Board of Directors

Chair: John Reynolds - Member of Grizzly Ranch Firewise Community
John is originally from the Bay Area and moved to Grizzly Ranch in 2013.  Having helped build a family summer cabin in the Central Sierras, he gained a love of the mountains and forest by spending his summers there for over fifteen years.  Even as an adult, he has continued to enjoy many weekends and most vacations with his extended family either at the cabin or in Truckee enjoying the mountain lifestyle.  As Truckee continued to gain in popularity and population, John became familiar with Plumas County and decided to retire there.
 
John was introduced to the Fire Safe Council when a he joined a community group who were concerned with mitigating wildfire threat at Grizzly Ranch.  Assistance from the Council and Plumas County Office of Emergency Services was instrumental in Grizzly Ranch gaining Firewise Communities/USA status in 2015.  He has been an ongoing supporter and a member of the Grizzly Ranch FireWise Committee since 2015.          

Vice Chair: Kathy Kogge – Vice President Gold Mountain CSD Board, Chair Gold Mountain Firewise Committee
Kathy and her husband are from the East Coast. They moved to Gold Mountain in 2016 to be closer to family in Truckee.
 
She has BA’s in both Dance and Theatre Arts from the University of Maryland and a MA in Theatre History from the University of Illinois. She began her career in theatre and dance in New York City, juggling part-time positions with book publishers to make ends meet. She then went on to a long career in book publishing including over 38 years with The Bertelsmann Print Group in sales and production management, retiring in April of 2019.
 
She became a member of the Gold Mountain CSD Board in 2016 and joined the Gold Mountain Firewise Committee from her work with other Firewise members on the CSD board.
 
Her love for the spectacular natural beauty of the Sierras has motivated Kathy to find ways to protect it. Kathy hopes to use her background to further the goals of both the Fire Safe Council and Firewise USA.

Secretary/Treasurer: ​Michael Flanigan – Flanigan-Leavitt Insurance Agency, Quincy
Mike was born and raised in Spokane, Washington, the youngest of eight children. He received a business degree from Eastern Washington University. After employment in a variety of insurance industry segments, Mike and his wife Valerie moved to Quincy in 1995, where they raised three sons, and in 2003 purchased a regional 100 year plus family operated independent insurance agency – the Murray and Edwards Insurance Agency. Flanigan-Leavitt Insurance Agency has offices in Quincy, Susanville and Reno, NV. He is fond of making woodworking projects with his sons, and loves living in Plumas County. Mike co-chairs the Quincy Firewise Committee. As a PCFSC board member, Mike hopes to share his knowledge of business, particularly his experience in risk management as it relates to the goals and objectives of the Council.

Don Gasser - Registered Professional Forester
Don wants the Plumas Fire Safe Council to continue to bring wildfire awareness by striving to expand fire-adapted homes and communities within Plumas County. A forester for fifty years, and still licensed to practice in California, as well as an arborist for twenty years, Don's current focus is on fireproofing his land. With government help, his efforts are on protecting an area north of Quincy. He often has a chainsaw in hand so as to thin the forest while practicing shinrin-yoku at advanced levels. Don brings experience as an entrepreneur in forest thinning and defensible space, as well as from 20 years as Faculty of Forestry at UC Berkeley, 8 years as PG&E's chief forester for the vegetation management department, and 30 years, and continuing, in bonsai creation.

Mike Callaghan- Member of Gold Mountain Firewise Community
Mike, a native of Sacramento, grew up vacationing, skiing, and working summer jobs in the Sierras.  A graduate of the Hass School of Business at UC Berkeley, his work career was in sales and sales management within the foodservice distribution industry in Northern California.  In 2004 he followed his dream of living in the mountains and retired to Eastern Plumas.
 
A near miss with the 1991 Oakland Hills Fire predisposed him to wildfire concerns within his new Plumas community of Gold Mountain.  These concerns brought him into contact with the Plumas County Fire Safe Council, where he has been a member and supporter since 2005.  With the aid of former PC FSC coordinator Jerry Hurley and other Council members, Mike helped Gold Mountain gain Firewise Community /USA recognition in 2012.

Dan Martynn – Natural Resources Conservation Service
Dan was originally a Forestry major attending College of the Redwoods Junior College in Eureka, CA.  After taking a couple of soils classes, he transferred to Cal Poly S.L.O. where he received a B.S. in Soil Science in 1988.  Out of school, Dan started working for the Soil Conservation Service (now known as NRCS) and has worked for the agency in California for the past 28 years.  For the last 16 years Dan has been the District Conservationist in the Quincy Local Partnership Office providing technical and financial assistance to private landowners in Plumas and Sierra Counties.  Protecting communities within the Feather River watershed against the threat of catastrophic wildfire is a primary concern of his office, and he hopes that as a board member of the Plumas Co. Fire Safe Council he will be able to assist in the efforts to accelerate the pace and scale of treatment on private and public lands within the Feather River watershed.

