Cal Fire Report Urges Quick Action to Protect High-Risk Towns From Wildfire Threats
by Dan Brekke
March 5, 2019
… Cal Fire's response leads off with a list of 35 "priority" fuel reduction projects that have already been identified by the agency's regional units and can be launched now "to help reduce public safety risk for over 200 communities" statewide. The projects involve removing dead trees, clearing or thinning vegetation, and creating travel corridors for firefighters and residents along densely wooded roads.
The list of priority projects includes several in the immediate Bay Area. Among them:
A 1,760-acre project to create shaded fuel breaks in the hills north and west of Orinda (a shaded fuel break is one that clears brush and lower branches from trees while leaving the trees themselves in place, part of a strategy to prevent fires from spreading through the crowns of trees).
A 467-acre project to create a shaded fuel break for 100 feet on each side of Kings Mountain Road in parkland above Woodside, in southern San Mateo County.
A 454-acre project to create a shaded fuel break along Highway 17 between Lexington Reservoir and the Santa Cruz County line.
A 250-acre project at Quarry County Park in El Granada that aims to cut back a major stand of eucalyptus.
https://www.kqed.org/news/11730769/cal-fire-report-urges-quick-action-to-protect-high-risk-towns-from-wildfire-threats