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CAL FIRE's San Diego Unit, 2004

The 2004 award was given to CAL FIRE's San Diego Unit for that team's innovation and leadership in protecting archaeological resources during wildland fire suppression activities. The award was presented on March 2, 2005 at the Board of Forestry meeting in Sacramento following a report delivered by Dan Foster.

The Unit's interest in protecting archaeological sites began during the 2002 Pines Fire when the Unit requested a team of CAL FIRE Archaeologists to respond. Afterwards, former Unit Chief Ken Miller, now retired, requested archaeological awareness training for the entire staff throughout San Diego County. Following this request, a four-hour archaeological site recognition course was delivered as part of Company Officer Academy in six separate week-long sessions from January to March, 2003. These training sessions generated considerable interest throughout greater Southern California, and similar training sessions were requested and delivered to Company Officer Academies in San Bernardino Unit that same March. What followed next was a complete surprise.

Unit Forester Thom Porter called Region Headquarters to request the full four-day certified archaeological surveyor course be provided locally so the Unit's Battalion Chiefs and Fire Captains could attend. The Unit was advised that a rather sizeable amount of funding would be needed to provide this certified course down in San Diego. Specific costs to be funded included printing the massive two-volume training manuals, renting adequate facilities, obtaining an AV consultant to provide digital projector, VCR, and lavaliere mike, and payment of time and travel for the non-CAL FIRE instructors. Not to be deterred, the Unit found a way to get this funded and promised at least 25 paid students. The class was delivered to 32 people in May 2003, including 25 CAL FIRE and 7 Native American students. Thom Porter deserves tremendous credit for making the local arrangements needed and locating funds to secure this training course. The classroom sessions were held at the magnificent Sycuan Indian Casino Resort. Thom was able to arrange free use of this facility in exchange for CAL FIRE providing training opportunities for seven tribal members.

The fieldwork portion of the class on Day four was held at nearby Cuyamaca Rancho State Park where a variety of different types of archaeological sites were examined and site survey exercises conducted.

The students were shown how archaeological sites in this part of California may be partially concealed by brush but telltale clues are still often visible to the trained eye, and that sites in the uplands of eastern San Diego County are often found along the margins of open meadow areas, within mesas, near watercourses, on ridgetops, and along ecotones.

The students learned that cultural resources include traditional cultural properties such as sacred peaks and places where important plants were traditionally gathered by Native Americans, and that sites are often found near springs, particularly in the mountains, but the most important environmental factor to trigger archaeological sensitivity is the presence of low, flat, smooth-surfaced rock outcroppings which might contain bedrock mortars, milling slicks, or oval basin milling features. Midden deposits are also likely to occur nearby.

The oval milling features, known locally as "Cuyamaca Ovals" re particularly distinctive in this region. The students practiced artifact recognition skills in field settings.Numerous projectile points and other artifacts were found at all the village sites we visited during this class. The most common type of artifact encountered, but the one most difficult to recognize without training, is the pot sherd. These fragments of plain brown ceramics are found in abundance on the surface of prehistoric archaeological sites throughout San Diego County.

The students also examined a cupule boulder located in a somewhat hidden spot adjacent to one of the richest village sites known for this area.

Battalion Chief Pete Scully deserves special mention for his efforts to obtain a better method of gathering information on known archaeological sites in time to accomplish protection, if such protection is possible, during any fire, including but not limited to major fires supported by an Incident Command Team. Pete learned that there are over 16,000 recorded archaeological and historical sites located in San Diego County, but only half of these locations had been digitized on to maps so a computerized database was yet unavailable for use by CAL FIRE. This site information would need to be gathered the old-fashioned way, by obtaining copies of maps and records during a visit to the Information Center. Pete saw this as an unacceptable format and for the past 18 months has been seeking outside funding necessary to complete the electronic database he envisions as one CAL FIRE could use more effectively, and to develop a use agreement that safeguards the confidential site information yet enables instantaneous access by CAL FIRE to help protect sites. Pete continues to be a strong field supporter of archaeological identification and preservation. He has identified several new sites including a large prehistoric village in the archaeology rich California/Mexico border region. Pete and other trained members of his battalion regularly participate in archaeological surveys supporting controlled burns and other types of CAL FIRE projects

The Coyote Fire broke out in July 2003. There were 480 known cultural resource sites within the fire perimeter and within the proposed contingency line area. An additional 11 sites were discovered while surveying the proposed and recently constructed lines. Although two of the recently discovered sites were found to have been impacted to a minimal extent by dozers, none of the 480+ previously recorded sites were damaged by bulldozers, thanks in large measure to the efforts made by San Diego Unit firefighters who had been trained to recognize such sites and work around them wherever possible. CAL FIRE Archaeologists reporting to the Coyote Fire were greeted by Unit Chief Chuck Maner upon their first day of arrival at incident base. The Unit Chief told the Archaeologists to let him know if anything at all was needed to help them get the job done . This was the most welcome reception and most enthusiastic participation ever seen by CAL FIRE Archaeologists on any fire. Chief Maner's support and recognition of how to maximize the use of all aspects and tools that the Department has to offer is exemplary. His support has made a positive impact on the Unit's efforts toward protection of archaeology.

During the 2004 Mataguay Fire near Warner Hot Springs, Unit Forester Thom Porter immediately recognized the archaeological sensitivity of the area and set archaeological review procedures into motion. He made certain that one of the CAL FIRE staff archaeologists was requested and initiated an archaeological records check of the area through the South Coastal Information Center at San Diego State University. The following day Porter retrieved the 6 inch thick stack of archaeological site records and maps and had it awaiting the arrival of the archaeologist. This level of planning saved the CAL FIRE archaeologist at least a day of time which allowed the archaeologist the opportunity to immediately go to work flagging sites for protection.

The Unit has employed a variety of tactics to protect cultural resources. On the 2003 Paradise Fire, the location of known archaeological sites within the fire perimeter and surrounding areas was entered as a layer within the GIS mapping system at incident base. These locations were printed on maps made available for Division and Group Supervisors, Dozer Operators, and members of the Plans Section. Those either planning new dozerlines or those actually putting in lines had the map showing site locations to avoid, if possible, and several sites were protected.On the Melton Fire, Air Attack was able to place the alignment of a retardant drop to miss a rock outcrop containing a panel of pictographs . The Luiseno pictographs of the San Luis Rey Style painted on boulder surfaces are thought to be associated with girls puberty ceremonies and are considered highly significant to local Native American groups, who were extremely appreciative of the state's successful effort to protect it during the fire.

The primary tactic used by the Unit is to avoid placing bulldozers through archaeological sites wherever possible, and with trained staff, assistance from a fire-trained CAL FIRE archaeologist, and the cooperation from the Unit, numerous sites have been saved through careful planning without delaying or interfering with emergency response operations.

Concern for the protection of California's unique and non-renewable cultural resources during wildland fire suppression has steadily increased throughout the Department with positive results. A heightened awareness has also steadily increased, not only in San Diego but statewide. It has been demonstrated to landowners, to RPFs, timber operators and fire control personnel that protecting cultural resources does not necessarily interfere with timber harvest or fire protection objectives. Where cultural resource protection efforts were once met with apprehension and concern, active support has now developed in many new program areas.

CAL FIRE's San Diego Unit deserves recognition for first getting this started, and for demonstrating how opportunities to protect cultural resources during emergency fire control operations can sometimes be realized with gratifying results.