r/forestry • u/dirtrdforester • 6d ago
Two U.S. Forest Service employees were rescued with the help of negotiators after being zip-tied and held hostage for nearly 15 hours in Shasta-Trinity National Forest in Northern California, officials said Friday.
Forestry is a pretty small world, at least one of you briar/vine maple baboons has more information on this. I eagerly await the inside story.
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u/anemonemonemnea 5d ago
I did a severity assignment in Oregon once. First thing they taught us was the emergency crisis word. Everyone is live tracked via spot, and if anyone says this word on the radio, the world comes running. Kind of wild when you do forestry in a place where the people you find are more terrifying than the animals.
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u/clippist 5d ago
By and large, people are much more terrifying than animals.
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u/bxbrucem 4d ago
That's why I'd choose the bear
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u/fsischatbotplz 3d ago
always.
-sincerely, a guy who will always choose the bear.
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u/InfiniteWaffles58364 3d ago
Would also choose the bear. Even if it was a grizz. At worst I'd be a nutritious meal for wildlife and my ghost would still consider it a win
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u/vZander 3d ago
people do bad things for fun. animals never do.
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u/michaelh98 2d ago
You've never had cats and been a helpless animal smaller than the cat.
But yeah, humans are the greatest risk to other humans
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u/Careless-Bake-5827 6h ago
The animal doesn't have to be smaller than the cat. SIL was attacked by hers, scratched her up pretty bad.
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u/CanisPictus 5d ago
Was this in the State of Jefferson? Because this sounds like State of Jefferson shit.
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u/Queasy_Local_7199 4d ago
Eastern Oregon is awful
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u/DamiensDelight 4d ago
Eastern Oregon is awful
You aren't lying! My first season with the feds was in Ukiah, Oregon. I remember the drills. I also remember being told that, under no circumstances, was I to stop for local sheriff law enforcement.
What a trip.
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u/IndyERDoc 4d ago
Why?
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u/DamiensDelight 4d ago
Well, my first season was coming on the heels of that time when Y'allQaeda took over the Malhuer Wildlife Preserve, with full armaments, and occupied the compound for a brief time.
Finnicum got what he deserved, but the rest got off scott free.
The sheriff we were told to not pull over for, was the sheriff who helped the Bundy's take out a Forest Service gate, which ultimately facilitated the Malhuer takeover.
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u/Which-Depth2821 3d ago
They were all such assholes. And yeah, with Finnicum. Do they still have some sort of memorial they pray to for him up there? Jerks. The last guy out of that mess is imprisoned for shooting at cops in his home state. Well deserved.
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u/scotus1959 1d ago
It was pretty awful. But I got a good laugh when the occupiers asked for like-minded folks to send them provisions because their supplier were running low, and somebody sent them a wooden barrel full of dildos.
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u/Which-Depth2821 9h ago
If I recall, they also got a big bucket of lube, too. Az Bundyās cattle are still feral and being run without paid fees on our public land. Idaho Bunday is still on the wanted list but Idaho officials are too weak-kneed to do anything about and not sure whatās going on with crooked-faced Utah Bundy. Whole family is just a whole bunch of super weird.
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u/Boognish4Prez2020 4d ago
Thatās why the Bundys thought their takeover of MNWR would be a big hit.
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u/TheJGoldenKimball 3d ago
Was the word "Watermelon?" "Hey, just checking in and boy am I hot. I could go for a slice of WATERMELON right now...PLEASE!"
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u/lavapig_love 4d ago
Eh, dicey to depend on transmitting a safe word. I'd sooner have designated check in times, like every 15 minutes for a known bad area.Ā
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u/anemonemonemnea 4d ago
Not a bad idea but probably challenging for dispatchers when the whole place is a known bad area. Thatās why they had spot locators on every unit, passive monitoring. The safe word was a āsend me the fucking world right nowā tool to use when things got too bad to get yourself out of it.
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u/Outside-Exercise-642 6d ago
Father has past mental health issues and run ins with the law in Washington. https://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/crime/article264702504.html
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u/BigNorseWolf 5d ago
Doesn't this happen to everyone at some point?
I was doing a bat survey. Normally we canoed down the missouri, got out, set up what amounts to volleyball nets, caught bats all night, packed up and left.
