Generations - October 2018 by Park Rapids Enterprise

October 2018

Fulfillment in the forest

DNR forestry technicians from Park Rapids use a Bombardier J5 tracked vehicle to fight a grass fire on April 29 west of Two Inlets. One of Johnson's roles with the DNR was operating this vehicle. (Enterprise file photo)

Veteran DNR tech has enjoyed variety By Robin Fish rfish@parkrapidsenterprise.com “It’s all been good. I really enjoyed it. I’ve been blessed,” Greg Johnson said about his nearly 40 years working for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR). A full-time forestry tech since 1988, Johnson was based at the Park Rapids DNR Forestry office in from 1989 until his retirement, effective Oct. 2. Previously, he said, “I did six months in Alexandria, where it was more private land management, working with landowners. I didn’t really like it because I wanted to get up in the big woods.” Then a position opened in Park Rapids, and the rest is history. “As a technician, we kind of do everything that needs to be done,” he said. For example, during the spring fire season, which starts as soon as the snow melts, “I’m a helicopter manager,” said Johnson. “I’m an engine boss, so I can take a truck. I run dozer, if we need one, and then we have the Bombardier J5. It’s a track machine. I run that, too.”

Motive and opportunity

In Johnson’s case, a life spent working with nature came naturally.

Inside this issue... 2 A ttorney can smooth path for familes making legal plans

Greg Johnson at the Minnesota DNR Forestry office in Park Rapids, where he worked from 1989 until his retirement on Oct. 2. (Robin Fish/Enterprise)

“Ever since like third grade, I knew I wanted to be in natural resources,” he said. “When I graduated from high school, my counselor told me, ‘Don’t get into natural resources. There’s no jobs.’ But that was

FORESTRY: Page 4

6 One ingredient is key for successful weed control 8 Now is the perfect time to check on your retirement list

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Attorney can smooth path for families making legal plans Minding Our Elders CAROL BRADLEY BURSACK Columnist Dear Carol: My parents are in their 60s and have decided that they need to have their legal paperwork updated. I think that this is smart and my siblings agree. The problem is that my parents want to designate me as their power of attorney for both health care and financial decisions since I live in their community. Unfortunately, my siblings feel slighted. While I don’t love the idea of having this responsibility, I have no problem doing what’s needed when the time comes. My brother lives 500 miles away and my sister lives over 800 miles in the other direction, so this seems to be the sensible decision. There’s no concrete reason why my siblings would object to this arrangement except for sibling rivalry. My siblings would be assigned as secondary POAs and they would have their equal shares laid out in the will. How do we get over this bump? — ST Dear ST: I congratulate your parents on their smart decision to update their legal documents. Time goes by fast and circumstances change, but these issues

often seem like too much bother so people put off updates. Your siblings should be happy that this is being done. Still, family dynamics can get in the way of logic. Adults need to name someone to handle health care as well as financial decisions in the event that they are rendered incapable of handling their own affairs. In most states, both types of documents can name secondary (consecutive) power of attorney (POA). This puts one or more people in place to take over duties if the first assignee can’t follow through or declines for any reason. This arrangement also signals the other adult children that they aren’t being left out of the process. Assigning them a secondary role isn’t a complete fix for hurt feelings, but it can help. Additionally, some states allow co-agents so that decisions can be made

Shingles: The painful enemy Generations on the Move BY KARIN HAUGRUD Columnist Shingles is an infection of the nerves that supply the skin, causing a painful rash of small blisters. It is caused by the varicella virus, the same virus that causes chickenpox. Once a person has had an attack of the chickenpox, the virus can remain dormant in certain nerves, sometimes to be reactivated later to cause shingles. Why the virus reactivates in some individuals and not in others is unknown. Chickenpox infection is very common in children. Its effects are mild and once children have it, they are immune to further infection. However, the virus remains in the body for life. Normally, it lies dormant in some nerve fibers but any decline on the immune system may allow the virus to reappear in adulthood as shingles. In this form, it is much more serious and debilitating illness. Shingles can affect adults at any age but the likelihood of an outbreak increases with age. Reactivation of the virus is most likely to occur in people with a weakened immune system and anyone over 50 years old. All races and genders are affected equally by shingles, and they can occur at any season or time of the year. The first sign is usually a tingling feeling, itchiness or stabbing pain on the skin. After a few days, a rash appears as a band or patch of raised dots on the side of the trunk or face. The rash develops into small, fluid filled blisters, which begin to dry out and crust over within several days. If the blisters are scratched, someone with shingles might develop a skin infection.

