit."

A highlight for Hallman was the center’s work to take global positioning systems from military
operations to land management and recreation.

"We went from using a compass and pacing to find a location in the backcountry to using a GPS unit
to get an instant satellite location," he said. "And from units that cost $25,000 a piece and weighed
75 pounds to hand-held units that cost a few hundred dollars."

At the Forest Service’s request, private industry worked on the engineering. Then MTDC employees
did the field tests and modifications, Hallman said. "We always carried a lot more prestige than
bucks in our pocket."

From MTDC also came the first round parachute that can fly backward, an improvement that gave
smokejumpers softer and closer-to-the-target landings. An MTDC physiologist – Dr. Brian Sharkey –
developed the step and pack tests that measure and ensure firefighter fitness. All chemical products
used for wildland firefighting – retardants, foams and gels – are tested for safety and effectiveness at
the Missoula center.

On Thursday, MTDC’s Greg Lovellette showed tour groups how he and others test the flow rates and
ground patterns of firefighting retardant dropped out of air tankers. First, he said, you sit 2,000 plastic
cups in a field. Then you drop retardant on the field. Then you collect, weigh, number and map the
cups. The result is a picture of how the retardant covered the ground.

More and more, the center is broadening its mission to include non-fire work, said Vaughn Stokes,
the Forest Service’s national engineering director. Technology and Development Center employees
are designing and testing culverts that give endangered fish safe passage below forest roads. They’re
looking for ways to get grizzly bears across interstate highways. They’re working on noxious-weed
problems and on ways to lessen the impacts of all-terrain vehicles.

They recently unveiled a new domed fire shelter, a modified design that should better protect
firefighters who, as a last resort, seek refuge in the heat-reflecting tents. They’re still working on
training videos and shelter manufacture, hoping to have the new model on every firefighter’s belt by
next summer.

They even helped to design their new digs, said regional forester Brad Powell. Recirculated
groundwater cools the building, which has no traditional air-conditioning units. The urinals in the
men’s restrooms do not require flushing, which saves 60,000 gallons of water per year. The pressed
boards in the walls, balcony rails and reception desk are made from wheat straw – once considered
waste.

"These people are pretty darn important to everything we do," said Stokes. "There’s no way to even
put a number to it. They just never slow down."

Reporter Sherry Devlin can be reached at 523-5268 or at [email protected].

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