In This Issue:
4-VICTOR is published by the San Gorgonio Wilderness Association, 34701 Mill Creek Road, Mentone, CA 92359. A non-profit organization in cooperation with the USDA Forest Service, San Bernardino National Forest. The goals of the partnership are to educate the public to preserve and conserve our natural resources. 4-Victor newsletter
edited by Teri Cappuccio and Ann Robinson Portions of this newsletter may have been edited to present material applicable to the general viewing public. |
DECEMBER
2000 Services provided by the SGWA are supported by the U.S. Forest Service, your National Forest Adventure Pass, Alpine Meadows Camp and Conference Center, and public donations
San
Gorgonio Wilderness Association Blasts Into the 21st Century Our working volunteers and contributing members/sponsors made the summer of 2000 one of the best ever. The summer went by too fast, but it was great and the memories are wonderful. All of you working volunteers and contributing members/sponsors once again enabled us to care for the forest and help visitors better understand and enjoy the very special and wonderful resources of the San Bernardino National Forest. Your service was amazing and varied as it has been for the past 19 years. Of course it is the people and how well they care for others that makes any program as successful as this volunteer program has been for many years. We've been very lucky to have very caring Forest Service personnel and volunteers over the years from the Forest Service founders of our program, Dave Hood and Bob Shuker, and our SGWA founders Jim Bolson, John Flippin, Dorothy Fotheringham, Dana Klatt, Alice Krueper, Dave Hallet, Linda Roddick, Val Silva, and Dale Silvernail, to all of the great volunteers and Forest Service personnel we have today. We were lucky again this year to have many excellent new volunteers come on to help our veterans. As a result, your summer accomplishments were truly unbelievable. This summer you donated 21,147 hours, worth over $220,000 to the Forest Service and the public. You protected and cleaned the forest, improved facilities and trails, and helped about 18,000 visitors with whom you had personal contact. Some of your major accomplishments in 2000 were:
Well, you get the idea. Your services are amazing in quantity, quality, and variety. And that is why all volunteers were honored by the Forest Service at our awards ceremony on October 28. We sadly said goodbye to the Front Country District Recreation Officer, Janna Larson, who we are happy to say will be staying on the San Bernardino National Forest. We also welcomed the new Recreation Officer, Bob Wood, who we already had the pleasure of working with in his previous Mountain Top District position. Along with Bob, our most constant day-to-day Forest Service supporters, Karen McKinley, Audrey Scranton, and Alfredo Zarate presented very special awards for Roger Gossett, SGVA President and Assistant Volunteer Coordinator; Patti Gossett, Hours, Activities, Contacts Recorder; Shannon Kovich, Deputy Sheriff; Larry Stiles and Jarome Wilson, Assistant Volunteer Coordinators; Karen Saffle, Forest Festival Director; Michael Gordon, Web Site Manager; Teddi Boston, Fish Festival Donations Manager; Cindy and Joe McGregor, Adopt-a-highway/trail leaders; Teri Cappuccio and Ann Robinson, 4-Victor Editors; Val Silva, Equestrian Coordinator; Danny Silva, Tulake Volunteer Camp Manager; Ed and Lane Lutz and Glen and Marcia Riddle, Barton Flats Managers; and George Annas, Dell Hawkins, Cindy and Joe McGregor, and Mary and Ross Stark for completing ten years of volunteer service. Congratulations to all volunteers for another great year!!
Personal Thanks from John "Flip" To You As every year at this time, I cannot help but extend my deepest thanks to the SGWA officers, board members, and volunteers for allowing me to continue coordinating your wonderful services to the public for the past year. I feel very proud and fortunate to be associated with the greatest group of volunteers I have ever known. Everyone has different amounts of time available that they can donate to the forest. However, all the hours you donate, whether 40 or 400 are vitally important to the success of this Forest Service team. I'll continue to stop by our office at the Mill Creek Ranger Station but will be there much less through the winter. I look forward to seeing you next May. Have a wonderful holiday season, a great winter, and take care out there.
