WATCHER C O N T I N U E D
CARE PROVIDERS Needed!
F R O M PA G E 1 7
Earn Money From Home Adult(s) with special needs lives with you in your home, and you mentor them towards a better future. Must be at least 21, have a spare bedroom, clean criminal record and vehicle.
(530) 221-9911 | www.
mentorswanted.com
Jordan has reported hundreds of
fires since 1985. He often gets asked whether he’s ever prevented a major one. It’s impossible to say for sure, but he almost certainly has. “If you stop it at an acre, you never know what it might have grown into,” he said. “I’ve committed myself to Jonesville and Butte Meadows and Cohasset and the Ishi Wilderness. The only fire that has put people in jeopardy was the Dixie Fire. I’m proud that none of the fires that threatened those communities have come from the area I’m watching.” He was already off for the season when the Camp Fire started on Nov. 8, 2018, but his presence at the lookout wouldn’t have changed anything: The Paradise Ridge is out of his sight line, he said, and the fire’s speed was too extreme for a report to have made a difference. The greatest risk of wildfire comes from lightning strikes, he said. Lightning has struck close enough to shake the tower on several occasions, and Jordan recalls eerie times when his hair would stand on end from the highly charged atmosphere, but the tower itself has never been struck. Just in case, he has a “lightning stool” designed to prevent him from being electrocuted during a storm.
Shift in sentinels Jordan claims that still nothing beats the human eye at detecting newly sparked fires, an assertion echoed by other lookouts. “Cameras are virtually worthless for initial detection,” he said. Nonetheless, the
number of active fire lookouts in the U.S. has dwindled from thousands to hundreds in recent decades as fire agencies across the country have turned more to aircraft, forest cameras and citizen reports to detect burgeoning blazes. In California, only 198 of California’s 625 fire lookout towers are still standing, and only about 50 of those are staffed, according to the Forest Fire Lookout Association. That trend may be reversing somewhat, as the state of Pennsylvania recently rebuilt 16 fire lookouts, and people living in wildland-urban interfaces are increasingly appreciative of having eyes in the sky. But Jordan still views the fire lookout as a structure standing halfway in the past: “I assume, one day, lookouts will be replaced by drones or something like that.” For now, Jordan remains a critical
watchman in the mountains of Butte County. And the fire season has been starting earlier and running later than ever before. Typically, he’s on duty from before Memorial Day to the end of October. This year, his first day at the lookout was on May 12—his earliest-ever start date. This is also his first full season since 2000 that he is spotting smokes alone. Cheryl died from lung cancer last May. During her time in hospice care, she urged Jordan to return to the lookout as soon as he could, knowing how important the place was for her husband. He was back on duty less than two weeks after her death. “It was good to focus my atten-
The early stages of the 2012 Reading Fire in Lassen National Park seen from the Mount Harkness lookout, which was destroyed in last year’s Dixie Fire. PHOTO COURTESY OF LASSEN NATIONAL PARK
tion away from my grief,” he said. “I’m still working through it.” Cheryl’s cremains are in a wooden urn engraved with a forest scene, complete with an outline of the fire lookout. Only recently has Jordan started feeling OK about leaving them at home while he’s keeping watch. Last summer, Jordan was evacuated from the lookout for a few weeks during the Dixie Fire, which destroyed the historic fire lookout on Mount Harkness—leaving him as the lone sentinel watching the southern Lassen National Forest. Whereas he used to coordinate with other lookouts in the area to triangulate precisely the location of fires, now he leans heavily on his knowledge of the landscape to approximate the source of smoke and relay the information to responders. Working alone has other limitations. Jordan, who had hip replacement surgery last year, cannot see into the Deer Creek drainage without descending the lookout’s steps and hustling down a dirt-andgravel path to the opposite side of a ridge with his binoculars, ready to peer into the area his counterpart on Mount Harkness used to cover. It’s a daily reminder that he’s one of the last smoke spotters. “I’m the old man of Lassen Forest now,” he said, scanning the treeline from his vantage on Colby Mountain. “This lookout is more important than ever.” Ω
Celebrating 12 Years! CHICO COMMUNITY ACUPUNCTURE
TS om N E e.c r
u o TMunct Chic
IN cup ve., 0 O P tyA e A 30
P ni ov -5 A mu angr 345 R om M 0)
C FOhico 815 (53 C
1
Kinetics Academy of Dance & Gymnastics Dance Gymnastics Birthday Parties Private Lessons
$45/MO More than 5 weekly class options. Come to one or come to all. • • • • • •
Ballroom Tap Ballet Barre Fitness West Coast Swing Contemporary
530-345-2505 | www.KineticsAcademyofDance.com Downtown Chico next to Tin Roof Bakery AUGUST 4, 2022
CN&R
19