Boundary Management on the Sierra National Forest
Sierra National Forest
Auberry Work Center
April 30, 2007
Photos by:
Cynthia A. Whelan
Assistant Lands and Hydroelectric Officer
Sierra National Forest
On April 30, 2007, the last of the survey equipment, materials and survey supplies owned by the Sierra National Forest were given away. The last surveyor for the Sierra National Forest was Susan Jordan. Susan took another job in 2001 to work for the US Park Service in New Mexico, and it has been over six years since she left and there is no funding to replace her. Now the program has come full circle. Mary Niederberger, who started her career as a surveyor on the Sierra National Forest in 1981, when the program was first developing, came and took away all 27 boxes of signs, over 400 posts, 50 carsonite posts, pounds upon pounds of nails, and other assorted items. Everything went to the Lake Tahoe Basin Unit for further distribution. Mary was here in the beginning, and here at the end. Now on the Sierra, there isn’t a surveyor, a hammer, a can of paint, a boundary sign, or a wood stake.
The surveyors have capitulated.
Tell the people that I know. I have it in my heart. We are tired of trying. The licensed surveyors are gone, the funding is gone, and the landlines are unmarked. The boundary management leaders have moved away and there are no supplies and there is no equipment. The defenders against the illegal occupation of the Sierra National Forest are gone. The skilled technicians have gone to contractors and other agencies to make more money, to keep working. I cannot find a surveyor. Hear me Forest Service, look for the boundary, and see if you can find it. Maybe I can find the landline, the property sign, the K-tag, the blaze in the forest, but the surveyors are gone. In 2007, you have now rendered me like the Great Chief Joseph who declared defeat in 1877; hear me Forest Service Line Officers, my heart is tired, and I have no budget. From where the sun now stands, I will survey no more forever.
Read the Great Chief Joseph’s speech at:
http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/joseph.htm