Chattanooga

I returned from one of my Southern trips yesterday. I was invited by the USFS Region 8 (Southern Region) BAER coordinator to be a speaker at their BAER team leader refresher. BAER in Region 8 is a bit different that it is elsewhere in the country. One of the biggest problems western BAER teams face is severe fire on steep slopes, therefore increasing erosion potential and putting life and property at immense risk during the next storms.

Well, in the South, they don't have 1) many steep slopes or 2) large wildfires. They may have one of those ingredients, but rarely both. Therefore, their BAER work is slightly different and they don't have nearly the contingency other regions have.

Regardless, they still had 22 people show up for this meeting to get trained. My role is to simply introduce the service I can provide to them on fire assignments through GIS and remote sensing. I gave an hour and a half talk and had a great time. It was a very informal setting (my favorite) and they were excited about the data I provide. Many of these folks will end up being a member on a BAER team out West, so this training is appropriate.

When it was over, one of the ladies said she was going to try to round up some training dollars so I could visit the region again and actually put on a hands-on class (I do this annually already). Another guy from the Region 8 Resource Information Management (RIM) group in Atlanta asked if it would be possible for me to visit the regional office and give the talk again. I was a little intrigued by this, but he said my talk could really energize the geospatial group down there. Not sure what that means, but if they pay for my trip, I'm sure my boss would be amenable to the idea.

I have part of a morning to walk around downtown Chattanooga. I visited the AA Chattanooga Lookouts stadium (Dodger affiliate -- boo!). I also walked around the aquarium and Tennessee riverfront. The weather was so nice I almost felt bad for my wife back in SLC suffering through a spring winter storm.

This is AT&T field. Not to be confused with San Francisco's AT&T / Pac Bell / whatever field.

This is the Tennessee Aquarium. I didn't actually go inside. Didn't have time to make it worth my $22.

This was one of the river tourist boats.

Paul Bunyan was an amputee? And he lived in Tennessee? I had no idea.