- I was told you can tell the health of a forest by the way that the wind blows through the trees and and the sound that it creates this place is like the center of the lost Sierra and the center of my being.

I think if you just really take the time and quiet your mind and just think about for thousands of years people have roamed those hills and use those routes and now you're fortunate enough that they're still open and you can ride your bicycle on 'em.

It is an honor for generations.

People have been here to take, take the minerals and take the trees, but it's certainly time to start giving back.

This is my place, this is where I want my kids to be.

This is where I want their kids to be and I want people from all over the world to understand this place is worth caring about and the people that live here are worth caring about.

This region has been hard hit through loss of jobs and loss of population.

The pandemic now we've been catching on fire, like these catastrophic fires started to piece together in my mind like mountain biking and recreation could actually make a difference and if trails provide that avenue to care about this place, then that's the tool that we need.

Look at all those chainsaws.

Start with one and we got that one stuck.

So the next day we bought another one and doubled our inventory.

Two saws.

That's what we started it all.

Now there's, I don't know, 10 saws, 11 with probably three out in the field with the crews.

We are in the business of revitalizing mountain communities and we use trails as the tool fruit wads.

They're great when you have issues and you just wanna like pound on something.

So a Pulaski is pretty much what you're gonna want to go with starting as a teenager, like 20 to being 52.

Like the timeline is a lot of emotions.

Yeah, I didn't really see it coming.

You know, you just, just one day you're like picking up a stick and and throwing it off the trail and then the next time you're like chainsawing it out or you know, it just, it's like an evolution of land stewardship that you didn't really plan for, but then it ends up being like what you really stand for.

When we have volunteer work days, we love to put these into people's hands.

This is probably like the number one trail tool and fire tool.

Call 'em a cloud.

The jobs in this region since 1850s have traditionally come from resource extraction.

Started with the gold rush.

The next big industry was the timber boom and those industries are basically gone now.

So how do we create an economy here and create resilient communities so people want to stay and keep participating and raising their kids here.

The rock bar, this is probably the most besides the chainsaw, like the most feared, like nobody wants to be on the end of one of these all day all steel and, but they come in handy, especially like when we're doing the tread armoring with rocks and digging up rocks and moving 'em around And so these have a, these have a rough life and if you're attached to one of these all day, you have a rough life too.

My dad would've put me on this if he would've given me one tool.

I know it, it would've been this all day long.

You'll be better for it.

The work that we do creates an economy and a culture and gives people pride and a reason to stay in a place that might catch on fire tomorrow.

- A oppressive heat that's taking hold from coast to coast.

Cinder box conditions out in California fueling a wildfire - Latest with the Dixie fire, which has grown by more than 70,000 acres overnight.

450,000 acres now - Officially a mega fire.

- The largest single wildfire in California history.

- To be a successful wildland firefighter, I think it's important to know what your limitations are and understand that the fire is only gonna let you put it out.

That summer 2021, the conditions were, they were, they were scary.

- Most of these systems have missed between three and maybe six or seven burns that they would've had naturally coupled with what we're seeing with some of these long-term climate change effects create these fires that are just harder and harder to manage and burn with higher and higher severity.

- Things have changed significantly in the past couple of decades in firefighting.

When I started we would just go to little lightning fires the size of a, you know, king size bed and then as time went on and with climate change and the overstocking of fuels in our public lands, these fires are doing things that people haven't seen them do before in history, the fires just got meaner, they got angry, they started, you know, spitting venom.

- When those fires were going it, it changed our life, you know, like we were completely smoked out.

Like you couldn't see the sun, you couldn't see across the street and we went from 52 employees down to 13 overnight 'cause of that fire.

- The biggest changes I've seen in my career are just sort of the scale of impact of some of these wildfires.

When I worked here early on on the forest, 2003 or four, a big fire was 3000 acres.

We saw those get to 20, 30, 50,000 acres.

Now we've seen 250,000 acres and with the Dixie fire a million acres.

I don't think at that time I could have imagined a million acre fire happening up here and now we see this landscape potential to burn is really at that scale.

- Tonight we have learned more than 100 homes were damaged or destroyed in the community of Greenville.

- It looked pretty wild in there.

You know how I would imagine a war zone would look, you know, fire everywhere there's, you know, burnt out remains of homes, hundreds of them burning at the same time.

The smells were were something that I'll always remember.

