Fire Lookouts

Fire lookouts - the men and women who watch for smoke from remote mountaintop towers in United States forests - play an important but underappreciated role in the management of wildfires. Of the expansive system of thousands of lookout towers once maintained by the US Forest Service and state land agencies, only a fraction are still human-staffed. In some areas there has been an increased reliance on new technologies, such as piloted aircraft, drones, and automated camera systems, to detect wildfires. In other regions, fire lookout towers have been phased out without implementing alternative detection methods. Those lookouts who remain enjoy a simple life of isolation and meditation in the forest as they watch for signs of fire and occasionally entertain passing hikers and lookout enthusiasts. This project depicts eight active lookouts and their Walden-esque lifestyle of solitude in the remote living quarters on their posts throughout the forests of Washington, Idaho, Oregon, and Montana during the summer of 2018.