Posted: 8/12/2026 8:05:21 PM EDT
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My favorite book as a wee young lad. I remember dad reading it to me, and me learning how to read, with this book. I guess it had a transformative effect on me and helped chart the course of my career. 20 something years later I’m a state forestry agency employee, and one of my duties was school programs, and we had a Smokey suit. I’ve been both Smokey’s handler, and Smokey himself. And let me tell you. Smokey smells like stale gym socks. See, those suits are like ovens. You’ll pump out a good 3 pints to a half gallon during your typical Smokey event. Then Smokey goes back in his box, which apparently the United States Forest Service specifically designed to entrap all that sweat and give it a perfect environment to fester. And for the love of God, he’s not Smokey The Bear, he’s Smokey Bear. Meaning he smells like smoke. Try to get it right. It’s important. Smokey was a product of the Ad Council, during WWII, to help conserve our valuable strategic resources, namely forests, for the war effort. Can’t fight a war if all your lumber is getting burned up on the stump. Then, in 1950, on the Capitan Gap wildfire in New Mexico, a USFS fire crew found a 3 month old bear cub clinging to the tree he had climbed to escape the fire. This cub was in pretty poor shape; burned paws and scorched hindquarters. They got the cub down, swaddled him up, and sent him to Santa Fe where a veterinarian gave him the care he needed. Then, the head of NM’s wildlife agency sent word to the USFS in DC, offering to send the cub to them. Offer accepted. So Hotfoot Teddy (his original name) got flown to the National Zoo, in a Piper Super Cruiser (souped up Piper Cub), with fuel stops along the way. Renamed Smokey, he became an immediate media sensation. Getting 13,000 letters a week from schoolchildren. It got so intense that in 1964 the Post Office gave him his own ZIP code, 20252. Upon his death on November 9, 1976, his remains were returned by the Feds to Capitan, New Mexico, and buried at Smokey Bear Historical Park, operated by the New Mexico State Forestry Division. The facility is now a wildfire and Smokey interpretive center. He is interred in the adjacent garden. The Smokey campaign has been the most successful ad campaign in the history of the world. Smokey is known by nearly every human on the planet, and his legacy lives on today. My copy of this book was printed in 1961, several years before I was born. It was a hand-me-down from my older cousins.  |
ProTip: Never pick a fight with a tree planter. He swings a hoedad for 9 hours a day, carries 30-40 pounds of seedlings on his back, and has 12-14 friends just like him hiding out on the other side of the junk butt pile. They will fuck your shit up.
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I was born in 1964. This dude introduced me to forestry stewardship when I was a littl'un before I was old enough to go camping with my old man - long before I met Ranger Rick. He sleeps on top of my gun safe these days. Attached File He lost his hat a long time ago. My little sister may have had something to do with that. |
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Originally Posted By flcracker: I was born in 1964. This dude introduced me to forestry stewardship when I was a littl'un before I was old enough to go camping with my old man - long before I met Ranger Rick. He sleeps on top of my gun safe these days. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/74872/16330_jpg-3810577.JPG He lost his hat a long time ago. My little sister may have had something to do with that. Nice! |
ProTip: Never pick a fight with a tree planter. He swings a hoedad for 9 hours a day, carries 30-40 pounds of seedlings on his back, and has 12-14 friends just like him hiding out on the other side of the junk butt pile. They will fuck your shit up.
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Originally Posted By Mannlicher: growing up in rural Virginia and North FL, I didn't need a cartoon to teach me about stewardship and the woods. I did. Hell, I needed a degree in forestry to teach me about stewardship and the woods. You’d be surprised at what you don’t know, not to mention what you know that ain’t so. |
ProTip: Never pick a fight with a tree planter. He swings a hoedad for 9 hours a day, carries 30-40 pounds of seedlings on his back, and has 12-14 friends just like him hiding out on the other side of the junk butt pile. They will fuck your shit up.
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I live in the Smoky Mountains and call all the bears "Smoky the Bear". When they're foraging, I call them "Yogi". I've had more bear encounters than I can remember let alone count. This I can tell you. The most dangerous animal in the forest period is tourists. In over three decades, the very closest I came to shooting a bear was when a city tourist tried to feed the bear a candy bar out of his hand. Tell you how stupid, there must have been twenty people all screaming at him to "Don't" and I was praying "Please don't make me shoot the bear." Luckily, a ranger showed up and the idiot backed off. I can't tell you what happened to him. I'm not a tourist so was just passing through. I will tell you this, the only animals I avoid in the park are tourists. I don't hate them or anything, they're just dangerous, totally clueless about anything. Nothing will make your day more than stopped on your motorcycle while the tourist look at the bears. Motorcycles don't have doors. I don't fear bears. I just know they act like a big feral dog except not as excitable. As for fire prevention, it's a big deal here. It was driven home in 2016 when two kids flipping matches up on the trail set the entire area on fire. It devastated Gatlinburg and killed 14 people. The two silver spoon little shits got off too. IMHO, we need old Smoky to come back. Anything that can be done to educate people on these topics is a VERY GOOD THING. |
"We prepare so we don't have to go to the Superdome!"
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I live in the Smoky Mountains and call all the bears "Smoky the Bear". When they're foraging, I call them "Yogi". It’s Smokey Bear, not Smokey the Bear!! And yes, it is important! 
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ProTip: Never pick a fight with a tree planter. He swings a hoedad for 9 hours a day, carries 30-40 pounds of seedlings on his back, and has 12-14 friends just like him hiding out on the other side of the junk butt pile. They will fuck your shit up.
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Originally Posted By FredMan: It’s Smokey Bear, not Smokey the Bear!! And yes, it is important! yes it is!  THE STORY OF SMOKEY BEAR w/ HOPALONG CASSIDY U.S. FOREST SERVICE FIRE FIGHTERS 98974 |
MIA: M/SGT James W. Holt USSF 2-7-68 SVN
"Your freedom to be you includes my freedom to be free from you."
-A. Wilkow
"Your freedom to be you includes my freedom to be free from you."
-A. Wilkow
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Originally Posted By FredMan: It’s Smokey Bear, not Smokey the Bear!! And yes, it is important! Well technically there Mr. English major, he's both and around here if you think of the name Smokey everyone thinks of a dog the UT mascot This is a technical forum on survival not here's a kids book I read forum. Because of how long you've been on the site, I tried to bring your post into line with the forum by posting real life experiences regarding both bears and fire devastation. If that's not what you want, I will gladly move this thread to the appropriate forum. |
"We prepare so we don't have to go to the Superdome!"
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All I’m saying is the fire prevention guy has never been “the Bear”, he has always just been “Bear”. You know how gun guys get torqued up about calling magazines clips? Well, aficionados of wildland firefighting get just as torqued up about this. 
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ProTip: Never pick a fight with a tree planter. He swings a hoedad for 9 hours a day, carries 30-40 pounds of seedlings on his back, and has 12-14 friends just like him hiding out on the other side of the junk butt pile. They will fuck your shit up.
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Originally Posted By FredMan: All I’m saying is the fire prevention guy has never been “the Bear”, he has always just been “Bear”. You know how gun guys get torqued up about calling magazines clips? Well, aficionados of wildland firefighting get just as torqued up about this. LOL, Point taken. |
"We prepare so we don't have to go to the Superdome!"