Just can't get that outta your nostrils for a long - Time after seeing these communities burn including my own home, you really start to look at what you have exposed to fire.

But if you live somewhere or you grow up somewhere or you own a piece of property, you can't just relocate to somewhere else.

- My crew was on the Dixie fire for a total of 63 days.

I was significantly impacted by what happened in Greenville, you know, mentally, you know physically some level spiritually.

- I mean the Dixie fire burned for like 118 days and almost a million acres of national forest and we lost a town and we'd had a really big fire season the year before that.

So between like 2020 and 20 21, 50 8% of our county burned and two thirds of our national forest and hundreds of miles of trail, you kind of go into a really dark spot.

These fires are making it harder to be here financially and mentally.

- So these would be of the alphabetical and lumber.

Okay this then the fire would be over here and we have forestry and fire departments and things like that as well.

- Can we check out the fire one?

Yeah, sure.

- One that was a bunch in there.

Thank you.

Wow.

See that's 2000 you that I remember that one.

This one's 19 29, 250 firefighters at Breast Creek and 5,000 acre 1932.

Yeah, that's the one at the college.

- Oh my god.

More opposition developed towards forest policies.

1924 showing sharp criticism against the United States Forest service policy preventing burning in national forest.

- Same thing as today.

- Yeah, the steady accumulation of forest debris and brush areas is said to conduce uncontrollable fires whereas light systematic burning will keep down the debris and do no harm to growing timber.

1924.

That's gold.

Can we copy this one?

Holy cow.

Wild fire in the far away.

Fire's always been a part of this Sierra Nevada ecosystems.

The whole western United States has always burned and whether it's been indigenous burning or lightning fires, fire's been a huge part of how these ecosystems have developed from the history and what we know about fire.

In the past, low severity, more frequent fires were just more common than they are today.

After World War ii we were really effective at starting to put those fires out.

A campaign - Fire is just like war.

Our objective goes pretty much without saying put the fire out as quick as we can.

Never give a fire a - Chance to build up momentum.

They waited too long.

You fast forward 50, 60 years and the fuel conditions, the buildup there you can see has gotten to the point where when these fires get away under the right conditions they're really hard to manage and put out.

It's hot and dry as a bone.

A - Fire in this fuel with the wind would really ramble.

- Yeah, I don't know.

I don't know if we would've even like thought about this until the Dixie fire we learned that they were backfiring and using the trails as anchor points to help save the town.

You know, it really made us rethink trails.

I mean we have to see the Dixie fire as an opportunity.

Like if you just visited all the places that nothing might grow there again in our lifetime you could just easily give up.

But you look at the green intermixed with the black and you and then you look at you know, your friends that are still here and the families that are still here and you know you gotta keep giving.

- Holy moly, there's a lot of us today, so glad you're all here.

I started the team in 2019.

Part of it was like wanting to share my passion for mountain biking but then also give kids an opportunity to benefit from these great trails being built in their backyard.

Thinking about your pedals looking further ahead.

It was a pretty small team originally, but now we have like all these kids coming up who like have been on the mountain bike team and younger siblings.

It's pretty awesome to see.

Can't keep up with them aboard down.

You're gonna decide which line you're going to use, think about what gear you think you need to be in to get that momentum but still be able to pedal.

Maybe trying that ratcheting is gonna help looking ahead far enough, right?

Looking ahead on the trail and make that decision which way you're gonna go.

All right Bridger, good momentum looking up.

Oh there you go.

Almost our entire team was just kids who had never mountain biked before.

You know, and learning something really challenging on a bike just kind of carries over into all aspects of your life.

That little confidence boost.

- There you go.

Good job.

Let the bike fix the mistakes.

It's like a giant eraser - During the fire.

Everyone I think in Plumas County was evacuated or under advisory and I think everyone felt lost on some level.

It's so easy to feel like if all this was gone you wouldn't want to be here anymore.

But what makes you wanna stay despite that hardship?

I think it's the community, - Just the inner workings of a community and how trails interact I think is like a level that we never really thought about when we were just like building a jump or building the berm.

But those are things we think about today.

30 kids and 20 coaches and just this whole cultural revival around recreation and trails in a town that didn't have any trails 10 years ago before we started this effort here in Quincy gives people a reason to stay.

It gives 'em pride.

- Should I put my glasses on Dad?

- No.

Okay, - Here - Carry your shit.

- My shit.

- My dad was like not the most loving person, you know he is a Marine and wasn't very close to me.