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Shingles can only occur after someone has had chickenpox. If someone who has already had chickenpox comes into contact with the fluid from shingle blisters, they will not “catch” shingles. Being in contact with an infected individual will not cause the dormant virus to reactivate. However, the virus from a shingles patient may cause chickenpox in someone who has not had it before. Shingles is often a very painful condition. As the virus damages the nerves, the pain may continue after the rash has cleared, sometimes lingering for weeks, months or years. A common location for shingles is the chest or back, and occasionally the face. People with shingles can sometimes recognize and control the factors that precipitate and attack of shingles, such as high stress levels and alcohol intake. Shingles is not usually dangerous to healthy individuals, although it can cause great misery during an attack. Anyone with shingles on the upper half of their face, no matter how mild, should seek medical care at once. There is some danger that the virus could cause damage to the eye resulting in blindness. If you think you may have shingles, see your doctor as soon as possible. Where medically indicated, prompt antiviral treatment can reduce pain and the duration of symptoms. This article is made possible with Older Americans Act dollars from the Land of the Dancing Sky Area Agency on Aging. Call the Senior LinkAge® One Stop Shop at 800-333-2433 to speak with an information specialist, or check out our website at MinnesotaHelp.info. MinnesotaHelp.info is an online directory of services designed to help people in Minnesota find human services, information and referral, financial assistance, and other forms of help.

together, but this can cause issues, especially in a health emergency, since both parties agree before action can be taken. I’m assuming that your parents are seeing an attorney. This attorney should be skilled at helping families make solid decisions. If one adult child is an accountant, it might be logical for that person to be the financial POA even if he or she lives out of the community. If one adult child is completely incompetent with money, then obviously, the opposite is true. My view is that your parents are being both practical and wise in how they are handling this. You live in the community. You will likely be the primary caregiver, or at least the person first on the scene in emergencies. This makes you the logical person to have the POAs in hand. Perhaps your siblings would be less averse to this arrangement if you all went with your parents to meet the attorney. This is up to your parents, of course, but the attorney then becomes the third party who can soften the issues caused by family dynamics. Carol Bradley Bursack is a veteran caregiver and an established columnist. She is also a blogger, and the author of “Minding Our Elders: Caregivers Share Their Personal Stories.” Bradley Bursack hosts a website supporting caregivers and elders at www. mindingourelders.com. She can be reached at carolbursack@msn. com.

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the total. See IRS publication 502, Medical and Dental Expenses (IRS.gov/ pub/irs-pdf/p502.pdf) for details. Long-term care insurance: If your mother has long-term care insurance, check whether it covers in-home care. Some policies permit family members to be paid, although they may exclude

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people who live in the same household. Paid caregiver leave: A small but growing number of companies offer paid caregiving leave as a way to recruit and retain their workforce. Additionally, some states provide caregiver benefits or paid leave to take care of ailing family members. Check with your employer to see what, if any, benefits are available to you. Family funds: If your mother has some savings or other assets, discuss the possibility of her paying you for the care you provide. If she agrees, consult with an elder law attorney about drafting a short-written contract that details the terms of the work and payment arrangements, so everyone involved knows what to expect. You should also check BenefitsCheckup.org, a free, confidential Web tool that can help you search for financial assistance programs that your mom or you may be eligible for.

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4 FORESTRY From Page 1

the only thing I was interested in, so I pursued it.” He earned a two-year degree in natural resources management at the University of Minnesota Crookston. “I actually wanted to do more with wildlife,” he said. But when opportunity knocked, it knocked on wood. “After I graduated from college, my first job was doing forest inventory,” said Johnson. “It was basically inventorying state land. That was temporary. So then I got hired on as a hotshot” – as wildland firefighters are known. “They always need firefighters,” he said. “They hire a lot of smoke chasers – temporary firefighters.” His hotshot crew operated around Cambridge, Zimmerman and Onamia, close to where he grew up in Milaca. Also a temporary job, it kept him busy from late March to “when it greened up,” typically in May or June. “Then Trails and Waters would pick us up, and we’d go clean rivers,” he said. “So, I was employed at least through October then, and in the winter we would get laid off and hired back in the spring. So, that got me started with the forestry stuff. I kept taking the technician test, and finally got on permanent status.”

