By Rhea-Frances Tetley
Staff Writer
On May 11, at 2 p.m., Bruce D. Risher will share the history of the San Bernardino National Forest, why it is here, how it became a national forest, why its boundaries are where they are and about the trees and animals that populate our forest.
Risher joined the U.S. Forest Service in 1977 and worked with them for over 30 years, including working as a campground manager, fire tower lookout man, firefighter on a hand crew, wilderness horseback patrolman and fire/aviation dispatcher. He retired as the intelligence coordinator for the Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Region, Operations Southern California, gathering information on incidents for fire managers, media and the general public.
During this presentation, he will provide facts and figures on past years’ fires in our forest. He will trace the history of the forest with the logging beginning in the 1850s and from its beginnings as a forest preserve in the 1890s. The preserve was designed to protect what was left of the forest and the watershed, after the loggers had decimated parts of it through clear cutting. Some of those areas have ended up becoming our current towns, and the preserve was created to eliminate future clear cutting.
The San Bernardino National Forest has endured several name and numerous boundary changes and management philosophies and fires over its existence and survived many forest managers, which Risher will describe.
He co-authored, with respected mountain historian John W. Robinson, the books San Bernardino National Forest: A Century of Federal Stewardship in 1990 and The San Jacintos: The Mountain Country from Banning to Borrego Valley in 1993. He also manages a historical museum in the Los Angeles area. Robinson holds a bachelor’s degree in geography and became a land use planner while attending Cal State San Bernardino. He is a decades-long member of the Rim of the World Historical Society and has collaborated with the museum many times over the decades.
Be sure to attend this first talk of the season at the Mountain History Museum, 27176 Peninsula Drive, Lake Arrowhead, at 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 11. The phone number for the museum is (909) 744-8625.
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