United States Forest Service

[Aaronw]

I haven't seen that yet, so this is just a guess, but maybe a pilot program for a new numbering system. There has been a big push for uniform standards across the agency in the past 2-3 years (whistling in the dark in my opinion, but it keeps the GS-15s in DC busy).





Numbering has changed over the years and does vary between regions. In California the USFS has used a 2 digit identifier since the mid 90s. The first digit is the district, the second number the unit (typically station, but multiple company stations can mess that up, also numbers are skipped sometimes to avoid confusion between similar sounding numbers). Off forest, the forest name is added to the radio identifier (Tahoe engine 31, Sierra engine 12 etc).



Until the mid 90s there was more leeway and some forests were using a 3 digit identifier to account for the multiple company stations. The 3 digit system showed district, station and unit (in the station). The San Bernardino NF does have several multi-engine stations so perhaps they pushed to go back to the earlier system.



It is also possible they are adopting a system used in some other regions that shows the ICS type of engine with the first digit, 326 would be a type 3 engine from district 2 and is the 6th unit on the district. The 4 southern forests (Angeles, Cleveland, Los Padres and San Bernardino) are frequently involved in pilot programs for things like that.



Again just a guess.