The fight to staff a fire tower

A longtime lookout loses his post. Locals consider him vital for safety.

- BY JAMES RAINEY

SOMEONE has kept watch from Colby Mountain Fire Lookout for 92 years in the months California tends to burn.

(LAURIE BOWERS)

Two and a half hours north of Sacramento — halfway from anywhere — an ancient metal and wood observation tower perches atop a hillside. For 92 years, someone has kept watch from the Colby Mountain Fire Lookout during the long dry months when California tends to burn.

But no more. The U.S. Forest Service has shut down the lookout and told its last occupant, Kenny Jordan, that it does not plan to bring him back next summer for what would have been his 42nd fire season in the Lassen National Forest.

Jordan's ouster and the proposed shutdown of the landmark tower — built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1934 — has touched off a tempest in rural Butte County. Locals say that Jordan provided an extra layer of security, often as the first person to notice telltale wisps of smoke marking another wildland fire, not to mention the helping hand he offered hikers, bikers and other strangers.

"We are so prone to fire. That’s the main priority up here," said Laurie Bowers, a Butte Meadows local campaigning to keep Jordan and the tower in place. “We call Kenny Jordan our eyes in the sky. When something's going on, everyone asks, 'What does Kenny say?'