US Forest Service - Sierra National Forest (CA)

US Forests in California:
Angeles	Inyo	Lassen	Modoc	Sequoia	Six Rivers
Cleveland	Klamath	Los Padres	Plumas	Shasta-Trinity	Stanislaus
Eldorado	Lake Tahoe BMU	Mendocino	San Bernardino	Sierra	Tahoe

Sierra National Forest (SNF - Forest #15) "Sierra" KME 2-6

National Forests were called "Forest Reserves" when they were first established by Presidential Proclamation under the Forest Reserve Act of 1891. The U.S. Forest Service was established in 1905 and in 1907, the "Forest Reserves" were all renamed "National Forests." The Sierra Forest Reserve was established in 1893 and was 6 million acres in size. It covered lands that are now part of Yosemite National Park, Kings Canyon National Park: and the Stanislaus, Toiyabe, Inyo and Sequoia National Forests. The large size of this reserve was too large to manage and the "Sierra South Forest Reserve" was established in 1910, covering the land south of the Kings River. Other portions of this original forest reserve were eventually split up between the Sierra, Toiyabe, Inyo and Sequoia National Forests. The remaining National Forest land became the present Sierra National Forest. Located on the western slope of the central Sierra Nevada, it is known for its spectacular mountain scenery and abundant natural resources. The Sierra National Forest encompasses more than 1.3 million acres between 900 and 13,986 feet in elevation. The terrain includes rolling, oak-covered foothills, heavily forested middle elevation slopes and the starkly beautiful alpine landscape of the High Sierra. Abundant fish and wildlife, varied mountain flora and fauna and numerous recreational opportunities make the Sierra National Forest an outdoor lover's paradise. The Forest's many rugged wilderness areas makes it one of the most popular National Forests in the United States.

Approximately 383,000 acres of the forest are old growth, containing Lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta), Red fir (Abies magnifica), White fir (Abies concolor), Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi) and Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa). The Sierra National Forest has two Giant Sequoia groves, the Nelder Grove and the McKinley Grove.

The Sierra National Forest is divided into the Bass Lake (District 1) (north of the San Joaquin River) and High Sierra (District 2) (south of the River) Ranger Districts. The Forest Supervisor's is in Clovis.

SNF Stations

Bass Lake Ranger District #1	High Sierra Ranger District #3
Mariposa Battalion #1	Pine Ridge Battalion #3
Station 11 - Jerseydale	Station 31 - Mountain Rest
Station 12 - Midpines	Station 32 - Big Creek
Station 13 - Batterson
Station 14 Westfall
Minarets Battalion #5	Kings River Battalion #4
Station 51 - North Fork	Station 41 - Trimmer
Station 52 - Clearwater	Station 42 - Blue Canyon
Station 53 - Minarets	Station 43 - Dinkey

RADIO SYSTEM

The Sierra National Forest has an "Emergency Net" and an "Admin Net." The emergency net is used by fire management and law enforcement. The admin net is for all other functions. Channels have been provided to enable direct or simplex communications on each net. The installation of 5 of 11 of the NIFC command frequencies in the primary group of channel assignments is unusual. Another unusual feature of the forest's radio system is that the repeater input or access tone is not transmitted on the output frequency, instead a different set of tones is transmitted on the output. For example, the input tone for the Shuteye Peak repeater is Tone 5 - 146.2, but the tone transmitted on the output frequency is 82.5. The assignment of the output tones of the remaining repeaters has not been determined. They are all in the lower frequency range of CTCSS tones, such as 71.9 and 77.0. The linking system the forest uses is to be determined. The system's hub remote base is likely on Musick Mountain or Mt. Givens.

Other

The unit identifiers follow the function name, district, position number system. Common function names include resources, timber, recreation, wilderness, OHV (Off Highway Vehicle management) lands, special uses, range, wildlife, watershed, soils, fisheries, engineer, engineering, roads, O & M (Operations and Maintenance), ecology and possible additional. Not every forest uses all of these and some ID the same unit with a different name, example some forests call their O & M and roads units "engineering." A consolidation of the Mariposa Ranger District and the Minarets Ranger District into what is now called the "Bass Lake Ranger District"; and the consolidation of the Pineridge Ranger District and Kings River Ranger District into what is now called the "High Sierra Ranger District;" occurred in the late 1990s. Employees assigned to the Forest Supervisor's Office have identifiers beginning with the number 1. All ranger district non-fire personnel use the number 5 (Bass Lake Ranger District) or 3 (High Sierra Ranger District) following the function name.

San Luis National Refuge personnel identify in the 8100 series. Their two older engines are assigned number in the 3100 series (old Bakersfield BLM district numbers) and the 2 newer engines in the 8100 series. When the two older engines are replaced, they will receive the 8100 series numbers.

The Sierra National Forest Emergency Command Center provides service to the Sierra National Forest and the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge Complex located adjacent to the San Joaquin River in the Central Valley. The San Luis NWR Complex includes the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), the Merced NWR, San Joaquin River NWR, and Grasslands Wildlife Management Area. The Complex office is in Los Banos. The Command Center is located at the Fresno Air Attack Base, an interagency Forest Service - Cal Fire facility at the Fresno Airport. The center is co located with Cal Fire's Fresno-Kings Unit Emergency Command Center. Each agency is included on the automatic initial attack dispatch plan of the other agency. The Forest Service dispatchers use the identifier "Sierra."