Many who know the great value of our forest and wilderness areas may not have the time, but have the monetary resources to help the SGVA continue to "Serve, Protect, and Educate." Recent contributing members to whom forest visitors and we owe many thanks are: Regular Contributing Members ($20 or more annually)
Trail Partners ($50 or more annually)
Alpine
Meadows Camp Honors Volunteers In appreciation for all the services provided by our volunteers, owners Dr. Peter Huber and Linda Crawford, and their wonderful staff led by Steven Sanders, Camp Director, provided the facilities of their camp and a hot lunch for the 80 volunteers who were able to attend our awards ceremonies on October 28. They had also provided us with the use of their camp and two meals at our training day last May. Head Chef, Jose Balacar, and his crew provide all we can eat of some mighty delicious food. We are very thankful for the support of Alpine Meadows Camp. It is a very good partnership that we have with Peter, Linda, and their staff as together we all help people have some wonderful experiences in the mountains.
Adopt-a-Highway Many thanks to Jan Gudgell, Jeff Haggard, Pat Peters and Evan Wilkinson for coming out October 7 to help us. Joe and I have been doing the Adopt-a-Highway for eight years and feel that it's time to pass it on to someone else. Mary Hart has agreed to become the new Adopt-a-Highway/Adopt-a-Trail coordinator. We sincerely want to thank all of you who have supported us throughout the years. We hope you will continue to give Mary your support.
A
View From the Top The San Gorgonio Wilderness received a small amount of snow several weeks ago, and with it came icy air that made everyone think that winter was upon us. Now we have returned to more normal fall weather with warm days, cold nights and shortening daylight hours. Hikers are still hiking and cross-country skiers are eagerly awaiting more snow. We certainly need it as the fuel moisture remains low and fire restrictions are still in place. This autumn has been one of the prettiest in recent memory with the black oaks and big leaf maples putting on quite a show. Although the maples have now dropped their leaves, the oaks and some of the lower elevation shrubs are still supplying a good deal of color from Mill Creek Canyon to Barton Flats and beyond. Remember that the dryness of our area will also be apparent in the Christmas tree farms in the valleys. Here is a recipe that helps keep fresh cut trees from getting so dry:
Mix and add to a 2-gallon bucket of hot water. Place the freshly cut tree in the mixture for 24 hours. Put tree in tree stand that has a basin and fill to the top with the solution. Save remaining solution and add to basin each day. How it works: Karo provides the sugar necessary to allow the base of the tree to take up water (up to 1.5 gallons in 2 weeks). Boron in the Borax allows the tree to move the water to all branches and needles. The magnesium in the Epsom salts and the iron provide essential components for chlorophyll production, which keeps the tree green. The small amount of bleach will keep mold from forming in your solution. Some other benefits are that the needles won't drop and you will notice an increase in natural evergreen fragrance. Of course, a green and well-watered tree is much safer also. Have a safe and happy holiday season!
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Your Mountain Wanderings I know that many of you, like me, spend some off-duty time in the Wilderness during the winter. A few, like Michael Garant and Dan Scott, even like to camp in the snow overnight. If you'd like to help us keep the public informed about water sources, snow levels, and trail conditions so they can be better prepared for their winter trips, give Michael Gordon and me some reports on what you run into up there. You can reach Michael Gordon through our web site at www.sgwa.org. We will be sure to get the latest information from you to the public visiting our web site and the front desk at the Mill Creek Ranger Station. As usual, we would like to know about trail obstructions (e.g., trees and boulders), whether or not the obstructions are safely passable, and the amount of water available at the usual water sources. And as soon as the snow starts falling we would like to know the lowest elevation at which snow is covering at least parts of the trail, approximate snow depths at higher elevations, and at what elevations snowshoes or crampons are recommended on particular trails. Any other useful information you can provide would also be appreciated. Have fun up there, please take care, and let us hear from you. Thanks.
