Our reputation is growing. The Mountain Communities Fire Safe Council was honored to have a visit from the national group of fire prevention managers from the US Forest Service this past February 16. Executive Director Edwina Scott planned a full day which included a meeting with the Woodies, visits to various completed abatement projects, and a brief meeting with the Mountain Area Safety Task Force (MAST), which happened to be meeting that day. Despite weeks of perfect weather it rained that day, but being from the Forest Service, they barely seemed to notice.

This visit came about from a previous site visit from USFS Assistant Director Trudie Mahoney, from Region V headquarters in Vallejo. Trudie visited us last October, along with California Fire Safe Council Executive Director Margaret Grayson, and our Grant Manager, Denise Carrington. Trudie liked what she saw so much that she told us then she wanted to bring the national group up here when they met in Palm Springs in February. True to her word, she set it up with Edwina, and Edwina laid out a very successful day for the group in the middle of their national meeting.

There were about 20 people and they represented each USFS Region of the country, so the experience in the group was fantastic. I could easily have spent the day listening to them, but this was a day for telling our stories, and that we did. After Edwina's welcome briefing, we went to see the always impressive Woodies at the Help Center, who were cutting and splitting wood in the drizzling rain.

From there we went to Double View to show them a project managed by Don Patterson, which began on land that Don could not even see without hacking his way through with a machete. Then on to the Pine Cove Fuel Break off of Overlook, which was one of the earliest and certainly the most important project of the Woodies, for it is the one that led to the creation of the Fire Safe Council. Blair Ceniceros told the story of the project-- how it began, what it entailed, and how it led to close ties with the Forest Service.

During the day we were proud to have Forest Service District leaders with us to meet the group and answer questions. Laurie Rosenthal, Dan Felix, Chris Fogel and Freddie Espinosa fielded questions and spoke about our partnership, as well as the details of Forest Service fuels projects that tied in with those of the Fire Safe Council.

We had lunch at the Nature Center and had time for some interesting discussion about what they had seen, including some valuable perspective from IFPD Chief Norm Walker. MAST was scheduled to meet afterwards, and we stayed for introductions, and a brief and superb comment by Riverside County Fire Chief John Hawkins supporting our work together. We headed off to our last project, the Silent Valley Recreation Center in Poppet Flats. There, as the rain got heavier, Pat Boss described the considerable work that had been done around this vulnerable area.