Channel Plan

Sierra National Forest Channel Lineup

Channel	Tone(s)	Rx	Tx	Alpha Tag	Description
1		171.4750	171.4750	Adm/LE Dir	Sierra NF - Admin/Law Enforcement Net Direct
2	1-10	171.4750	163.6875	Adm/LE Rpt	Sierra NF - Admin/Law Enforcement Net Repeater
3		172.2250	172.2250	Emer/Fire Dir	Sierra NF - Emergency/Fire Net Direct
4	1-10	172.2250	164.7875	Emer/Fire Rpt	Sierra NF - Emergency/Fire Net Repeater
5		168.6625	168.6625	R5 Project	R5 Project
6		166.5500	166.5500	R5 T4	R5 Tac 4
7		167.1125	167.1125	R5 T5	R5 Tac 5
8		167.9625	167.9625	R5 T7	R5 Tac 7
9		167.4750	167.4750	A/G 41 CA3 P	National Air-Ground 41 CA Zone 3 Primary
10		168.6375	168.6375	A/G 24 CA3 S	National Air-Ground 24 CA Zone 3 Secondary
11	1-16	168.7000	170.9750	NIFC C1 Rpt	NIFC Command 1 Repeater (1)
12	1-16	168.1000	170.4500	NIFC C2 Rpt	NIFC Command 2 Repeater (1)
13	1-16	168.0750	170.4250	NIFC C3 Rpt	NIFC Command 3 Repeater (1)
14	1-16	166.6125	168.4000	NIFC C4 Rpt	NIFC Command 4 Repeater (1)
15	1-16	167.1000	169.7500	NIFC C5 Rpt	NIFC Command 5 Repeater (1)
16	1	168.6250	168.6250	Natl Air Grd	National Air Guard - Tone 1 Tx Side
		173.7625	164.8250	SNF Serv	Service Net

Revised 6-10-24

(1): The National Interagency Fire Center's Command repeaters are portable and installed when a fire or other large incident occurs. There aren't any permanently installed NIFC Command repeaters set up in locations on the Sierra National Forest or any other federal public lands. NIFC assigns a CTCSS tone for each incident to code guard each frequency to reduce the chances of one incident interfering with another distant incident. NIFC chooses any one of the 16 standard tones for incidents as required by the circumstances.

Tones

SNF Repeaters

Input Tone	Location - Nets repeaters equipped with	CTCSS Tone	Output Tone
1	Mt. Bullion - Admin/Fire/Service	110.9	74.4
2	Signal Peak - Admin/Fire	123.0	77.0
3	Musick Mtn. - Admin/Fire/Service/Remote Base*	131.8	79.7
4	Patterson Mtn. - Admin/Fire/Service	136.5	82.5
5	Shuteye Peak - Admin/Fire	146.2	85.4
6	Black Mtn. - Admin/Fire	156.7	88.5
7	Mt. Tom - Admin/Fire	167.9	91.5
8	Delilah - Admin/Fire	103.5	94.8
9	Mt. Givens - Admin	100.0	TBD
9	Whitebark Vista- Fire/Service/Remote Base*	100.0	TBD
10	Fence Meadow - Admin/Fire	127.3	TBD
11-16	Not Assigned

TBD = To Be Determined

The Sierra National Forest repeaters transmit a different and non-standard tone on the repeater output frequency. The tones for Mt. Givens, Whitebark Vista and Fence Meadows have yet to be determined. All output tones are believed to be in the lower CTCSS frequency range, i.e. 67.0 - 97.4. Good guesses for the remaining 3 repeaters would be 67.0, 71.9 and 97.4.

Remote Base*: These repeater sites also have microwave linked remote bases for the admin, fire and service nets and each remote base works the repeaters of all three nets regardless of location. There are three microwave base links not shown above as they are not on peaks or on peaks with VHF repeaters. These are at dispatch (Fresno Airport), Goat Mtn. and North Fork. The latter two provide microwave access for the North Fork Ranger Station, the headquarters of the Bass Lake Ranger District. Direct or simplex communications from field units with the dispatch and North Fork base stations is possible with the remote bases.

Related Links

• National Incident Radio Support Cache - These frequencies are used for large incidents, usually when a Type I or Type II Incident Management Team is assigned. This cache is used for fires, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, visits of high ranking officials, such the U.S. President and the presidents of other countries, large law enforcement incidents, special events and other incidents where the federal government is utilizing the Incident Command System.

Return to DB page: United States Forest Service (CA)

US Forests in California:
Angeles	Inyo	Lassen	Modoc	Sequoia	Six Rivers
Cleveland	Klamath	Los Padres	Plumas	Shasta-Trinity	Stanislaus
Eldorado	Lake Tahoe BMU	Mendocino	San Bernardino	Sierra	Tahoe