San Gabriel Chapter Fall/Winter Dinner Meeting December 10

Musings of a Semi-Retired Incident Management Commander

The San Gabriel Chapter SAF is pleased to announce our upcoming Fall/Winter Dinner meeting with a timely topic and very interesting speaker. Our guest will be Mike Dietrich, Incident Commander for California Interagency Incident Management Team #5. In addition to the recent Station Fire, Mike has also been involved with several high-profile incidents including the Zaca Fire (2007), Hurricane Katrina Recovery (2005) and the Columbia Space Shuttle Debris Recovery (2003). The Station Fire, which started on August 26, 2009, and was officially confirmed contained on October 16, 2009, is the largest fire in recorded history in Los Angeles County and the 10th largest fire in California since 1933.

Mike has over 30 years experience, serving the last 10 years as the Chief of Fire and Aviation Management for the San Bernardino National Forest. Having recently retired (April 2009) from the US Forest Service, Mike now works for the La Verne Fire Department as the Deputy Operations Chief. He has retained his position as the Type 1 Incident Commander for California Interagency Incident Management Team #5. Mike will be sharing some of his more memorable experiences during his career, including some comments about the Station Fire. Hopefully Mike can explain to us how he is able to determine when a fire is "angry", or just merely "cranky"!

Mike was raised in western New York, started his career with the North Dakota State Parks in 1976, moved to the Bureau of Land Management in western Oregon in 1979, and then on to southern California in 1998 to work for the US Forest Service. He has been a SAF member since 1976. Click here to go to the article (and video) recounting Mike's accomplishments and retirement party earlier this year on the Fire Department News Network website.

Join us at 5:30 pm on Thursday, December 10 at Los Angeles County Fire Department Camp 2 in La Canada Flintridge (4810 N. Oak Grove Drive, across from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory - click here for map). Dinner will be served promptly at 6:00 pm with introductions and the presentation beginning at 7:00 pm. Cost is $10.00 payable at the door. RSVP by Monday, December 7 so we can give the camp cooks a head count.

For additional information, or if you have any questions, contact Chapter Chair Doug Nickles at 818-548-2882 or dnickles@yahoo.com. You can also contact J Lopez at jlopez@fire.lacounty.gov for additional information.

Click on the image below to enlarge and read some of Mike's Station Fire quotes.

San Gabriel Chapter Spring Dinner Meeting May 14

Bioenergy, Biomass, and Converting Woodchips to Ethanol

The San Gabriel Chapter SAF is pleased to announce our upcoming Spring 2009 dinner meeting with another excellent speaker and timely topical presentation. Our guest will be C. Scott Miller, President of The Miller DeWulf Corporation in Los Angeles. Scott is a consultant, blogger, writer, webmaster, and Electronic Document Professional (EDP) who has worked in marketing and communications for numerous engineering, educational, and utility firms. He represents biomass feedstock supply, logistics, and conversion technology companies.

In addition to working for Price BIOstock as a consultant, he also consults for INEOS Bio, a company that has an extremely efficient process for converting woodchips to ethanol. Renewable energy is getting a considerable amount of attention under the new administration and there are opportunities (and consequences) for the forest industry.

You can visit Scott's BIOstock Blog where he writes about bioenergy from, primarily, a forest industry perspective.

Scott maintains an office in Studio City and has been a member of SAF since 2007. He is also a member of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE), 25x'25, and the Forest Resources Association.

Join us at 5:30 pm on Thursday, May 14 at Los Angeles County Fire Department Camp 2 in La Canada Flintridge (4810 N. Oak Grove Drive, across from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory - click here for map). Dinner will be served promptly at 6:00 pm with the presentation beginning at 7:00 pm. Cost is $10.00 payable at the door. RSVP by Monday, May 11 so we can give the camp cooks a head (stomach!) count.

For additional information, or if you have any questions, contact Chapter Chair Doug Nickles at 818-548-2882 or dnickles@yahoo.com. You may also use the SoCal SAF email at socalsaf@gmail.com.

Save these dates

So Cal SAF 2009 Activities

March 14 - SoCal SAF will be sponsoring a booth at the Los Angeles Environmental Education Fair.

March 16 - Exec Comm Conference Call - 0900 hours

April 24 - 25 - Spring Meeting in Santa Barbara


San Gabriel Chapter Activities

May 14 - Spring Dinner Meeting at Camp 2 - C. Scott Miller will be speaking on biomass feedstock supply, logistics, and conversion technology companies, with a particular emphasis on converting woodchips to ethanol.

July 18 - Chapter Field Trip to visit Fort Tejon State Historic Park. Guided tour includes naturalist-led hike of the grounds and historical and archeological review of the Fort.

Fall Dinner Meeting at Camp 2 - date to be determined.

See calendar below for dates and details - to be updated regularly.