Ryan Bauer – USFS, Plumas National Forest
Ryan Bauer is a Fire Management Specialist with the U. S. Forest Service on the Plumas National Forest where he oversees the Fire Use and Fuels Management programs. He brings 22 years of wildland fire management experience to the Plumas County Fire Safe Council board. He has an interest in improving the ability of our mountain communities to live safely with wildland fire, as an important step in returning fire to our National Forests as a natural process that is critical to the health of our forests, watersheds, and economy.

Chuck Bowman - Member of Graeagle Fire Protection District Firewise Community
Chuck was born and raised in Minnesota.  He graduated from The University of Minnesota in 1964 with degrees in Business and Economics and Political Science.  Chuck moved to Clio, CA in 2003 after retiring from a career working in various aspects of computer systems with companies in Minnesota and the San Francisco Bay Area.
 
Chuck became involved as a volunteer on a local Architectural Review Committee in 2005, which led to an interest in training in HIZ procedures and volunteer consultations.  He joined the Plumas County Fire Safe Council in 2008 and became a board member in 2011. 
 
He has worked to get Firewise Community/USA status for the Mohawk Valley communities that are included in the Graeagle Fire Protection District and continues to work to keep that status active, with training and projects to keep the forests healthy and fire resilient.

Tracey Ferguson, AICP – Plumas County Planning Director
Tracey, a native of the Sacramento Valley, joined the County’s Planning Department in July 2019. Her 20-year planning career spans a wide range of private sector land use consulting and homebuilding experience such as long range policy planning, emergency and risk management, CEQA, entitlement processing, and land development. Tracey is a champion for rural places and since 2008 she’s been an active member and volunteer with the American Planning Association, California Chapter, Sacramento Valley Section including serving as Section Director. She holds a BA in Geography from CSU Sacramento and completed MA coursework in Rural and Town Planning at CSU Chico. Tracey feels very fortunate to be living and working in a mountain county with world class recreation at her doorstep. She enjoys collaborating with the public to help solve the planning challenges facing Plumas County and understands that the wildland-urban interface is one opportunity where certain land-use decisions, plans, and policies—for example the Plumas County Communities Wildfire Protection Plan—can help residents and communities reduce wildfire risk and be more resilient.

Ryan Tompkins - Forestry & Natural Resources Advisor, University of California Cooperative Extension
Ryan was first drawn to the northern Sierra Nevada after spending a summer in Meadow Valley nearly 26 years ago. He completed a Bachelor in Science in Forestry (1996) and a Master of Forestry (2001) at the University of California at Berkeley and is a California Registered Professional Forester (No. 3108).   His 18 year federal career included working as a forester and certified silviculturist with the Plumas National Forest and working in the Fire Effects program at the National Park Service.  He is currently the UC Cooperative Extension Forester for Plumas, Sierra, and Lassen counties where his research focuses on forest restoration and post-fire restoration.  When he’s not thinking about trees, he might be helping his Firewise community cut some of them down, or just enjoying a quiet moment in the backcountry with his family.

Sally McGowan - Old Highway Road Firewise, Plumas Underburn Cooperative
Sally McGowan has lived in Plumas County since 1984 when she moved from Camarillo in Southern California to the little town of Clio in the beautiful Mohawk Valley. In 2000, she relocated to Quincy where she currently lives in lovely Thompson Valley.  Her love of nature, adventure and the Sierra Nevada inspired this dramatic change in lifestyle. Sally holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of CA Santa Barbara and a Masters Degree in Educational Leadership from CA State University Chico. She was a middle and high school teacher in both Portola and Quincy for twenty-four years and retired after serving for 8 years as principal at Chester Elementary School. Both of her adult children were raised in Plumas County and retain their attachment to and love for the area. Sally finds joy in the fact that both Mary and James return to the same trails, lakes, streams and friendships they enjoyed while growing up.
 
Out of concern for the threat of wildfire on the health of the watersheds and the safety of the citizens and communities of Plumas County, Sally began attending the Plumas County Firesafe Council meetings in 2018 and with the support of many Council members, including Sue McCourt, formed the Old Highway Road Firewise Community. As a participating member of the Plumas Underburn Cooperative, she helped organize its first official underburn within the Old Highway Firewise Community boundaries. Sally is grateful for the opportunity to work with and learn from the very talented, passionate, and committed members of the Fire Safe Council.  

Michael Hall - District Manager, Feather River Resource Conservation District

Trina Cunningham - California Indian Water Commission, Mountain Maidu

Joe Smailes - Seneca Firewise

Lindsay Wood - Executive Director, Plumas Audubon Society

Bylaws of the Plumas County Fire Safe Council Board of Directors