Michael A. Sawyers
Cumberland Times-News
Cumberland —
CUMBERLAND — On Wednesday, 41 years to the day he was hired by the Maryland Forest Service, Bernie Zlomek will retire from what he calls the best possible job he could have gotten.
“I was going to retire after 30 years, but realized that I loved the job too much to give it up,” he said Monday. “Then I was going to retire a year ago, at age 62, but put it off again.”
Zlomek said he is making the move now for two reasons. His wife will retire in April and he wants to spend more time with her doing things such as turkey hunting and fishing. And he has good health and wants to enjoy retirement to the fullest.
Zlomek answers quickly when asked his favorite spot on a Maryland state forest.
“Anyplace on the Green Ridge where you can look down and see the Potomac River from a high vantage point,” he said. “It reminds me of my home in Hudson, N.Y. I would climb a cliff there and when I got to the top I could see the Hudson River below.”
Just as quickly, Zlomek recalls the most memorable part of his professional career.
“Seven days in November of 2001,” he said. “We had brush and forest fires for seven straight days, starting with the Westernport fire on Dan’s Mountain. About the time we were mopping that one up, the Corriganville fire started. Then the firefighters were leaving that fire and getting something to eat and drink at the Corriganville Fire Department when the call came in that Green Ridge was on fire near Long Pond south of M.V. Smith Road.”
Zlomek said he had never seen a November with weather conditions like that one.
“Even nighttime relative humidity was in the teens. Very low. And the daytime humidity was in the single digits. Trees just exploded from those fires. I have never seen anything like it before or since.”
Zlomek said that each of the Westernport and Corriganville fires burned 300 to 350 acres, but could have easily consumed 1,000 acres apiece without the firefighting efforts. The Green Ridge fire destroyed 450 acres.
“We couldn’t prove any of them, but we think the Westernport fire started from utility lines, the Corriganville fire from someone burning debris and the Green Ridge fire from someone who had relieved themselves and then burned the toilet paper.”
Maryland’s was the only state forestry agency that responded to Zlomek’s application for a job in 1969.
“I drove from New York to Maryland and had an interview. Afterward, I asked about my chances and was told that 14 had applied, but I was the only one who showed up to be interviewed.”
His first assignment was in Garrett County. Zlomek, a graduate of Syracuse University, has held his current job for the past 30 years.
A substantial part of Zlomek’s career has been the creation of forest management plans for private lands.
“The state created a tax break for private lands, but only if an approved forest management plan was in place. There were a number of years when landowners would walk directly from the tax office to our office once they found out how much money they would save by having a plan. For a while we had a two-year backlog of plans to work on.”
Smokey Bear is second only to Mickey Mouse in character recognition around the world, Zlomek said. He credits the Smokey program in local schools with practically eliminating forest fires that began because kids were playing with matches.
“One time I volunteered to wear the Smokey Bear costume and ride in a parade at Bowman’s Addition. I would ride with Harold McDonald Jr. I knew everybody would be loving me because everybody loves Smokey, but when we were riding in the parade all I heard was ‘Hey, Mac,’ and ‘There’s Mac.’ He was from out that way and everybody knew him.”
Zlomek heaps praise on local volunteer fire departments for their work in putting out brush and forest fires. “It really hit me when I was sitting at one firefight and one of the volunteers came up and said he had to go to work. I thought, ‘wow, this guy just fought a fire all night and now he has to go to work.’ It made me realize how much a volunteer does and how important they are.”
Zlomek said that in retirement he will volunteer in many of the same areas that his career led him. Among those are the Allegany County Forestry Board and Project Learning Tree.
“I’ve been blessed,” Zlomek said. “The diversity, the challenge, the excitement, the exhaustion and all in Allegany County, the most beautiful county there is.”
Contact Michael A. Sawyers at msawyers@times-news.com.