Did You Call Me A Nut? Thank You! Seems like nuts are one of the best foods available. The next time you needs some food for the trail, grab a bag full of nuts instead of a cookie or bagel. They are easy to carry, don’t have to be kept cool, and can be sat on without damage. Choose raw or dry-roasted, unsalted or lightly salted varieties. Nuts are a power house of nutrition—both in spite of and because of their high-fat content. Benefits of Nuts:
Source: The Wellness Institute and Hope Heart Institute)
A Bit of History For You: American Forestry Circa 1914 Hallie Morse Daggett was the first woman to serve as a USDA Forest Service fire lookout. She was the daughter of John and Alice Daggett, a pioneer family. Her father was a successful miner who also serviced as California’s lieutenant governor and superintendent of the U.S. Mint in San Francisco. Hallie was a refined woman educated in San Francisco; however, her deep love of the childhood home at the Black Bear Mine near Sawyers Bar, California, drew her back to the mountains. She learned how to hunt, fish, ride, trap, and shoot early in life – skills that came in handy at the lookout high above the Salmon River. Although the Forest Service has employed women since 1905, for many decades it hired very few women to do field work. Yet as early as 1902, during the General Land Office days, wives (who were not employees) sometimes accompanied their forest ranger husbands into the wild forests. One of the first accounts of women employed as forest-fire lookouts comes from California’s Klamath National Forest. The lookout, Hallie M. Daggett, worked at Eddy’s Gulch Lookout Station atop Klamath Peak in the summer of 1913 and for the next 14 years. A 1914 article in the American Forestry magazine described her work: Few women would care for such a job, fewer still would seek it, and still fewer would be able to stand the strain of the infinite loneliness, or the roar of the violent storms which sweep the peak, or the menace of the wild beasts which roam the heavily wooded ridges. Miss Daggett, however, not only eagerly longed for the station but secured it (the lookout job) after considerable exertion and now she declares that she enjoyed the life and was intensely interested in the work she had to do. Some of the (Forest) Service men predicted that after a few days of life on the peak she would telephone that she was frightened by the loneliness and the danger, but she was full of pluck and high spirit … (and) she grew more and more in love with the work. Even when the telephone wires were broken and when for a long time she was cut off from communication with the world below she did not lose heart. She not only filled the place with all the skill which a trained man could have shown but she desires to be reappointed when the fire season opens this year (1914). In describing her life as a lookout, Hallie said: "I grew up with a fierce hatred of the devastating fires and welcomed the (Forest Service) force which arrived to combat them. But not until the lookout stations were installed did there come an opportunity to join what had up till then been a man’s fight; although my sister and I had frequently been able to help on the small things, such as extinguishing spreading campfires or carrying supplies to the firing line. "Then, thanks to the liberal-mindedness and courtesy of the officials in charge of our district, I was given the position of lookout … with a firm determination to make good, for I knew that the appointment of a woman was rather in the nature of an experiment, and naturally felt that there was a great deal due the men who had been willing to give me the chance. "It was quite a swift change in 3 days, from San Francisco, civilization, and sea level, to a solitary cabin on a still more solitary mountain, 6,444 feet in elevation, and 3 hours’ hard climb from everywhere, but in spite of the fact that almost the very first question asked by everyone was ‘Isn’t it awfully lonesome up there?’ I never felt a moment’s longing to retrace the step, that is, not after the first half-hour following my sister’s departure with the pack animals, when I had a chance to look around… I did not need a horse myself, there being, contrary to the general impression, no patrol work in connection with lookout duties, and my sister bringing up my supplies and mail from home every week, a distance of 9 miles." In her later years (1951), Hallie’s hometown of Etna, California, built her a cabin on a Main Street lot next to her sister Leslie’s home. She lived in this house until her death in 1964. The Rosemary Holsinger family donated the cabin to the City of Etna in 1993. The City of Etna, through a volunteer citizen’s committee, moved the cabin to the city park and developed an historical interpretive site that was completed in 1996.
Disclaimers The use of trade, firm, product, or corporation names in this newsletter is for the information and convenience of the reader. Such use does not constitute an official endorsement or approval by the San Gorgonio Volunteer Association concerning the quality of any product or service or to the exclusion of others that may be suitable. Every effort is made to provide accurate and useful information. However, the San Gorgonio Volunteer Association and its volunteers, employees, and contractors assume no legal liability for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed herein. Neither the San Gorgonio Volunteer Association, nor its employees and contractors, make any warranty, express or implied, including the warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose with respect to information available in this newsletter. Non-Discrimination Statement The US Forest Service and the San Gorgonio Wilderness Association prohibit discrimination in all their programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, and marital or family status. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs and activities.) The US Forest Service and the San Gorgonio Wilderness Association are equal opportunity providers and employers.
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