Like never really said hey I love you.

Or like gave me a kiss and you didn't really like show your emotions, which is something I try and do with my kids.

Tell 'em I love him every day and you know, try not to be like my dad.

Yep.

You got a ways to go buddy.

- Let's see it then.

- Annie.

Are you - Ready?

There was a lot of storytelling in my family.

My dad basically one day just told me, Hey, you're an Indian and some people are gonna walk and you're gonna run.

Kind of filled me in on a few things here and there about my Ewok heritage but there wasn't a lot of pride.

My tribe was where Nevada City is now.

They would migrate between Nevada City and Grass Valley and when gold was discovered, my tribe was displaced and massacred and my great-great-great grandfather escaped when the miners showed up instead of running the next time he started leading accessing the mines and then helped establish a lot of the routes of Downeyville is famous for today on a Pac meal and fortunately stayed alive so that I could have a life.

Miles McKenzie could have a life every year.

- He is crazy for that.

Yeah, you're actually crazy for that Melo.

- Why do you feel like you have to do that?

- Does that not suck?

That wasn't terrible honestly.

Snow's probably warmer than the water.

- Hey, maybe next time you'll bring a towel.

You're next - Kenzie.

Nope.

Hey ready?

Yep.

Going to do it.

Why is this the scariest thing ever?

Melos?

I don't know.

How do you do it so easily?

Just jump in.

- Whoop.

- No, that was horrible.

That was horrible.

I didn't think I was gonna do it.

I really did not think I was gonna do it.

- As far as I know, like my grandfather was the last of his kind.

There wasn't others that really escaped that we ever knew about or could claim his family.

This was papa around when he was in the Marines.

He looked just like you.

Doesn't he look like miles?

- He looks like miles for sure.

That's crazy.

- The government was basically telling you to come down and get registered after they had, you know, suppressed you taken your land, taken your culture away.

For me it's like this meaningful thing.

It's like it validates like yeah I am native.

You know, without that, I don't know, I guess I would kind of be a little bit lost I guess it just validates things, you know, like starts to be able to piece it together a little bit more.

I think that's the importance like for me with my kids is to learn as much as I can about it and share with them and since they were first born, like swimming in the lakes and you know, me carrying 'em around on trails and teaching 'em all the mountain tops and where the, where the places are like this is always gonna be their place and so their story's gonna keep continuing on and hopefully for generations you know, there's more stories, you know I, I think for other tribes that are still like, there's elders like that's so special.

You know like I wish I had that and I don't know how to get that back.

You know?

Especially for my kids trying to find like a good mentor and just hear their stories, you know, maybe their dad or their mom talk to them or and told them more.

I mean that's probably the closest I'm gonna get now.

- The way the forests look now is so much different than what it looked like before European populations came through.

So this is what I was kind of talking about a little earlier about the, the oaks.

The native people depended on those oak trees so much for their life.

It's like the Latin Americans depending on corn it was acorns for us.

I think I really started becoming more interested in fire and fire ecology based on my need to be reacquainted and more in touch with my cultural history.

It wasn't until I got older that I really started understanding what it was to be madu and to have your ancestry taken away from you.

There were trail systems everywhere and when you have a vegetation that may not be any higher than what we're seeing on the ground right now, a one foot wide trail might be all that was necessary to maintain that fire within that particular boundary.

They understood all of that after being part of the environment for so long.

- Yeah, - When to burn, how to manage the burn resources they would use for basketry and medicine and food sources all require timely burns to really enhance their growth so that it's gonna continue to provide that abundance.

The general population hasn't really come to terms with the fact that fire is a necessity and because of the overgrowth of trees catastrophic wildfire is going to continue to take place as long as these forests are in this predicament.

- I've always been interested just in old photos especially where you can find them today.

Going back to those places and re-exploring them.

It gives you sort of a context of what was there.

I came to the Bear Creek guard station first in 1993.

The Forest Service built these stations around the west and they were places for fire patrols up here.

The history is fascinating.

You know, this period of early rangers out in the forest is always something I have some nostalgia for.

I look at that old black and white photo from here and those two people in it were standing somewhere right about where we are now and who knows talking about the weather, what they're gonna eat for dinner that day.

Over the years, fire exclusion has allowed a lot of the shade dominant trees to grow in.

So the trees that have grown in now are probably anywhere between 80 and 120 years old.

