e-edition Subscribe Log in
Tuesday, January 07, 2025
25.0°F
In this Wednesday, July 18, 2018, photo, Tom VandeWater stands at the railing of the Coolwater Fire Lookout and looks through his binoculars in the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests near Lowell, Idaho. VandeWater, from Canton, N.Y., has staffed the lookout each summer for many years for the U.S. Forest Service. At left is the previous lookout structure, which dates to the 1930s. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

In this Wednesday, July 18, 2018, photo, Tom VandeWater stands at the railing of the Coolwater Fire Lookout and looks through his binoculars in the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests near Lowell, Idaho. VandeWater, from Canton, N.Y., has staffed the lookout each summer for many years for the U.S. Forest Service. At left is the previous lookout structure, which dates to the 1930s. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

July 29, 2018

Stories this photo appears in:

Mountaintop lookouts still crucial for spotting wildfires
July 29, 2018 4 a.m.

Mountaintop lookouts still crucial for spotting wildfires

BOISE, Idaho — Fire-lookout towers perched atop remote, craggy peaks across the U.S. West may seem like quaint reminders of an era before satellites, smartphones and jet-propelled air tankers.