Politics : politics@vcmc.info

Ed/Everyone,

I haven’t heard back from you Ed on my request to call this morning on this email.

So, I wanted to get a response out to all of you before the work week.

Lack of any response on the staff’s part is my responsibility, and my apologies I hadn’t been made aware you were having challenges.

I hope you all will appreciate that most of the staff time has been literally consumed with the ongoing wildfires.  So far this year the Los Padres has had the Pine, Coleman, Sherpa, Rey and now the Soberanes.  Several weeks ago we were in Unified with CAL FIRE on the Chimney wildfire so the Los Padres was effectively managing three Type 1 national wildfires at the same time, with all the leadership and resource demands of those incidents.  Not to mention all the restoration work after the Soberanes, we just completed the BAER in Monterey and have launched the Rey Wildfire BAER after a tremendously successful suppression action in the Santa Ynez area near the District Office. 

The Soberanes Fire is burning in the Ventana Wilderness, and is up to 105,642 acres (68,488 acres CA-LPF; 37,194 acres CAL FIRE) We are challenged with the terrain and still have over 410 structures threatened.  The Soberanes has already had 1 fatality and 6 injuries as well as  destroyed 57 homes, 11 outbuildings.  There are over 1200 people on the fire daily and it requires often more than one Ranger to manage. 

The public expects us to respond to life and safety first and we are in the midst of that which may cause a delay in responding—you can see when I’m writing this myself.

Next week while you are correct that Ken and I will not be on hand, both Nate Rezeau will attend as a Ranger and Pancho Smith will be able to attend as the acting Deputy Forest Supervisor.  The other part of the FLT is going to meet with the Regional Directors in the Regional Headquarters in Vallejo that week about taking action to respond to the ongoing budget challenges and workforce issues I previously discussed with the OHV group. 

All the rec staff that is responsible for the program was to be present as well at the meeting.  Jeff Benson can respond however, Nancy and I think that he was planning on going ahead with the meeting as there is no reason to cancel.  

I hope you will continue and understand our challenges this fire season.

Thanks,

Bob