San Bernardino National Forest Association
Ohio native Sarah Miggins did a summer internship in Lake Tahoe, and on a whim visited the San Bernardino Mountains on her way home. They stopped her in her tracks. Today, Sarah is the Executive Director of the San Bernardino National Forest Association, one of the leading forest associations in the nation. She talks about her work with the Big Bear Discovery Center and the Children’s Forest, as well as hiking the high country of the San Bernardino range and making the mountains her home.
The Ceiling of Southern California and the San Bernardino National Forest Association
Like a growing number of National Forests around the country, the San Bernardino National Forest is assisted in their mission by the San Bernardino National Forest Association, which complements their efforts by bringing in volunteer forces and funding to help with restoration, capital projects, and other initiatives, and stands as a model for similar associations and conservancies.
San Bernardino National Forest Association
Podcast: Download (Duration: 31:17 — 28.6MB)
Listener Neal Lenzen in the San Jacinto high country of the San Bernardino National Forest.
Sarah Miggins, the Executive Director of the San Bernardino National Forest Association, talks about hiking the high country of the San Bernardino and San Jacinto ranges (including a one-day ascent of 11,400 ft. Mt. San Gorgonio) and living the mountain life, along with the history and development of the San Bernardino National Forest Association, and similar park and forest conservancies.
A native of Cleveland, and like Tommy a fellow Bobcat and graduate of Ohio University, Sarah also talks about the San Bernardino National Forest Association’s role in the funding and operation of the Big Bear Discovery Center and the National Children’s Forest, re-planting burned forest areas, wildfire awareness and prevention, and preserving the historic network of fire lookouts in the San Bernardino National Forest, from the drive-up Strawberry Peak lookout to the hard-won trail to the top of Tahquitz Peak above Idyllwild.
Learn more about how to see bald eagles wintering at Lake Hemet and Big Bear Lake, where you can find the nation’s biggest Lodgepole Pine, and how you can volunteer with the San Bernardino National Forest Association in a variety of roles, from planting trees to maintaining trails.
Big Bear Lake after a winter snowfall.
More about this post at:
- San Bernardino National Forest Association
- Big Bear Discovery Center
- National Children’s Forest
- Forest Care, page at SBNFA website
- San Bernardino National Forest Fire Lookout Program
- Fire Safety Information, MAST / San Bernardino County
- San Bernardino National Forest
- San Bernardino National Forest Association, Facebook page
- Americorps Crew Members Sworn In (Riverside Press-Enterprise; 12/5/09)
- Morton Peak Lookout Reopens in San Bernardino Forest (Riverside Press-Enterprise; 6/24/07)