From that point of that photo to now all this in-growth is now here.

- Somebody asked me a while back if the native people had any thought about what to do with the forests as they are right now with these big large burned out areas where all the trees have been pretty much killed.

My response was, well since this never occurred in the lifetime of our ancestors, we don't know how to answer that question because this never happened.

Yeah, the the intensity of fire was never like this, never because the forests were stewarded, there was management that was taking place.

- So do you start with just a small stand and you, - You know you gotta start something.

- You have to, you have to show prog like demonstrate it and you know, and and change people's minds about how how it should be managed and it needs to be managed and not hands off.

- You see what a hands off approach does.

- Yeah.

Devastation.

- All of these trail systems connected different tribal peoples to different tribal peoples.

Yeah.

You know to be able to trade, to be able to communicate, make marriage with other tribal people, you know the forests were stewarded and manicured to where you could actually see your prey and you could see anything that might want to do you harm.

All those things, you know, that were part of the environment for millennia in a very short period of time those relationships were eliminated.

You hear that guy out there?

Yeah there he is right there.

- Yeah.

My dad would always tell me like if you saw a red tail hawk fly over you that a, a new opportunity was gonna happen like a new door was gonna open for you - Just like this new trail.

- Yeah You know, we have the ability to take care of this place in a really meaningful manner and you know, and to share with my kids and be able to share with other people is like that means everything you know, beyond the trails, it's the place and the people.

It's gonna take a lot of work and it's not gonna just happen in our generation.

It's gonna take a few generations to get it back and to get it healthy.

- It's kind of, it's a soft tail from from the nineties or somewhere back then.

Got like an inch and a half or so of rear travel.

The added weight is worth it.

When you're coming down Mount Huff or you're doing like grinder row or something, just kind of pick a good line, stay away from the rocks and don't get too airborne.

It doesn't work perfect mind you but it does work good to go.

Dana's kind of stickler on everyone's showing up with all the right stuff.

This packs a lot nicer without a nine pound fire shelter on it.

Being home is is nice and being able to be a coach on the mountain bike team has been something I've been looking forward to for a long time.

In years past I just couldn't be dependable at any moment I could get a phone call or you know, hear some tones come across the radio that would turn into you know, two weeks or more of me being gone.

It's been a lot of fun to be here and get more involved in some of those community based events.

- Done trail work with us before but today we're gonna get out and do a little bit of trails.

'cause force is huge, trails are really fun and there's just no way to have enough people to work on them unless volunteers get out.

Start grabbing tools.

Let's take as many people with loppers as possible and then grab other tools as you fit - Available.

You know it's easy to ride a trail and not ever think about like what it takes to keep those trails rideable.

One of the first things in our skills progression is trail etiquette and so trail maintenance really goes into that.

Oh yeah, that's looking better.

- Yeah, things only gonna get bigger.

- We have three trail maintenance days per season and we require each rider to make at least one of those trail maintenance days.

- The bike team really integrates with a lot of the trail work that some of the organizations are doing here for them.

Just fun, good times but also just a holistic view of I help build this trail or I ride on this trail, I'm gonna help maintain it.

Let's help take care of this place.

This is our place, let's make sure it's taken care of.

- Just started blooming.

Don't chop that one, don't chop that one.

- Think right now it's about passing the knowledge, letting the next generation of stewards run with it.

Especially the kids getting them out into the woods and how they pick up a tool and you know you start to grow that culture of stewardship, - It's pretty powerful.

Stay in the back and just do quality control.

I feel very fortunate to have the trails around here that I do.

Those trails have helped me deal with, you know, the aftermath of a Dixie fire.

I could get on those trails and come back feeling a little more complete.

- Especially two years after seeing all this regrowth of oaks and shrubs and then just this amazing wildflower display.

It's looking pretty beautiful out there right now.

I think I saw some stray loppers on the way down if you have an extra hand.

Nice work.

How's it going Dylan?

Can you take your earbud out?

Sweet.

Awesome.

- That's how you getting done.

- The Dixie fire in the north complex were really bellwethers of things to come.

How we adapt to it, it's all complex, politically charged and expensive but I think once you start to accept that these fires can burn on these landscapes and the way that they do, you can at least start to prepare for them.

- We want to connect these towns with trails, really creating a trails master plan for the region and create main street trail heads that people can either hike to or bike to right from the main street of the community.

