Pole Mountain Lookout is committed to delivering exceptional fire lookout services to Sonoma County. Our team oversees and up-keeps’ the historic lookout situated on top of Pole Mountain in western Sonoma County. Thanks to our lookout’s prime positioning, we can provide reliable fire detection and intelligence-gathering abilities. The Pole Mountain Lookout board members would like to acknowledge past president, John Lester, for initiating the restructuring of the organization after the prior board disbanded. John’s efforts included creating a new Pole Mountain Lookout with a goal to rebuild a safe new structure. Present board members were recruited by John from various diverse backgrounds and years later all remain committed to what he began in 2018
Our Board
Marshal Turbeville – President
Marshall is a CAL FIRE Battalion Chief in the Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit, overseeing the western portion of Sonoma County north of Bodega Bay and Camp Meeker inland to Guerneville and Annapolis. He began working for CAL FIRE in 1995 at the Cazadero Station as a seasonal firefighter while attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Marshall graduated from Cal Poly in 2000 and accepted a full-time position at Occidental CAL FIRE Station.
Damian Bouné – Vice-President
Damian Bouné, a passionate and dedicated community leader, has been a landowner and resident in rural western Sonoma County for over four decades. He co-founded Watch Duty, an active fire incident reporting application, and serves as the Fort Ross Volunteer Fire Department non-profit board president. He also serves as vice chair on the board of WiConduit, an organization focused on community resiliency and providing communications infrastructure.
Wendy Strand – Secretary
Wendy earned a BS in Electrical Engineering at UC Berkeley and worked in the Semiconductor Equipment Industry until retiring in 2016. Since then, she has focused on Bookkeeping and music and women’s ministries at Christian Family Fellowship. The original Lookout structure was moved from Red Oat Mountain on Lion Head Ranch to the current location on Pole Mountain in the late 1960’s.
Gayle Alexander – Treasurer
I’ve had an interest in community emergency preparedness since moving to Sonoma County with my wife over 30 years ago. I retired from the San Francisco Fire Department in 2007 and I have a great appreciation for our local volunteer firefighters and EMT’s. I had served on the Fort Ross Volunteer Fire Department Board in different executive roles over the past 10 years and I became a Pole Mountain Lookout Board Member and Treasurer in 2018. My other interests include making music and tending a small olive grove for olive oil, tucked away in the coastal hills of Cazadero.
Steve Baxman – Director
Steve Baxman has been chief of the Monte Rio Fire Protection District for 38 years and has been part of that department for 54 years. In 1972 he started his career as a firefighter in the US Airforce. From there he spent 2 seasons in the 70’s as a wildland firefighter with the California Division of Forestry (CDF) now known as CAL FIRE. He became a Pole Mountain Fire Lookout Board Member with the previous board from 2010 to 2016 when it was disbanded. He was invited to return to the reorganized Pole Mountain Lookout Board in 2018. Steve has spent his career serving the good people of the Russian River area.
Don Strand – Director
Retiring after twenty-five years in the Semiconductor equipment industry, Don earned an M.A. in pastoral ministry and is currently completing a PhD. Since 2010, he has served as the teaching pastor at Christian Family Fellowship church in Santa Rosa, California. Don and Wendy have lived on Lion Head Ranch in Cazadero for eighteen years.
Tom Toedter – Director
Following a forty plus year career as a construction project manager and general contractor, a twenty-eight-year resident of West County, and terrified of the prospect of idle time in retirement, I took on the role of operations manager for a local ranch and vineyard, where upon I quickly learned of the extreme threat fire represents to this immediate area. When asked, and with a history of serving as chair on the Coast Life Support District board, I quickly volunteered to join the other proud members of a historic board formed to minimize the risk of fire within the rugged west county terrain.
Tom Bourret – Director
I am a retired Sonoma County businessman and owner of a 45-acre forest of old growth Redwood and Douglas Fir located at the foot of Pole Mountain, which was a victim of the Creighton Ridge Fire of 1978. The entire forest was destroyed; reduced to smoking ash. In 1993 I planted 35,000 trees through a CFIP program. Today these trees are 50-75’ tall. I have continued the Stewardship of the Forest with “thin & release” work, clearing of “ladder” fuels and other best forest management practices. Being the closest resident to Pole Mountain, (1.2 miles) I am ideally situated to respond as needed and motivated to do so.
Fred Dickson – Director
In 1978, Fred purchased a 40-acre parcel in the backwoods of Cazadero. That same year, the parcel and the travel trailer he was living in part-time were scorched in the 11,000-acre Creighton Ridge fire. This led him to join the Fort Ross Volunteer Fire Department, where he has been an active member for the past 45 years. The land the lookout stands on is managed by the Sonoma Land Trust, where Fred served as a board member during its early years. His grandfather, Fred Dickson, Sr., was a member of the San Geronimo Fire Department in Marin County and donated a portion of his ranch in 1940 for the construction of a lookout, which was named “Dickson Lookout” in his honor. The Dickson Lookout continues to be staffed by volunteers, including Fred’s cousin. Lookouts are crucial during the summer months, and while staffing the Pole Mountain Lookout will be challenging, the ability to spot fires firsthand will be invaluable to the West County community.
Acknowledgments
The Pole Mountain Lookout Board Members would like to acknowledge former president John Lester for restructuring the organization after the prior board disbanded. John’s efforts included creating a new Pole Mountain Lookout 501c3 to rebuild a safe new structure. John recruited present board members from various diverse backgrounds, and years later, all remain committed to what he began in 2018.
Sea to Sky Trail
To visit the Pole Mountain Lookout site, you can hike the Sea to Sky trail at the Jenner Headlands Preserve. For more information, please visit the Sonoma Land Trust website.