Fire season

“Starting in the spring, once the snow leaves, fire

season is basically our main job,” said Johnson. On a typical day, he said, “We get all the equipment ready for fires, and every morning we check the trucks to make sure they’re watered up and gassed up. If there are no fires, we can go out in the woods and do regeneration checks.” That, said Johnson, “is when we have a clear cut and we replant it. Every one, three and five years, we’ll go out and see how the trees are going. If the deer eat them or disease kills them, we’ll have to replant.” Fires tend to happen in the afternoon, he said. “So then, we’re back to the office and ready for a fire, and we can just go to wherever the fire is.” Speaking to the Enterprise on a mid-September morning, Johnson described a typical day outside the fire season “like today – there was a call that there’s water over a road, so I’ve got to clean this culver out so that the water will flow. It’s a beaver problem. From there, I’ve got to go check a timber sale. That’s probably the second-biggest thing that we do. We set up state timber sales, and the loggers bid on the tracts that we set up.”

Cruising timber

Logging starts in the fall, “when the bugs are gone and the leaves drop,” he said. “So, we start cruising timber, and we pretty much do that all fall and winter.” Cruising timber means marking tree trunks around the edges of a planned cut. “We paint up as high as we can reach up a tree, so that in the summer, when it’s getting cut, the logger can actually see

“

the blue paint over the brush,” he said. Another part of the “There’s such a job is estimating the amount of wood the variety in our job,” logging operation will cut. “We’ll do, like, he said, “that I never one plot per acre,” really get sick of said Johnson. “That one thing. From gives us a good idea of how many cords are in year to year, we that tract. Like, if it’s do the same stuff, 30 acres and 30 cords but it can always per acre, that would be like 900 cords in be different.” there. Then, we sell that on the auction. You might get a dozen or 20 loggers bidding on it, and they bid up the price. It’s millions of dollars that we’re making for the state, selling the stumpage.” Later, while the wood is being cut, techs like Johnson make rounds of their logging operations, administering the sales. “I have to go make sure they’re staying within the lines,” he said. “A lot of times, we’ll have to scale wood. If there’s 1,000 cords that we appraise on a sale, that means there would probably be 100 loads of wood going out, 10 cords a load. In the end, if the sale went like 1,500 cords, then they would owe us for the 500 cords that the sale went over. So, it all gets scaled, because they pay stumpage on it. Say it’s $20 a cord; that adds up.” Techs also respond to property owners’ concerns about insects and disease killing trees, and clean up timber downed by wind storms on roads and recreational trails. “We do a fair amount of chainsaw work,” said Johnson.

Going west

During the summer, when forestry techs are caught up on their other work, they may volunteer to go out of state and help other agencies fight western wildfires. Johnson estimated he has gone on about 40 such trips during the last 35 years. “I try to do one a year,” he said. “Sometimes I’ll

In this photo date-stamped May 7, 2000, Johnson (third from left) poses with pilot Jeff McDermott, fuel truck driver Tom Riley, and two other crew members of the DNR's Forest Lake-based "call when needed" helicopter module, which had a hook to carry a 100-gallon bucket of water and dump it on a fire. (Submitted photos)

ke abin La o the C e. t t u o drove ke and flam hnson o that Jo round of sm e in g n g e k e c a ir f b a R f The DN ds in front o n fire sta

October 2018 do two. Those trips are a two-week commitment. You’re working 14 days, not including travel. I’ve gone out as a helicopter manager, as a dozer operator, as an engine boss. So, it’s a good variety.” This August, Johnson drove a DNR fire engine to help at the Cabin Lake fire in Colorado. “We were doing structure protection,” he said. “We’re on that same fire the whole time, staying in camp. We were doing structure protection. All these little hunting shacks and houses that are out in the middle of the woods, we went in there and put sprinkler systems around them and set up drop tanks for water. We would clear brush from around these buildings, so if the fire did come, it wouldn’t take the building. That gets kind of rewarding, knowing that you’re saving people’s places.” These western adventures are “kind of a working vacation,” Johnson admitted. “It’s fun to go out. It gets you away from the office.” Nevertheless, he said his favorite part of the job was administering timber sales, cruising timber during the fall. “It’s beautiful, out in the fall,” he said. “We’ve each got, like, 10 sales to do, so I can work my own.”

Job satisfaction

“Just doing the state a service, managing the timber like it should be managed, is pretty rewarding,” said Johnson. “All the fires I’ve put out, that’s rewarding, too – knowing that you may save your neighbor’s house one day.” He spoke appreciatively about the training provided by the state, the safety protocols and protective equipment, and the advances in computer technology during his career that saved a lot of trouble shuffling stacks of paper. But ultimately, it came down to this: “Just being outside all the time has been good. The more timber you cruise, the better you get at it.” The same goes for wildland firefighting. “Every fire is different,” he said. “There are two or three ways you can put out a fire. But you get better. You just kind of know what’s going to happen.”