The communities are Sierraville, Loyalton, Sierra City, Downeyville, Portola, gray Eagle, Quincy, Taylorsville, Greenville, Jonesville, Chester, Westwood and Susanville.

- Yeah.

Integrating fire management into this trail network like thinking ahead really seems to make a lot of sense.

- This is a giant area.

There's around 550 miles of trail to connect.

Kind of a grid almost for back burning or control points for fire crews in there.

Everything you see is Dixie fire except for some on the other end of the valley over there towards Claremont.

That's a north complex beautiful burn - Scar.

It does kind of have its own beauty in a way.

It does - A big component's gonna be these fire hardened trails.

So within the a hundred foot wide corridor that we're doing all the surveys for wildlife, botany, hydrology and archeology, we're gonna then provide a prescription that allows us to limb up the trees, space the trees so that they can be healthy, get rid of all the ladder fuels as well as the deadfall and do some mastication and some under burning.

So those trails can be used for back burning and control points in case of a fire - Being able to tie together, you know the post-fire mitigation and pre-fire work fire line already cut.

Basically that's your trail network.

I dunno if anyone's ever really ever done that.

- Everybody's in tune to this area.

We're not bringing in outside contractors and just asking them to give us a cut and paste product.

Yeah you know big component is like making sure that the tribes are engaged.

You know we're in the operating in the homelands of the MI Walk and Eon Madu, Paiute Con Cow and Washoe Tribes.

So making sure they're engaged, they're aware of the project, they're participating and you know to make that happen, you know we gotta find funding for 'em.

I mean a big part of this is economic development and trying to bring an economy back into this region that for generations we've lost working families, we've lost businesses and so how do we bring that back and make it sustainable And also make sure these communities are resilient for future generations.

This isn't a new concept.

Trails have been used for forest management and for migration for thousands of years here.

If all 550 miles of trail was a fire hardened corridor, it's a good jump on things.

While that's only a 30 inch wide trail, that's also a hundred foot wide corridor of healthy forest that can help save a community.

But it can also help educate millions of people and bring a lot of people together that maybe didn't think trails were important.

Rub the penny rail on you so the mosquitoes don't get you - Tons of it right here too.

- Go like this.

- Bye.

- 'cause it'll help you.

- I can count my legs.

- It's gonna help you right here.

How's that between your hands like this?

Look at Mills Peak back.

There he is better up here.

Kenzie.

- It's pretty good right here too.

Now I gotta figure out how to even get up from here.

This is exactly what I needed - You one of the Kenzie doing dad's side.

Ken, you want me and my Okay and then we're going, we're charging.

- Get it Melos.

Dude, this is so pretty up here.

Let's do it.

- This - Is that?

Yeah, this is where they would've single fires.

Do you think that's still the same?

No, I think that's white people.

But they built this up so you could like signal all throughout the whole basin.

They would build a big fire here and they would like communicate with each other through this place.

So you could imagine like maybe up on the top of that mountain right there, there was another one and then another one and they would all talk to each other.

Fire in the night.

This winter maybe we'll ski off of this thing.

- 6,000.

Holy, holy crap.

Kenzie - Long after I'm gone.

This is gonna be your spot.

Just remember how to get here.

- Oh, it's not that hard.

Just kind of go straight up the fucking mountain.

- Okay girl.

- Dude, my legs right now, I don't think my casual are gonna gimme this pump in my life.

- It's not that hard.

You just go straight up the fucking mountain words by Kenzie.

- There's a bear cloth in the sky with a W next to it.

It is a W next to, I think it means the Williams family made it up to our spot.

- How weathered this tree is right here.

Like grew up in the middle of a bunch of rocks and just got like bent over and worked over and split and still like giving it.

- Look at that bird right there.

Flying right there.

Catching the wind.

It is catching the wind.

- You pop around would say like anytime like a red tail would fly in front of you.

Let another door open.

- Well the door, it's open for us.

- Yeah, he showed us his claw, the W and now he's showing real Redtail hawks.

I guess it's just a sign.

- I really sad.

It - Is beautiful.

- Here's be a place you'll always come back to your whole lives.

- Love - You Kenzie.

- Love you.

- Oh baby girl.

- Me loves.

I'll - Give you one too.

Ready?

- Don't make that face bro.

Yeah, I can see you.

Oh yeah, good.

Sorry.

Sorry.

When you were going like bombing 50 miles an hour down Mount Hop.

- I'm gonna be at the bottom matter.