A Taste of the Past From Williamsburg

I had the chance to make the two and a half hour trip down to Williamsburg, Virginia. We spent the day in colonial Williamsburg, which I was told was America's very first theme park, as it tries to recreate the feeling of being in the town during the time of the American Revolution. It is quite well put together, and they're still improving it, trying to make sure the clothing, tools, and architecture is as accurate as possible. The presence of trained and costumed actors and actresses really makes the park. We had plans to see more of the area, but we already didn't have enough time to see all there was to see in colonial Williamsburg!
Jessie (see below) and felt it reminded us a bit of "Austenland," except that we didn't get to play dress-up with the clothes. We did wear our charming purple scarves though, which marked us as 1) participants for one of the activities within Williamsburg and 2) the history nerds we truly are.

 This was actually at the nearby museum that evening.

 The obligatory photo from the stocks, which is next to the courthouse where we participated in reenacting an actual court case about religious freedom.

 This is the palace green. In the back you can see the Governor's palace, which was raided by angry colonists, and where Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson lived.

 One artisan demonstrated book-binding.

 We went to the coffeehouse for old-fashioned hot chocolate - a thick, bitter substance that included cinnamon, nutmeg, and cayenne pepper!

 A local musician serenaded us on the violin over lunch.

 I have always, upon reading Harry Potter, wondered what a beef pasty was. Now I know!

 They even had cats to set in the apothecary's window in colonial times!

 The governor's palace and gardens

 The harpsichord in the ballroom at the governor's palace

 This was at a plantation. Tobacco is being grown in the background.

 This is the kitchen, but the woman is dressed in working class garb. We had an interesting conversation  with the milliner about old-fashioned underwear. She told us that she loves wearing her stays (like a corset, but they're not designed to suck in, just smooth out), shift, gown, and skirts, because it is nearly impossible to look bad in 1760's clothing. They are also flattering, supportive, and force her to stand up properly. She said with a sigh that although we do many things better now than they did then, clothes for both men and women were far superior in those days.

 This is the pipe organ in the ballroom.

This was the entryway into the governor's palace, decorated with functional weapons on all sides, plus our tour guide, Scott.

Burn, Baby Burn

*This is an unpublished draft of a long-form story, so if you have any suggestions for readability, other relevant issues to investigate, or people to speak with let me know!

 

The Hellsgate, Arizona fire chief saw trouble in 1999, when the Forest Service announced the start of a fifteen-year drought cycle. Gary Hatch went to the board to request another brush truck to fight forest fires. They laughed then, but the Rodeo-Chedeski fire burned 468,638 acres in 2002, and they got the new truck.

The drought coincided with a Forest Service policy that has made the nation’s forests dangerously overgrown and increased fire size, leading to a funding crisis.

“The policy that they came up with basically set our forest up to burn,” Hatch said.

The problem began in 1910, just five years after the Forest Service was created, said Mike Ferris of the National Fire Center for the Forest Service. A 3 million acre fire burned across Idaho and Washington, and at least 85 people died. Firefighters gave up fighting or even trying to contain the blaze and simply evacuated whole towns.

After the fire, policy-makers developed the “10 o’clock rule,” and as the population grew, more land passed into federal management, and fire-fighting technology changed, firefighters were better able to get fires out – by 10 o’clock the next morning.

Over time, the number of fires increased slightly, which Ferris said is largely a function of more people living in the forests, but the size of the fires increased by as much as four times. Between 1985 and 1989, the average number of fires annually was 56,837, compared to 83,082 per year on average between 2005 and 2009. The median number of acres burned per year, however, increased from 2,719,162 acres per year during 1985-1989 to 8,689,389 acres from 2005-2009, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

The fire size is increasing in part because the “10 o’clock rule” allowed the forests to become overgrown.

“Frankly not knowing better that we’ve suppressed fire for such a long time that there’s so much fuel build-up out there that will burn eventually,” Ferris said.

By the time the Forest Service realized the danger of the trajectory and changed course, the forests had become so thick that small growth, which in the 1800s would have burned off in small lightning fires every few years, had taken over by virtue of sucking water from the larger trees. This left the forest foliage both plentiful and dry, a recipe for large fires.

The problem became obvious for Hatch’s jurisdiction in the ‘90s because of both the drought and a successful environmentalist campaign to shut down logging operations, which Hatch had seen as the last force for keeping forest growth from getting out of control.