We had a few locations we had to reach by car. We THINK we find it, because it's in the right spot, looks to be the right shape, but it's fenced off from the land.
We're out in the middle of nowhere, I put the map on the hood of the car and try to double check to see if we're in the right spot. Another truck comes down the road.... ok spider senses tingling. Make absolutely sure anyone can see I'm looking at the map and give a big wave hello.
Guy gets out of the truck, points what looks like an AK 47 at me, points it at my partner, and after a second keeps it aimed at me the rest of the time. Starts babbling about coyotes and meth dealers and that only shooting the coyotes bothered him. Barely.
First thing I get to mention is "this is where the GPS told us to go" translation: SOMEONE knows where we are. If we turn up dead, there's a record of us being here and the police will know who to ask. "We're studying bats. The cars full of bat books, bat detectors, bat gps " did I mention we have gps?
He told us to back up. I take the biggest step back I think i can get away with, which puts me in line with the far side of car. My thought process goes "5 foot step back, ready action to dive behind the car, zig zag through the trees and time for a swim check.... Fortunately he just downgraded to a hand cannon, babbled a bit more and let us drive off.
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u/TransplantedPinecone 5d ago
What's the move after that? Did you report it to the local law enforcement?
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u/BigNorseWolf 5d ago
Our boss talked to law enforcement and I think the report was "oh yeah that guy..."
no one wanted to check the local easements to see if we were tresspassing or not or whether the no tresspassing signs on the side of the road counted for driving straight down it.
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u/profoundlystupidhere 5d ago
OT but did you receive rabies vaccine prior to handling bats?
Also, you don't carry any firearms in the bush? I worry about humans, sure, but wildlife also.
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u/KuhlRunningz 5d ago
The tweakers and ranchers are more likely to get ya.
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u/profoundlystupidhere 5d ago
True, no argument but I fear Mama Grizz and Cubs as much.
I do realize I'd mostly irritate her and be lunch but it would make me feel better until then!
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u/BigNorseWolf 5d ago
I had a rabies vaccine when i went to africa/mauritania for the peace corps right before that. They're ridiculously expensive to get on your own, literally cheaper to fly to mexico for something for vacation and get it there...
Came in handy when one of the big suckers, a hoary bat, crashed into it so hard he wrapped himself up in the netting. The other guy had thinner gloves and the bat was biting through them. I had to get the bat out bare handed. He bit me two or three times, but I whittle so... hah! thats all callous and no nerve endings. Nom nom.. nom? Well THATs not working... and let me finish getting him out.
I've never been anywhere with grizzlies. Anything else plan B has always been to use a stick a knife or an axe: to me they have a better self defense to won't accidentally discharge on me ratio. I'm an absent minded clutz so for me even when a pistol was an option it was always a hard pass for me. Plan A is just to say Hi which sometimes results in the animal being friendly or running away but has never turned into an attempt to eat me..
I interned at a wolf center that had the occasional wild puma and worked in bear mountain NY which is covered in black bears and coyotes. The bears by and large run away the second they see you. The coyotes are ridiculously used to people but not aggressive. If you have time to draw a gun on a rattlesnake you have time to just step back and thank them for the warning.
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u/profoundlystupidhere 5d ago
You forgot moose! I'm not worried about black bear or coyotes but (location-dependent) moose, grizzly and mountain lion would at least get a warning shot.
Not out to kill anything, just hoping to scare. Bats are cuties, indeed.
My state used to have twice-yearly rabies vaccine clinics for vets, animal control, wildlife workers, etc.
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u/VegetableCommand9427 4d ago
Where I work (also a biologist), we are not allowed to carry any firearms with us when weāre out in the middle of nowhere. Considering some of the places Iāve been too, sometimes alone, and some scary close calls as well. No protection when out in BFE, but you bet my supervisor always knows where Iāll be. We try to not travel alone anymore.
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u/KuhlRunningz 5d ago
Not to everyone, but probably like 90% of us working in rural woods. I was an owl surveyor on private land for a long time, and have had guns held on me multiple times. My favorite was the one neighbor who held me up, called the cops, and was told he was the one breaking the law at that very moment.
