Saddle River, New jersey, 1990

Continued from last issue “Before the FFLA”…..
At our first meeting in French Creek State Park, Pennsylvania a small group of people had come together to put out an idea of creating an organization to study and possibly help preserve forest fire lookouts. At this first meeting I don’t think any of us had the thought that we would start hearing from many others with like interests all across the country……

We agreed at Hopewell tower that our next meeting would be held at Saddle River, New Jersey during the upcoming summer. Saddle River is a small town in urban North Jersey, far from the Dutch country of Pennsylvania, the Northwoods of Maine or the rugged mountains of Idaho, yet at this, our second get-together of what was termed “The Committee of Fire Tower Enthusiasts”, we already had new contacts from all these places and more. From Maine, Caroline Parmenter, watchperson at the Harris Mountain Lookout in Dixmont arrived. Keith Argow from Virginia had arrived. We had heard also from Ray Kresek in Spokane, Washington who had announced an interest. Melanie Creer from Schroon Lake, New York also attended to explain to us the plight of the Pharaoh Mountain fire tower in the Adirondacks. Forest Ranger Greg Tyrrell from the New York State DEC and Chief Ranger Tim Sullivan of Bear Mountain State Park, NY attended, as did Fred Knauf from Rochester NY. Ed Seifert, Bob Wolff, John Marston, Kevin Drake, Ray Grimes Jr., Ray Wexler, Geoffrey Gibbons, all representing the New Jersey Forest Fire Service, were here. Our first contingent of John and Cindy Livesey, Joe Higgins, and Bob Spear, as well as Steve Cummings (PA), Henry Isenberg (MA), Chris Haartz (NH), Scott Ritter and Chuck Helms, also from Pennsylvania, made the trip.

For most people, it was unknown that New Jersey even had fire towers, much less a vivid and historic story to tell about them. It was a surprise to some to learn that 40 percent of the state was still forested and had large State Forests and State Parks and some of the most flammable wild lands in the east, a fact shared by Massachusetts and Long Island, New York. In New Jersey, our growing “committee of enthusiasts” knew our task was to come up with a more permanent name and try and outline a set of bylaws and a fitting constitution. We also opened the first attempts of getting 501(c)3 recognition once we established our name. SOP’s (standard operating procedures) began to be discussed, and ways we could raise money without endangering the non-profit status proceedings.

Part of our Constitution was to address what our new Association would and would not be able to do; this was vital to setting the stage for future goals and achievements. The discussions were long and lively and our interim President, Steve Cummings was hard pressed at times to curb the enthusiasm of many of us who were anxious to get an Association platform presented all within the time allotted.

The very first fire tower our group had visited “officially” was Hopewell, at French Creek State Park, Pennsylvania. At this, our actual very first “organized meeting” our second fire tower we visited was Sterling Tower in nearby New York State, followed by Bearfort Tower in New Jersey. Over the course of the next fifteen years, there would be hundreds more. Dr. Keith Argow of the American Resources Group in Vienna, Virginia explained his history in Forestry and current projects, including an infant program called the “Historic Lookout Register” he had co-founded with Doug Newman of Eugene, Oregon.

A very important part of our get together included what Steve termed “networking” and the wholesome camaraderie enjoyed over evening dinners together and extended lookout tours over a two and sometimes three day period. This has been an essential element in building the foundations of the Association. At Saddle River we discussed many alternatives but finally agreed that the proper name for our group would be “The Forest Fire Lookout Association”. Citing our agreed upon set of bylaws which we also adopted here, it stipulated that a second reading of the motion to adopt our new name would be done at our next meeting. Henry Isenberg suggested the location to be at Foxboro, Massachusetts at the District 4 DEM office in January 1991. ……….to be continued…

Bob Spear, National Historian

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