Johnson said that variety in his work is “the main thing” made it possible to spend his entire working life doing the same job he wanted in third grade. “There’s such a variety in our job,” he said, “that I never really get sick of one thing. From year to year, we do the same stuff, but it can always be different.” For example, “In the summer, we know we’re going to be administering sales, but if a tornado comes through, we’re going to have to clean roads. It helped keep me in shape. I do a lot of physical work, running chainsaw, walking in the woods all the time. “There’s always something different. You never know what you’re going to do. A lot of times, I don’t even make a plan in the morning; I just wait to see what’s going to come up.” Whatever comes up, he added, is often enough to get him through the whole day. Co-worker Brad Witkin agreed that “Greg’s been a great guy to work with, a real workhorse. I don’t know how we’re going to get it done without him.” Their supervisor, Mike Lichter, recalled that Johnson brought a good attitude to the job – “a willingness to work with everyone. It’s like Greg’s positive atti-

Johnson digs a fire line in 2017 in Superior, Mont.

One o in La f Johnso k n from e Fire fro 's crewm Park a m Rapi beside tes watc th h ds to Colo e Type 6 es the pr o ra d o e in Au ngine th gress of t at Jo h gust . hnso e Cabn dro ve

tude is the glue that keeps the area together.” Johnson noted that his long-term job satisfaction is a common theme with DNR forestry techs. Like himself, Johnson’s fellow techs Kip Nelson and Steve Bade “started right out of college” and have stayed with the DNR, “because it’s been such a good career.” The wages are fine, he said. Going out west on fire details brings extra money, due to working overtime, which also helps. The benefits and health insurance are good – which is a big deal when you’re raising two kids, as Johnson and Jodie, his wife of 27 years, did.

Love of the outdoors

But being outdoors is, in itself, something Johnson seems to love, on the job and off. It’s a pleasure he has shared with his family. “We did a lot of camping as our kids grew up,” he said. “Fishing – I’ve got a boat. My son loves to hunt with me. We have a hunting shack up by Northome. That’s one of the most enjoyable things, hunting with your kids. We stay at the shack together and have a blast.” In his retirement, Johnson said he plans “to do more hunting and fishing, which I do a lot of anyway, but I’m going to do more yet.” He laughed, then added, “I’m going to do more traveling. My daughter, Chelsea, lives in North Carolina; go to see her a little more. My son, Rilee, is going to start a job with Edward Jones Company. They’re going to ship him to Arizona this winter for six months, then they’re going to move him to Oregon. So, I’m going to go out and see him.” Jodie, who works as a school paraprofessional, gets summers off. “So, she and I will vacation in the summer,” Greg said. “About the time she goes back to work in the fall, I’ll take my hunting trips. It will work out good.” He laughed again. Looking back on his forestry career, Johnson called it “a good, clean job.” “It’s been a great career,” he said. “I really enjoyed it. In fact, I’m going to miss it when I retire – especially the trips out west, being with the guys, the people. Working with good people makes a difference.”

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BY DON KINZLER Columnist ing which type you’re fighting is important. 2. With perennial weeds, you’re battling an established, winter-hardy plant. With annual weeds, you’re battling temporary, soon-to-winterkill plants, but especially their seeds that will populate the soil for future growth. 3. Most weed battles in vegetable gardens are with annual types, unless perennials like thistle and quackgrass have become established. Hoeing, cultivating, hand-pulling and mulching are the preferred weed controls in vegetable gardens. 4. Annual weeds in flower gardens can be minimized using products, like Preen, applied before weeds appear to kill seeds as they sprout. Perennial weeds amongst perennial flowers are the more difficult situation, as Preen doesn’t prevent such weeds from growing from established root systems. Digging, hoeing, pulling, smothering with mulch or precision spot-spraying with herbicide can reduce perennial and annual weeds. 5. Herbicides are products that kill plants. We think of them as weed killers, but if they contact or drift onto susceptible “good” plants, damage or death can occur. 6. Know the terms “broadleaf weed” versus “grassy weed.” Dandelion, thistle and purslane are broadleaf weeds. Quackgrass, crabgrass and pigeon grass (foxtail) are grassy weeds.