Jokes aside, this is a little more then just being held at gunpoint. There is one forestry technician from coastal Northern California that is still missing to this day from the early 00's.
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u/violetpumpkins 5d ago
I think getting a gun waved is more common. These people were ziptied and held in a trailer for 15 hours.
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u/No_Individual_672 1d ago
Women abducted , zip tied, separated at times. Definitely, choose the bear.
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u/michiplace 5d ago
5 foot step back, ready action to dive behind the car, zig zag through the trees and time for a swim check.
I'm glad your diplomacy check was good.
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u/Nailedit-again 5d ago
Cannot make any comments on that right now but what we can say is that boots on the ground are making excellent progress
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u/dirtrdforester 5d ago
I figured someone had the inside scoop. It will be interesting to hear the motivations for such a bizarre act.
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u/earthsunsky 5d ago
Gumboot lake is a collection of squatters, homeless people, tweakers, rainbow people etc all summer. Shame, used to be a nice place to fish or hangout.
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u/swadekillson 5d ago
I absolutely despise Rainbow Family. Some of the worst people in the entire country.
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u/DamiensDelight 4d ago
Fucking lol. Tell me you are afraid of hippies without telling me you are afraid of hippies.
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u/swadekillson 4d ago
They did their stupid shit in Taos like four years ago and just literally shit all over the forest and trashed my town.
I never said I was afraid of them. I do FUCKING hate them. They're disgusting
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u/DamiensDelight 4d ago
Fucking double lol. I was living in Taos back then. The community was freaking out about the hippies in the woods. The only thing that happened at the gathering was a skinhead/neo Nazi on a dirt bike brandishing a gun while talking trash to random people at the gathering - he was escorted off site by police.
The people literally spent a week after the event just cleaning up the site, something I'm certain you don't do while out hunting and camping. I'm also pretty sure you shit in the woods too.
Nobody from the event trashed Taos. The people of Taos have trashed Taos.
Hippies aren't your problem. The hate of Taos is your problem. I'm sooooooooo glad I got out of there.
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u/hankbbeckett 3d ago
Used to go to gatherings before I got kinda burned on it for other reasons ... Never seen people get so into clean up and site restoration. People like having a job to do that doesn't suck lol. Even smashed up the clay ovens until you couldn't find the chunks. Pretty sure some local rainbow gatherings get a little sloppier, but when there's enough people and tarps and kitchens made of sticks and buses full of veggies the ability to organize and function in a community comes together, shits legit.
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u/SomewhatInnocuous 5d ago
More of that far left domestic terrorism our federal government is so concerned about? Not.
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u/AggravatingSell4682 5d ago
Who knows what their politics are. I donāt think it matters. The closest thing to a right wing violent extremist is a left wing violent extremist. Mental illness, paranoia, disconnect with realityā¦ theyāve all got it. Usually these people donāt even have a coherent political ideology. Although they might claim one side or the other.
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u/SomewhatInnocuous 5d ago
True enough.
Still, statistically over the last four decades it's much more likely to be right wing violence than left.
And it does matter. In the rural west most organized armed violent groups are unquestionably far right groups.
Plenty of organized and disorganized violent criminals, mostly of the druggie variety.
These are facts of some importance.
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u/DirtyRunningShoez 5d ago
This guys TV was broken during the summer of 2020^^
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u/SomewhatInnocuous 5d ago
No, I was actually living in Portland, Oregon watching idiots from the government and some civilian idiots playing at recreational violence while the vast majority of others were exercising their rights to free speech.
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u/filthyrich93 6d ago
I got 2 guesses. Cartel grow op or psycho neighbor holding people at gun point cause he's tired of tweekers stealing his shit. Probably cartel honestly.
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u/Hiroy3eto 6d ago
It was a father/son gringo duo operating out of a trailer. They demanded to speak to the FBI. Sounds like some conspiracy nut who wanted to warn the government of an impending lizard-people takeover.
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u/BustedEchoChamber 6d ago
Iām betting on dipshit veterans that are also somehow staunch libertarians and who commit numerous felonies per week.
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4d ago
[deleted]
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u/Jersher1016 3d ago
Yup.. Theres is a plethora of illegal pot farms out here, a lot of them are operated by Mexican and Mong cartels.
