The Fire Safe Council enjoys a strong board, by which I mean a board composed of talented people who are both deeply interested and involved in the mission and success of our organization. I am happy to say it just got stronger.

In the June meeting we will have on the board two new members and a new chapter. The new members are Doris Lombard and Norm Walker. The new chapter is Mountain Center.

Doris and Norm bring important and different gifts to the board. Both are well known to people who have lived here even a short while. Doris taught for most of her career at the Idyllwild School. Her husband jokes about how often she will greet an adult somewhere in Idyllwild and later drop that she taught him or her in grade school. She has a degree in biology and a passionate interest in the environmental sustainability of the mountain communities. Specifically, she seeks to balance fire protection with the preservation of animal habitat.

Doris has worked with the Woodies, the volunteer abatement group, since its beginning on the Pine Cove Fuel Break. (She is rather famous in some circles for having met her husband there.) She is known for expertise in field biology, her wry sense of humor, and her delight in and devotion to wildlife. Doris, along with her husband Ron Perry, will represent the new Mountain Center chapter.

Norm is also well known to mountain residents, having just retired as the district fire division chief for the US Forest Service. Norm has fought fires all over the west for the last 35 years, and so brings an extraordinary amount of experience in the dynamics of fire. He maintains his passionate interest in fire safe communities as well as forest health. He knows virtually everyone in any agency relevant to fire protection on the mountain, and wants to maintain contact regarding fire and fuels policy and funding.

Norm is known both for his knowledge and expertise as well as his skill in collaborating with others. He has been one of the key members of MAST (Mountain Area Safety Taskforce), a jewel of an inter-agency group that has helped keep communities safe over the years. He also has a wonderfully wry sense of humor. (I guess there is a pattern here.) Norm will represent the Idyllwild chapter.

The Fire Safe Council works for the safety of the entire mountain. On the eastern side, wonderful things have been happening in Pinyon. Thanks to the influence of our own Jeri and Ron Bowles, we were able to gain the support of the Pinyon Crest Property Owners Association, resulting in over 40 homeowner abatement projects, together with an important road project. (They own and maintain their roads). This was also made possible by the skill of our project managers, Pat Boss in this case, who worked hard to make sure homeowner environmental concerns were reflected in the abatement work.

To the south, Cindy Davis is leading the Anza chapter to create a road project similar to Pinyon's that will drastically reduce the fire threat along well-used and overgrown roads.

As we extend our work with homeowners all over the mountain, we are proud to have the counsel of Doris and Norm, and look forward to a long association.