Watershed Center Fuels Crews: Local Jobs Stewarding Forest Health and Fire-Risk Reduction

There was a hint of autumnal crispness in the air the morning Bert Clark, Fuels Program Associate, picked me up for a field tour of a nearly 1,000-acre project near Lewiston, establishing a shaded fuel break. The drive was bright, sunny, and vibrant, and the conversation flowed as Bert patiently answered a near-constant stream of questions.

The 2024 Saw and Piling Crews gathered together for a department photograph in the new Watershed Center warehouse.

Bert, a sturdy, no-nonsense man, has been working within the Fuels Program since 2011. A military veteran born and raised in Hayfork, Bert has traveled the world but prefers to live in Trinity County where employment at the Watershed Center has made that viable.

The Watershed Center, founded in 1993 to retrain displaced loggers and mill workers, envisioned fuels management as an important employment opportunity within Trinity County’s forests. Who better to wield chainsaws in the woods in an expert manner than former loggers? Thus, the Fuels Program was an early and core component of the organization.

“I was never a logger, actually,” Bert stated, bucking my assumption. “I had never even picked up a saw before I was hired.” He cited his own father and Chester Brown, Fuels Program Manager, for teaching him what he needed to know to succeed. Now Bert is so attuned he can tell who is located where in the forest just by the distinct sounds of their chainsaws.

Piles dotted the forest in all directions with the intention to be burned during future wet months.

“I hear my bees buzzing down there,” he said upon our arrival at the first stop, gesturing toward the sound of distant chainsaws ringing through the steep gullies and ridges. “And I see the piling crew right over there,” he added, pointing to a ridge on our left. The crew members worked together to pile limbs and bucked-up trunks into mounds as tall as any of them.

Our next stop was a visit with the mastication team. Two operators traded off driving the small CAT and keeping an eye out for fire hazards. 

“It’s like a riding lawn mower for the forest,” Bert described. Large metal teeth on a rotating drum easily knocked down brush and small trees (less than 6 inches in diameter) tracks rolling neatly over the uneven ground. “Our sawyers sometimes can’t access project units unless we come in with the masticator first. It creates mulch as it goes and then the saw crew can move freely. We’re aiming for 20-foot spacing between trees, so we take out the smaller stems in between and leave the largest behind.”

Depending upon the specific objectives of the landowner, the masticator is used on particular projects to reduce ladder fuels.

Our third stop brought us to a completed unit, a masticated surface dotted with well-built brush piles. We took advantage of the relative quiet, saws barely audible in the distance, to conduct an interview about Bert’s connection to his work.

“The most rewarding part of the job is knowing that the defensible space we create around homes and the clearing we do on the forest floor makes a real difference. I remember evacuating Hayfork during the 2021 Monument Fire and hearing a battalion chief say over the radio: ‘Looks like someone’s done a ton of work where we’re at. We can hold the line here.’ He gave his location and I said, ‘That’s our work! That’s our project! We cleared that place out.’ Or often we’ll be helping an underserved client who wouldn’t be able to clear around their homes on their own. Sometimes folks are so overwhelmed and overgrown, they don’t know where to begin. When they see the finished product, they’re shocked and grateful.”

One landowner wrote to us to express their appreciation: "The extremely competent crew were amazing. I arrived at 7:30 AM and no one was there, then at around 8:15 AM the truck arrived from down the road, and they had finished work to the trail head.  What a shock for me! Thank you for achieving this difficult chore."

Overabundant vegetation obscures a roadside in 2022.

Fuels reduction along ingress and egress routes is essential to safe evacuations during emergencies.

Our final stop brought us to the “busy bees” picking meticulously down steep slopes, saws in hand, spaced out covering the hill in segments. Bert described the differences in tone and pitch of the saws as he marched up a mossy, muddy trail. I clung to a wiry dogwood rooted in the ground as I climbed. Sawyers wended diligently, forging their own paths through the overabundant vegetation.

“We should be back down to the vehicles exactly in time for lunch,” the crew foreman, Lonnie, announced when we reached him. Having started at the top of the unit, I was impressed with the pace and assumed adherence to the schedule had been met or exceeded.

“Can you move any quicker?” Bert asked good-naturedly, but the question was sincere.

There is so much ground to cover before the weather comes in. Seeing the unit boundaries on a map is one thing. Walking the ground in the vast, swallowing landscape of forested mountains while crew members determinedly restore this strategic fuel break cut by cut is another. The scope of work is simply enormous, and there is always another acre to tend.

A quick check-in with the closest sawyer informed me that he’s lost 45 pounds since the beginning of the season. My jaw dropped and my eyes popped at the declaration.

The work is physically demanding, requiring safe chainsaw use in rugged terrain and variable weather conditions. In the summer, Fuels Crew members meet at 5:00 AM to maximize work performed during the cool morning hours.

“I demand a high standard of work,” Bert reiterated as we left the site. “I want our reputation to remain one of high quality and high performance. This work matters and it’s important we continue to help people by getting out there day after day and getting it done.”

The Watershed Center’s Fuels Crews often have funding to work on private land. If you live in Trinity County and need defensible space work, check in with our team to see if we have funding to support projects in your neighborhood. Currently, we have opportunities for residents in Southern Trinity that need help clearing woody debris (10 inches in diameter and smaller). Sign up for our October Chipping Days and the chipper crew will be happy to assist you in your property cleanup. Visit our Events Calendar to view the dates, service locations, and registration form.