“In the Ponderosa forest, you should have a maximum of forty trees per acre, and we’ve got 800 per acre in some areas now,” Hatch said. “I’ve never seen the forest as scary as it is now.”

The Forest Service has now dramatically changed fire-fighting strategy to cope with massive increase in fire size and intensity. Now, limited resources mean that only the top priority land gets saved.

“There’s been a dramatic change in how we do things,” said Clay Templin, who has been with the Tonto Forest Service for thirty-three years. “Really what we look at is three questions, what’s important, why is it important, and how important is it.”

The Forest Service will fight all fires that begin with human accident, but the many summer fires that start with lightning strikes are less certain, Ferris said. Sometimes they will focus on saving urban areas but let the wilderness-area fires burn as safely as possible, both from a desire to thin the overgrown forests and a lack of resources to fight the fires.

The budget is no longer enough even for this priority-based action. The first year when total fire-fighting costs exceeded one million dollars was 2000, but this has occurred every year since then with only two exceptions, according to the Department of Interior.

Funding this upward trajectory has required creativity. The smaller fires that can be contained with a day or two are fought and funded entirely at the local level, but the larger fires pay no heed to political boundaries or varieties of land ownership, and they are federally funded.

“Typically what we do, and this year is no exception, is we bring out a lot of resources from other parts of the United States where they’re not quite as active,” Templin said.

These out-of-town crews bring their own equipment, but they bill their extra hours fighting the large fires to the Forest Service’s fire suppression fund of $1.4 billion. During seven of the last ten years, fire-fighting costs have exceeded budget, by as much as $999 million in 2002.

“Because we had an active fire season last year, we exceeded and came over $400 million,” Ferris said.

When this happens, the Forest Service responds with a fire transfer, which means all its agencies send unused funds for the rest of the fiscal year toward fire-fighting.

This means that projects scheduled during the last few months of the fiscal year risk being pushed back to the next year, Ferris said.

This scenario is what prompted Senator Wyden of Oregon to introduce a bill that would change how the large fires are funded. If passed, the Wildfire Disaster Funding Act, which is currently in committee in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, would fund the large fires as if they were natural disasters via the Federal Emergency Management Association.

For now, local agencies bear any delay.

“They’ll submit their billing to the system, and it could take anywhere from 20 days to several months,” Ferris said.

All of the fire suppression billing goes through a single pay center in Albuquerque, but until that money comes through, the local taxpayer dollars have to support the fire stations, in addition to the costs of operating that they pay. Some of the receipts Hatch has submitted have taken up to a year to come though.

“Our cost of operating has doubled, and we haven’t had a raise in eight years,” Hatch said. “It’s killing us.”

The Io Jima Memorial at Rosslyn, VA

This last week, I decided that I needed to explore Rosslyn, where I work, a bit more. Rosslyn is the part of Arlington, VA just across the Potomac River, but because it consists almost totally of office space and seasonal food trucks, its delights are largely unknown to the world. Now that I know them, however, I am sharing them with you. Enjoy!

 The above photo is the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery.

 This photo shows the beautiful Marines Memorial.

This is a view of Arlington Cemetery from the outside. It gives you a sense of how the beautiful rolling hills are covered with white tombstones.

 I found a hobbit hole!

 This carillon bell tower and the sphinxes were a gift from the Dutch people to say thank you for liberating them during World War Two. The sphinxes were a nice place to sit and look across the Potomac River at the Washington Monument and the Capitol while listening to the hourly carillon concert.

This is a rooftop garden that celebrates the end of the Cold War and the Berlin Wall coming down. The office where I work is in the second from the front.

And in case you've made it this far down, feel free to check out my most controversial post yet at work.

Independence Day From the Capitol

I ignored the advice of many well-meaning Washington, D.C. natives on July 4 and went with a group of friends from the ward to the Capitol proper. We sallied forth determined to brave the crowds, and we're glad we did. Although it was crowded, everyone was in good spirits, and it was very well organized -- they even had the National Guard out directing traffic!

The day began at 9:30 AM in front of the National Archives (I had come just a day earlier to see the Declaration of Independence and Constitution) for speeches and such. We were surprised that during the patriotic musical medley, we heard "America" from "West Side Story." We also saw a dramatic reading of the Declaration of Independence by the characters of Benjamin Franklin, John and Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and others. It was a good crowd, and we all cheered and booed at the appropriate times. Then came the four-time international whistling champion with "God Bless America" (I know--I had to hear it to believe it!).

