McCall Idaho Headline News

Jack Kummet had campsites, a new corral and 450 bales of hay in place on the Payette National Forest in preparation for this year's hunting season.

That was before the East Zone Complex of forest fires this summer burned through those areas.
`All my stuff is a pile of ash," Kummet said.

Outfitter Jack Kummet stands in front of a hunting camp near Warren. The East Zone Complex burned four of Kummet's five camps sites, a new corral and 450 bales of hay. Photo by Michael Wells

Kummet,42,of Grangeville, is a hunting and fishing guide with Pony Creek Outfitters. He holds a permit to guide hunters in the South Fork Salmon River area.

He wishes fire managers had decided to protect his camps at the same time protection was provided to homes in Secesh and Warren.

"They told me they had sprinklers on all my stuff, but nothing was done," Kummet said. He expected some protection in return for the money he has paid to Payette for his right to lead hunting trips.

He pays the Forest Service $10,000 a year so he can guide hunters seeking elk, deer and bear in the South Fork canyon area.

He estimates his losses to be at least $8,000 to $10,000, not counting the labor costs it will take to rebuild his campsites. Four of his five campsites have burned.

"I'm not saying, man you should have saved my hay pile, I'm saying, save the forest," Kummet said. "I'm not saying just look out for me; stop the fires."

Fire policies criticized
He would like to see the forest thinned through selective logging practices and believes fire managers are allowing the forest to burn.

"If my house burns in Grangeville, does the fire department come over and back burn my two neighbors' houses?" he said. "Do some logging; create some jobs, and not burn it up." The fires caused Kummet to take his clients into other areas of the forest that he had not scouted thoroughly. His assigned area was closed until the final week of the season. He was faced with a decision to either cancel the hunts and go out of business or try to hunt new areas where the quality was riot as good.

"The South Fork Canyon is where I make my living, and it's gone," Kummet said. "Do I go out of business and go broke, or do I work with what I have?"

Before he was allowed into his normal area to hunt, his clients asked him, "What's over there?" He responded that he did not know.

"It makes me look bad," he said. "I have told them (Forest Service) that I have a lot of people with a lot of money tied up in this (hunting guide service), and they don't really care."

The average cost of the guide service is about $4,000 per client.

He guides between 40 and 60 people per year. While he will still guide about the same number of people, the quality of the hunts has fallen off due to the fires.

Poor quality hunts
The fires have led to poor quality hunts, and clients who have been unhappy with new hunting areas. He has also told clients ahead of time that the animals just are not there as they were in years past.

During normal years, Kummet begins preparing for the season Aug. 15, or about 15 days before the season starts. This year, he could not prepare until Sept. 5.

Normally, he meets his clients at the Winter Inn in Warren, but this year had to meet clients in McCall and go to campsites outside the fire closure area.

Kummet built a new corral the day the Loon Fire began in July. He was paying people for six weeks to do nothing as he waited to be allowed back into his normal hunting area.

Kummet wonders where the wildlife will go and what will happen to the elk and deer since the wintering grounds along the South Fork of the Salmon River burned this year.

"The sad part is that there are no wintering grounds left," he said. "The river corridor is burned all the way down."

He wants a wildlife-feeding program put in place due to the fires, but does not believe it will happen.

"It's unfortunate. They are going to starve them to death," Kummet said. "It's sad: it really is."