I have been to Vetter and work at Strawberry. I will be interested to find out if they were able shut down the lookout completely before the fire, like they do for the winter. That would be lowering the wood shades down that cover the windows completely. I doubt that it was down as we are not trained to do so if we are evacuated. Maybe it would have helped. Hopefully they were able to get the historic items out before it burned. As far as clearing goes ,the Lookout Association works almost entirely on volunteers and donations so we do what we can. At Strawberry we have been trying for years to get some trees removed, but to date the forest service has not been responsive. I think due to budget constraints the lookouts are not a top priority.