We watched the parade and then set up camp on the National Mall. It was nice to have a large group, because we spent the better part of the day there, but we could trade off holding our places to go see other things throughout the day. This meant that we saw the new "augmented reality dinosaur exhibit" at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, the astrolabe at the Air and Space Museum, and the telescope set up at the observatory to look at the sun.

The Hindu Krishnas had some tents set up, so a whole group from our ward went and chatted with them--they taught us how to meditate, which was nice. I also introduced everyone to my friend Shareef, an Egyptian who works at a food truck, which, ironically enough, sells Mexican food. It was certainly an American melting pot experience!

The weather was nice, because although it was sunny, Hurricane Arthur had blown all of the humidity away. I must say, I had been assured that humidity would have some benefit to make up for how unpleasant it is - healthier hair or skin, for example. Lies, all lies!
Anyway, the fireworks display was marvelous. It was not long, but it was lovely to be in the crowd and see the fireworks --even the letters "U-S-A" at one point-- go off beside the Washington Monument.

Making the Best Case of a Worst Case Scenario*

*This is a report from an event at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. They served excellent pastries.
Areas where citizens have a geographically large sense of community can better handle the conflicts between local and federal government that make disaster recovery and preparation difficult.
The conflict between federal and local government during disasters was the focus of a National Press Club conference, "Expert Voices in Disaster Recovery," by the Disaster Recovery Contractors Association June 26.
One of the most successful disaster recovery programs in recent years was the flooding in Colorado in fall 2013, because citizens of the larger counties and states typical of the American West could act in concert with residents of different areas to prevent problems. Flooding prevention in the East has been less cohesive.
"A number of efforts at mitigation 40 years ago made floods two years ago worse," said Glenn Cannon, director of the Pennsylvania Management Agency.
Disaster recovery, especially the long-term solutions, work best from the grassroots up with the state government providing infrastructure. Cannon used a pilot program from the Federal Emergency Management Agency during the disaster recovery of Pennsylvania's  worst floods in decades.
The pilot program involved all existing community and state organizations that might have useful tools. This decreased the redundancy and cost that comes with creating new organizations for emergencies, but convincing some state agencies that had not previously been involved in disaster relief to help required political strong-arming, Cannon said.
Convincing community members that they have a stake in long-term recovery can require some short-term concessions. Opening up the local Wal-Mart or Lowes might now seem like a first priority in disaster relief, but Cannon said it provided psychological benefits by giving people a sense of normality and a resource to start rebuilding. 
Thad Allen of Booz Allen said he noticed a similar phenomenon as the principal federal official over Hurricane Katrina. He realized he would need to close the food shelters so the other elements of civil society - in this case, the local waffle house - could begin to operate.
Hazards to cooperation between local and federal officials include losing sight of the goal.
"Once those [professional] teams were asked to work with local stakeholders, they got whittled down to short-term thinking," said Columbia Professor Klaus Jacob.
For Joseph Nimmich of FEMA, the is that access to resources from higher-up gives people a false sense of hope for a return to pre-disaster life, when in reality, "a disaster is a life-changing event."
For example, local government has urged citizens who left their flooded homes to return to avoid losing tax revenue. For example, 250,000 New Orleans residents sought shelter in another state during Hurricane Katrina, but although their homes were destroyed, local government officials urged them to return in hopes of avoiding losing a seat in the House of Representatives after the next census.
Federal oversight can help locals to think about the future while recovering from past disasters.
"When you rebuild, you have to think about the extraordinary flood which always seems to come along," Jacob said.

