Board of Directors
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Chair: Don Gasser - Community member, Quincy
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. |
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Vice 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. |
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Secretary/Treasurer: Julie Ruiz, Air Pollution Control Specialist, Northern Sierra Air Quality Management District (NSAQMD)
Julie Ruiz joined the NSAQMD in October 2014. She earned a degree in Ecohydrology from the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) in 2013 and spent 1.5 years working for the City of Reno in the Public Works Department. Her previous career was as a market analyst in the high-tech industry of the Silicon Valley. Since joining the NSAQMD she has worked with Gretchen Bennitt, APCO, to develop strategies to address the Portola non-attainment designation. The award of an EPA Targeted AirShed grant has been critical to improving air quality by replacing uncertified wood stoves with new EPA certified wood stoves, as well as pellet, propane and kerosene heating devices. In conjunction with the stove change-out program, she coordinates community outreach events and distributes educational materials on efficient use of wood as a heating fuel. As an air pollution control specialist, Julie also operates air sampling monitors in various locations around Plumas County, issues air pollution control permits for open burning, enforces burning rules and ordinances and assists with TItle V source inspections and permitting. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Trina Cunningham - California Indian Water Commission, Mountain Maidu
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Jim Hamblin - Indian Valley Fire and Rescue Fire Chief
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Jan Fletcher - Plumas Association of Realtors
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