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7. Herbicides fall into three groups. Some kill only broadleaf plants (like 2,4-D as found in Weed-B-Gon), some kill only grassy plants (like quinclorac and fluazifop as found in Grass-BGon) and some kill nearly any plant (like glyphosate, the ingredient in original Roundup). 8. Recognize the difference between quackgrass and crabgrass, as their control is drastically different. Quackgrass is a perennial, and there are currently no available selective ways to eliminate this wide-bladed grass from lawns. Crabgrass is an annual that can be eliminated with timely early spring crabgrass preventer products, or with post-germination crabgrass killers applied when crabgrass seedlings are young. 9. The most successful month to apply herbicides for weed control in lawns and landscapes is September as weeds begin transporting materials downward in preparation for winter. 10. Successful alternatives to chemical weed control include smothering with mulch-covered fabric, newspaper or cardboard, hand-digging, pulling, hoeing and cultivating.

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Classic humor bears repeating. How can you tell if a newly emerging, unidentified plant in your flower garden is a weed or your new highpriced perennial? Simply give it a tug. If it pulls out easily, it was the high-priced perennial. If it won’t pull, it’s a weed. If you check Scripture, God never said, “Let there be weeds.” The definition of a weed is “any plant out of place.” Did you know dandelion, quackgrass, purslane and most of the “plants out of place” that we battle weren’t originally here, but were instead imported into the U.S.? Based on the unusually high volume of weed-related letters in the mailbag, I’m officially dubbing 2018 the Year of the Weed. Many gardeners would like a spray of some sort to just make weeds go away, but the key ingredient to all weed control is knowledge. Without background basics, weed control can be ineffective or even dangerous, in the case of weed-killing herbicides applied randomly. Following are weed-control basics that can help conquer weeds around the yard and garden: 1. Perennial weeds have underground structures or roots that let them survive winter and live indefinitely year-toyear. Annual weeds live for one growing season and are killed during winter after perpetuating themselves by dropping seed for the next growing season. Know-

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A cataract forms when the clear crystalline lens of the eye becomes cloudy. The lens sits right behind the iris (the colored part of the eye) and helps us to focus. When the lens gets cloudy, vision gets hazy and blurry. Cataracts are a natural part of the aging process, so everyone will eventually develop cataracts if they live long enough. They usually start to show up around age 50, and surgery is most common between 65 and 75 years old. Factors that increase a person’s risk for early cataract development include sunlight (UV) exposure, smoking, diabetes, steroid use, and trauma. Cataracts usually develop gradually over many years, so patients are not always aware that their vision is getting worse. Cataracts usually cause a person’s vision to become cloudy, blurry or filmy. They can cause a dimming of your vision, so that colors appear faded and you may need more light to read. They also can cause increased glare and halos at night, making night driving more difficult. A cataract does not need to be “ripe” to be ready for surgery. Cataract surgery is generally a routine procedure that can be done as soon as your vision interferes with your daily activities. During cataract surgery, the cataract is broken up and removed from the eye, and a clear lens implant is put in its place. It is a painless process with minimal recovery time, and patients typically describe it as a “pleasant experience”. Patients often tell me “I don’t know why I waited so long to have it done, I wish I would have done it sooner!” In the past, the lens implant that is inserted into the eye in cataract surgery has been able to correct the majority of your nearsightedness or farsightedness, so patients are much less dependent on glasses following surgery. However, the traditional lens implants have not dealt with astigmatism or near vision, so many patients are still slightly blurry without glasses, and almost all need glasses for reading. This is no longer the case, with the advent of toric intraocular lenses (IOLs) and multifocal intraocular lenses (IOLs). With this new technology, patients have the chance to be even less dependent on glasses for distance and near following cataract surgery. These new implants have been around for a number of years, but the technology has improved to the point where we are now comfortable recommending them for certain patients. We work with several surgeons who are using this technology to give our patients the best possible outcomes following cataract surgery. It all starts with an eye exam to evaluate your cataracts and determine if surgery is an option for you - give us a call today! 001777833r1

October 2018

More than grapes: Wine can be sourced from many different fruits World of Wine BY RON SMITH Columnist

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Ron Smith, a retired NDSU Extension horticulturist, writes weekly about his love of wine and its history. Readers can reach him at tuftruck1@gmail.com.

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from Dancing Moons Vineyard in Underwood, Minn. Other varietals growing in the vineyard to be harvested in a couple of years are frontenac noir, frontenac blanc, marquette and petite pearl. Some of the fruits that will be coming from his orchard will be juneberry, apricots, plums, blackberries, red chokecherries and more.

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