Trail Boss

OJAI — From an unassuming office in downtown Ojai, Jerome Caston, acting director of the Los Padres National Forest in Ventura County, looks out on a courtyard of plants, palm trees and tall arid grasses gone wild.

The overgrown courtyard is an appropriate setting, a smaller version of the 300,000 acres of wilderness, 200 miles of trails and several large rivers that Caston oversees.

Unfortunately, the courtyard has also become a safe haven for a number of tree rats.

So, as Caston contemplates his future with the U.S. Forest Service he is also thinking about the fate of the critters outside his office.

“It was a joke to me at first, but when you see [the rats] you feel different,” said Caston. “We have to deal with this problem.”

Caston, 44, who has a degree in forestry and is a 20-year veteran with the Forest Service, has spent much of his professional life solving the problems that pit humans against the natural world.

He worked in park, recreation and management capacities throughout Oregon and Washington before coming to Ojai in June. In his present job, he has more responsibility than ever before.

In addition to all the land he oversees, Caston has a budget of about $2 million a year and a staff of about 35 federal employees.

It is a mountain of a job but one Caston feels he is qualified to do. And he brings something special to the position--he is an African American in a field with few minorities.

“That’s why I am considered a pioneer--my education and diverse background,” Caston said. “There’s not a lot of us in leadership roles.”

Joe Walsh, an agency spokesman, agreed. He said the Forest Service is trying to recruit a work force that looks like everyday Americans and people like Caston are in the vanguard. “Absolutely, he is on the cutting edge,” he said. “That is what we are working toward: a group of people who are qualified and diverse.”

Caston hopes to be hired as full-time director in a few months when his acting position--a temporary one that can last from four months to one year--expires. Meanwhile, his wife and 8-year-old son are in Portland, Ore., waiting for word.

“It’s really tough being away from them,” Caston said.

He knows he is competing against at least 30 other applicants. But he beat out six others for the job of acting director when former director Larry Mastic was reassigned to a position with the Forest Service in Washington, D.C.

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He also knows that the Ojai area has an unusual set of needs and the district ranger will have a full plate of responsibilities. “I know they need and want more than just an everyday ranger,” he said.

At 1.8 million acres, almost double the size of the average national forest in the state, Los Padres is a large and important district, said Matt Mathes, regional press officer for U.S. Forest Service in California. The 300,000 acres in Ojai that Caston oversees are one of six parts of Los Padres, each with its own director.

Caston “has an extremely important job because he is an actual decision maker,” Mathes said. “The Forest Service is a highly decentralized organization and we give a great deal of the authority to the district rangers. We recognize that local managers acting under broad oversight can make the best decisions.”

Caston said Ojai is a different type of community than others he has worked in. “This is not your typical district because there are a lot of high-profile projects, legislative concerns and the City Council is very involved,” he said. And since it is near Los Angeles, Caston said, there is the potential for an influx of tourists.

“The good thing about Ojai is everybody has been very nice and friendly,” he said.

A major part of his job is making recommendations to the Los Padres forest supervisor on recreation and wilderness projects, including whether to expand trails, what to do with an oversupply of cattle or whether to relocate a fire station.

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He also appears before city councils, talks to the public and brainstorms about issues like how to make the controversial Adventure Pass, which requires park users to pay a $5 daily fee per vehicle, more acceptable. On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors passed a resolution opposing the fee.

“Everyone seems to knock us about the Adventure Pass,” Caston said. “I struggle trying to understand why people don’t want to support eco-tourism.”

One recent afternoon, Caston unexpectedly dropped in on a crew of seven working on the campgrounds in Rose Valley. The campground was undergoing renovation to become wheelchair accessible, in compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act passed by Congress in 1990.

“Safety is my top priority,” Caston said on the 40-minute drive past Wheeler Gorge into the Rose Valley campgrounds.

Over a two-week period, Caston oversaw the refurbishing of nine campsites, the construction of picnic tables that can accommodate wheelchairs, the moving and upgrading of toilet facilities and the creation of a raised campground for disability access.

“We need to improve the water quality in the Piru basin, one of our sites has termite infestation, we need more off-road vehicle trails,” Caston said, rattling off a list of potential projects.

Recent large parties or raves held in national forests are also on Caston’s mind.

“They may have been having these parties before but they weren’t so huge,” he said. “We’re talking 10,000 people in some areas,” he said, citing the increased trash, traffic, illegal parking and liability problems that the Forest Service has to contend with.

But to Caston these problems, like the pesky tree rats, are just dips along the trail of his ongoing effort to make the “people’s backyard as nice as it can be.”

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His tenacity and evident pleasure doing his job have brought him success in the past. And these same qualities have not been overlooked by his superiors.

“Jerome is a really enthusiastic, high-energy person and he likes people,” said Jeanine Derby, forest supervisor in Goleta, who will be making a recommendation for the permanent position in the next three months.

“We serve the community and it is really important to have the energy, which he does, to go to the parades on holidays, the weekend events and the city council meetings in the evenings.”

Caston agrees with these priorities and says that to him its second nature.

“I love working with the public,” he said. “And I understand how people and natural resources interact. The bottom line is I’m working for them, trying to protect their land.”

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’ I struggle trying to understand why people don’t want to support eco-tourism.’

Jerome Caston

Los Padres National Forest