idahoseniorindependent.com
TAKE ONE! FREE!
Four Decades of Stump Fuzzing – Pat Hart and the Explosive Arts By Cate Huisman Pat Hart is the recreation program manager on the Bonners Ferry Ranger District at the far northern tip of the panhandle. She works with volunteers from around the country and the world to build and maintain trails, restore historic lookouts and cabins, build fences, plant trees, even write grants, and record GPS coordinates of dispersed campsites. She has received the USDA Award for Superior Service, the Forest Service Chiefs Award, and a few years ago, she was the National Volunteer Program Employee of the Year. It’s an impressive list of accomplishments. But that’s not what I first heard about her. What I first heard about was her expertise with explosives. An acquaintance told me admiringly that Pat could vaporize a horse. It turns out this is true, although the story is simultaneously more impressive and less sensational than I first thought. The use of explosives is a high art with an ever-increasing range of practical applications. Removing expired pack animals from inconvenient places is just one of them. Pat came to north Idaho almost by accident after the 1960s wound down but while their long-term effects were still being felt. “We were classic hippies,” she remembers. “A whole group of us were finishing up school at SMU [Southern Methodist University, in Texas]. We were very close friends. We were sad about the possibly of all going in different directions.” The sympathetic father of someone in the group owned land in north Idaho, and he agreed to let them live and build on the land and pay for it over time. They arrived in the spring of 1972 and focused on framing a house that first summer. Then the reality of making ends (Continued on page 36)
Photo by Tim Cady
Gather the Hidden Eggs Just for fun, we have hidden a baker’s dozen of Easter eggs throughout this issue of the Idaho Senior Independent. Search for them and mail us a list of the page numbers on which you find them? We will award
a $25 prize to the person who finds all of the eggs. If there are multiple correct entries, the winner will be determined by a drawing. None of the hidden eggs is located within an advertisement. Have fun! ISI