Airport Rehab crew, l to r: Work at airport in Smiths Prairie In May, a small crew from ITD’s District 3 and the Division of Aeronautics, came together to improve the small backcountry airstrip in Smith’s Prairie, Idaho, working collaboratively at the Downer Memorial Airport to benefit the state’s dedicated pilots and recreational enthusiasts. After being ravaged by multiple wildfires in the last decade, the airport got a well-deserved facelift, courtesy of Ben Forsberg, a TTO in the Hammett maintenance shed. Forsberg contacted Aero about doing an operations team-lead project. Ben was one of the team members that restored the Atlanta airstrip in July 2019, and wanted to take on the Prairie airstrip improvements this spring as his TTO step-three project. Armed with a “can do” attitude, Ben gathered a crew and equipment, and went to work. During the two-week project, the crew not only did training for employees that needed qualified on certain equipment but also graded, re-seeded the runway (5,400 feet long by 150 feet wide), worked over and painted navigational markers and the windsock, cleaned up burnt trees and fixed fences. Less than 24 hours after the gate shut, equipment left and the dust settled on the newly refurbished runway, it was being enjoyed. Members of the flying community BBQed hotdogs and hamburgers over a campfire there, before climbing into their tents for the Memorial Day weekend. To truly appreciate the work, you must first know the history and why the work was necessary to restore this hidden gem. The airport was named after the Downer Bros. Lumber Company, which was established when Durward and Dwight purchased a sawmill at the location in 1940. It was a summer operation, with winter maintenance shops in Meridian and elsewhere in the Treasure Valley. In 2013, the Elk Complex fire hit the area, along with the Fall Creek, Soda and Tepee fires, leaving devastation and more than 100,000 acres burned. The wild fires that blazed over the area took with it, the once beautiful streams, meadows and forest the Downer Bros. Lumber Company once harvested. In 2014, Dan Conner from the Division of Aeronautics returned to the charcoaled and blackened area with washouts, silted-in creek beds, burnt structures and dead vegetation and trees. “We came back into the airport with a small crew and rebuilt the picnic shelter, fences, and rehabbed the outhouse along with what they could do to make the runway serviceable. It was looking better, but still looked like a fire-devastated area,” explained Conner. It will still take many years for the area to rebuild and the trees and vegetation to completely grow back, but the work Forsberg and crew completed this year was a significant step in that direction. Published 07-24-20 |