Covered Bridge Festival in Woolwine, VA

Neighbors and newcomers alike celebrated Virginia's heritage and the renovation of a historic landmark at the Covered Bridge Festival in Woolwine, Va. on June 21.
The Patrick County chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans presented the names of all the area's Civil War veterans, then fired a cannon three times to honor the county's veterans.
"There's a misconception about [the Civil War]," said Barry Morrison, a Woolwine native with Confederate soldiers on both sides of his family. "It was about state's rights. It wasn't about slavery, because these people here in this community couldn't afford slaves."
Morrison, a member of the Covered Bridge Committee that paid and organized renovations one of Woolwine's two bridges, sold almost 200 commemorative covered bridge ornaments at the festival. He has a long history with the Jack's Creek Bridge, which now functions only as a footbridge because the highway rerouted in 1979.
"I have ridden a school bus through that bridge, and the bus has scraped both sides going through," he said.
The bridge was built in 1914, and the names, initials, and hopes of Stuart County's bridge-users are part of the bridge's protected inside. The earliest discernible mark is from 1934.
The Patrick County Historical Society hosted a booth illustrating parts of daily life a century earlier. Vendors sold food and handmade crafts.
The area's Bible Belt heritage was not forgotten either. The festival began with a prayer and included a booth by the Grace Baptist Church, where Pastor Mark Elkins asked passerby to consider the "million-dollar question" of personal salvation.
Two missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also helped by supervising a bounce house for the children.
Madison Weber, a missionary from Utah, said the community's focus on its roots and on unity impressed her. 
"The hospitality of people around here clearly shows what's important to them," she said.
Shannon Simmons, a missionary from Idaho, said the community's small town appeal is authentic - the people really know and take care of each other, and they have been quick to help her though she is a newcomer.
"Everybody here knows each other so well that we'll knock on someone's door, and they'll say, 'You talked to my cousin last week,'" she said.
Patrick County has two of Virginia's seven covered bridges, which is necessary as five rivers begin in the county. The Covered Bridge Committee put on the festival to celebrate the community's heritage, but its next goal is to commence renovations on the nearby Bob White Bridge. They sold almost 200 covered bridge ornaments at the festival to start the fundraising effort.
* If you have trouble seeing the video, try here.

Out to Gettysburg

My favorite mini-trip was last Saturday, when I went out to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
The director of the program I am interning for was a history teacher in a previous life, so he said that if we asked nicely, he would take us on an exclusive tour of the Gettysburg battleground. I talked to him and we organized a trip for three fellow interns and me. He drove us to the battlefield, which is about two hours from Washington, D.C. He described the events of the Civil War up to that point as we drove. I was amazed by the beauty of the scenery we passed. I never thought that Virginia and Pennsylvania could be so lovely and lush, although I scoffed at the so-called "mountains" we passed.

The Pennsylvania monument features a balcony that you can climb to look out on the battlefield.

This is the only monument to a chaplain. He was stationed with an Irish Catholic unit from the Union. Before the battle began, he granted the entire unit absolution for their sins, then told his Fighting Irish that the church would not give a Christian burial to anyone who turned back in cowardice. That unit had an 82 percent casualty rate in the charge, but they took and kept their position.

The South charged from the right side of the road on Day One of battle. The monument shown features a dog named Sally. The night after Day One of battle, Sally refused to leave the Union unit she was with - she stayed with the wounded and the dead all night long. Her protection was important - some of the farmer's hogs had gotten loose and escaped onto the battlefield, where they nosed about among the dead and the helpless wounded all night long. Sally, however, refused to leave her unit until the army eventually came from them when a truce was declared. She was killed in a later battle.

Gettysburg is still a tiny and charming town today. During the battle, the Southern Army chased the Northern troops through the town, and they fought between buildings and in the streets. The Southern soldiers then raided the homes, refusing to allow the townspeople to harbor even wounded soldiers. When the battle was over, the people of Gettysburg were left to bury the dead and care for the Union wounded. The Confederate wounded, meanwhile, were taken back to the South in a wagon train that stretched a full 17 miles behind the Southern Army.

The wheat field is where the misnamed Pickett's Charge occurred, where the proud Southern line was broken into chaos. The field changed sides six times, meaning the soldiers would literally have been running over the top of their dead and wounded comrades over and over again as they charged back and forth across the field.

The wheat field changed hands six times. Journals say that when the battle was over, you could walk across the entire field and never touch the ground because it was covered with the dead and wounded.

The picture below shows where the main Union army cannons were stationed on Day Two. Journals say that when the fighting stopped for the night, the field looked like it was full of writhing snakes, because the wounded were crawling for water or help, and neither side dared go out until they negotiated a short truce on July 4.

