Pubdate: Sat, 14 Sep 2013
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2013 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Page: C2

POT CLEANUP CREW LEADER DIES IN FALL FROM HELICOPTER

SACRAMENTO - A California outdoorsman who led crews of volunteers 
through the Sierra Nevada mountains repairing trails and cleaning up 
marijuana grow sites has died after falling from a helicopter, 
authorities said.

Shane Krogen was being lowered in a harness to a remote cleanup site 
in Sequoia National Forest when he fell Thursday, said Lt. Patrick 
Foy of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Krogen fell 
about 50 feet.

"We just don't know what happened yet," Foy said.

The helicopter was being operated by the California National Guard 
129th Air Rescue Wing.

Krogen, 57, of Fresno, was founder and executive director of the High 
Sierra Trail Crew, a group that has worked with the fish and wildlife 
agency since 2008 and U.S. Forest Service since 1995 to remove trash 
and contaminants from illegal and remote marijuana gardens.

Krogen and some of his crew were among a handful of volunteers 
trained to be airlifted and lowered into difficult terrain.

Foy and about 15 other law enforcement agents had hiked to the grow 
site early Thursday. At about 10 a.m., he and four other cleanup 
volunteers were to be transported by helicopter to a spot about 100 feet away.

"We could hear on the radio that the helicopter was coming in and 
lowering the crew members," Foy said. "Then a call went out that 
somebody had been injured."

Foy's team included emergency medical technicians who were at 
Krogen's side within two minutes.

The helicopter crew lowered a stretcher and hauled Krogen back up, 
then notified the trauma hospital in Visalia they were on the way.

"Shane was breathing when we saw him," Foy said. "We all thought he 
was going to make it."

His death caused an outpouring of grief among his friends, and 
tributes from those who worked alongside him.

"Shane's dedication to California's natural resources was 
extraordinary," fish and wildlife assistant chief John Baker said in 
a statement. "He and his crew have worked tirelessly for several 
years to maintain access to the high Sierra for all Californians."

Krogen received the U.S. Forest Service's Regional Forester's 
Volunteer of the Year Award in 2012, and in 2011 he won the Chief's Award.
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