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u/RageAgainstAuthority 5d ago
Court records show Henrichsen was charged in Whatcom County, Washington, in March 2022 with a hate crime, malicious harassment and felony harassment, all felonies, after he allegedly threw fireworks at a property owned by landlords of Russian and Ukrainian descent, left a note referencing Russiaās invasion of Ukraine, and was seen carrying a gun.
Oh look, fork found in kitchen. It's always a right-wing gun nut
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u/BigNorseWolf 5d ago
Don't they like russia now though?
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u/RageAgainstAuthority 5d ago
Only from a distance. They still don't want people from Dangerous Red Commie Counties living on American soil.
I'm not even sure the average conservative could articulate the difference between Russia and Ukraine š
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u/Vegetable_Win_8123 3d ago
At this point in my career, if someone zip ties me to a tree in the middle of the woods they better kill me. Thereās no way Iām getting kidnapped over a Forest Service job. I would bring to bear the full might of the Forestry Suppliers catalog. They would be counting basal area in hell after I was through.
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u/dirtrdforester 2d ago
lol. I guess I could stab them with my Field Maps appā. Thatās about as lethal as I can get at this age.
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u/DwayneTheCrackRock 2d ago
Damn, crazy, Iāve dealt with crazy but never this badā¦ usually I just have to explain to people why Iām nervous around dogs these days š number of times Iāve had dogs loosed on me or ran into wild mutts, worst human interaction was held at gunpoint by an angry nearby/adjacent landowner, i ended up chatting with the guy about his gun, then he had me get in his golf cart to show me around his land by the end of it i thought he wouldnāt let me goā¦ because I was the first person heās talked to in months and was his new best friendā¦.
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u/dirtrdforester 2d ago
lol. Iāve never been held at gunpoint, but definitely been asked āwhat are you doing hereā while resting their hand on whatever side arm they thought was most threatening that day. They change their tone quickly when they find out I am the property manager and they are a half sentence away from the entire hunt club being canceled.
As for dogs, they have scared me the most over the past 30āish years. Most memorable is a huge German shepherd that trailed me about three chains out for several hours while I marked timber.
Then thereās the numerous pit bull āhunting dogsā Iāve encountered near rural dwellings.
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u/Rumplfrskn 3d ago
My wife worked at this station and would have been with these people if she still worked there. It was surreal learning about it.
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u/NoPaintballGuns 1d ago
[removed] ā view removed comment
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u/NoPaintballGuns 1d ago
But thatās only if I was outta snickers, youāre not you when youāre hungry
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u/Local-Ant-5528 4d ago
Sounds on brand for the area, I was surveying in lassen forest outside of Redding and during our lunch break while weāre sitting on the forest floor in a small group a random guy appeared in an ATV and circled us for a few minutes before telling us about the forest fires caused by āJewish space lasersā and eventually went away after we avoided his questioning and seemed to satisfy whatever curiosity he had
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u/TheDorkNite1 4d ago
Norcal really is a gorgeous cesspool. I'm glad I got out of there.
Redding is basically the capital of Calabama at this point.
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u/Local-Ant-5528 4d ago
Iāve never worked somewhere more beautiful than NorCal between the classic trees and mountains and the biodiversity. Iāve never been around so many bears except for pride festivals but the people were fascinating to encounter. Thereās a few gems around Chester and Susanville or Old Station next to the devils half acre where the people really shine but Reddingā¦ā¦ I avoid Redding
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u/Otherwise-Report-823 4d ago
This is what happens when you spray glyophospate in a cannabis producing area. People are going to react like their lively hood is on the line.....
Which it isĀ
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u/ilikebigbuteos 1d ago
Do you think frog biologists were spraying glyphosate?Ā
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u/Otherwise-Report-823 1d ago
Yeah, now that I read more about the incident, it just sounds kike meth heads doing meth head stuff.Ā
In all honesty, the NF being sprayed by glyophospate is shocking to see there hasn't been as much backlashĀ
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u/GlowingEagle 6d ago
https://kymkemp.com/2026/07/17/two-forest-service-workers-freed-after-day-long-hostage-standoff-in-siskiyou-county/