The ironic thing is that, up to that point, the South had won eight out of nine of the battles, and the North had won zero, tied one. The battle of Gettysburg lasted for three days, and the South won Days One and Two. The only thing that kept them from routing the North once and for all was one far-thinking Union General Howe, who decided to fortify the hills around Gettysburg in case they needed to retreat, but the only reason the North had those hills to begin with was because of a miscommunication between Southern generals about where to fight! The fortified hills convinced a war-weary South to retreat for the night and then fight another day, and on that third day, they lost for the first time in the war. The North simply held the hills, which forced the South to run at the fortifications while cannon fire rained down. The North won only by a combination of luck and refusing to relinquish the high ground.

This is Little Round Top, a steep hill that the Union Army barely held on Day Two. The Union soldiers had to carry the cannon to the top by hand because it was too steep for horses. The Alabama unit ran up the front side seven times in repeated charges.

Into the Wild

This was a very busy week following a very busy weekend, so on Saturday morning I went on a relaxing hike with the ward to get into nature. I had not realized previously that people hiked in nature on this side of the country, so this was a pleasant surprise:

 We hiked along the Potomac River at Great Falls, Virginia. I must say, I am thoroughly enjoying the charms of the area thus far. The area is wilder than I expected the East to be, greener than I usually think of anything being, and has more character than I had even hoped!

Lest readers get the idea that I am not working very hard out here, I should report a little on the work-week. I reported on several interesting issues. For one thing, I watched President Obama's commencement address at West Point on Wednesday, as the rumor was that he was outlining his foreign policy going forward. This was exciting because I remembered that Payson's own Isaac Cluff was graduating from West Point, so I watched him receive his diploma and delighted in the fame and dignity coming to my hometown.
I also attended a panel about the impact of India's recent election on religious liberty. It was quite lively because, since the election just happened, no one can say for sure what will happen. Afterward, a man in a Sikh turban, who said he was Indian, pulled me aside. He urged me not to report that religious liberty is threatened in India, because his experience with India's religious diversity had always been positive, in fact, more positive than in America.
Over dinner that night, I described the whole experience to a friend who has studied in India, and she pointed out that India has a population of 1.2 billion and a long history of religious plurality.

A Memorial Day to Remember

Washington, D.C., was a wonderful place to spend Memorial Day, as we could visit all the sites that honor the nation's fallen, as well as the museums that describe their service.

First and foremost, we visited Mr. Lincoln. I still have not made it to the White House, yet I feel that, having taken a moment with America's 16th president, I have truly "been to Washington." (This is not from lack of trying, by the way! I keep heading in the direction of the White House and getting distracted by puzzling statues of angry Frenchmen and nude Greeks. Today I actually thought I had reached it from the back, but it turned out to be the equally imposing Department of the Treasury.)

My roommate stands beside the Korean War Memorial.

Next, we visited all of the war memorials near the National Mall, which was quite sobering. I was impressed at each memorial's ability to convey simultaneously the sheer magnitude of what this country did and the sacrifice of individuals. Then again, perhaps I was thinking about the veterans I know personally. I was blessed to grow up in an area where I could be personally acquainted with so many who have served in the armed forces and hear their experiences.

FDR and me-I think I look rather good as First Lady.

 We also visited the memorials to Franklin D. Roosevelt (which is a huge memorial - you actually walk through it and see quotes and statues from each of his three terms as you walk), Martin Luther King Jr., and Thomas Jefferson. Each one was truly a work of art.
I was especially impressed with the shrine to Jefferson - his defense of public education, religious liberty and God-given natural rights was engraved on the wall. I learned about how much he valued education, calling truth a "light" that enables citizens to make clearer judgments. I reflected that this is how we view truth in a gospel context, that pursuit of learning is valuable for its own sake because, by its light, we "see" ourselves and the world more clearly.

*My roommate shares a birthday with Thomas Jefferson.

We*dropped by the American Indian Smithsonian Museum for lunch because I had been assured by multiple people that they had the best food on the National Mall. All I have to say to that is, they're setting the bar a little low! I suppose these Easterners have never had real Indian Fry Bread or authentic enchiladas, poor dears. Also, I must confide that if you want to learn about Indians, the exhibits you will find out West are far superior.
The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, on the other hand, is everything it promises to be. This turned out to be another excellent choice for Memorial Day, as we saw and explored the planes and ships that American forces have used in the last century's wars.

 Feeling a little down after all this conflict; however, we turned our gazes heavenward to the skies...(and explored the space shuttles and other space equipment)...

And then went home and made chocolate chip cookies for dinner.