"Sponsor" Training Class at Ben Lomond Camp for monitoring hand crews

Post date: May 8, 2015 1:00:04 AM

The primary reason that we have been able to do so much vegetation management work on Ben Lomond Mountain is our ability to use CAL FIRE hand crews from the Ben Lomond Camp.

For just $200, we get a days labor from 12-15 men. In order for us to use the crews, we have to lend the CAL FIRE Captain in charge of the crew an extra pair of eyes to monitor them as they work. CDCR requires that these monitors, or "sponsors" as they call them, take a 3-4 hour class and then annually attest that they have refreshed their memory by reading a two page summary of the class.

We always need more monitors, for example on our Warrenella Shaded Fuel Break in the San Vicente Redwoods, or the Fall Creek Truck Trail Project in Henry Cowell State Park that we must complete in June.

Luckily, I just got an email from the camp saying that a "sponsor Training class will be held on Thursday, May 28th, 9am - 1pm. Please bring a lunch as [they] do not provide lunches. Class will be held at Ben Lomond Conservation Camp, ... 13575 Empire Grade, Bonny Doon, CA. 95060". I've been through the class 3 times (before they stopped requiring people to take it annually rather than once and for all), and it never goes longer than 3 hours at which point all the locals leave and have lunch elsewhere.

Please consider getting trained to be a monitor and helping make our community Fire Safe. If you can make it May 28, please email us at: volunteering@bdfsc.org, so we can give the camp a head count of folks likely to attend.