The Appeal of Fire Safe Council Firesafe
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M AST APPEAL Riverside County • Mountain Area Safety Taskforce • www.calmast.org • May 2006 THE APPEAL OF MAST PARTICIPANTS by Jim Russell, USFS Partnership Coordinator Most people who have visited California the San Jacinto Mountains Department of Forestry around Idyllwild have seen the and Fire Protection tremendous devastation caused by a combination of tree mortality and massive wildfires. Hundreds of thousands of trees died as a result California State Parks of drought and overcrowding that has left the forest susceptible to bark-beetles and MAST was formed to address the forest disease. health concerns created by the combination of tree mortality and drought in the San Jacinto This extensive tree mortality around the Mountains. Dedicated to collaboration and Idyllwild Fire Mountain communities poses a serious threat of coordination of resources, MAST is made up Department catastrophic wildfire, and creates a dangerous of over 20 different organizations including the situation for all residents of the San Jacinto Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Mountains. The Mountain Area Safety Taskforce California Department of Forestry and Fire (MAST) was created to address this threat in a Protection (CDF), United States Forest Service collaborative fashion. (USFS), the Mountain Communities Fire Safe Lake Hemet Municipal Water District Council (MCFSC), as well as wide variety of FIREsaFE DEMONstRatION community organizations and private citizens (see the sidebar for a complete list of participants). by Dominik Schwab, CDF One of the main priorities of this collaborative Mountain Communities Ever wonder what fire-safe looks like? Two Fire Safe Council group is to remove dead, dying and diseased trees private landowners teamed up with numerous in and around the various communities at risk. agencies to create the Mountain Resource Center APPEAL continued on Page 2 Demonstration Zone, located at the corner of Highway 243 and Franklin Avenue near Riverside County Idyllwild, California. The project was started FIRE SAFE COUNCIL Fire Department in July 2005 and covers roughly five acres. The by Michael Esnard, vegetation on the project site is representative MCFSC of the mixed conifer forest native to the area. The Mountain The intent of the Mountain Resource Center Southern California Communities Fire Safe Edison Demonstration Zone is to provide an example of Council (MCFSC) was healthy and fire-safe management to members of formed in the winter the general public. of 2002 by mountain The Mountain Resource Center Demonstration residents determined to USDA Zone is an ongoing project as fire-safe requires Forest Service protect their homes and community from wildfire. continued management of living plants and Begun with the main motive of educating the trees. The project to this point has included community about the need for fire abatement, the USDA thinning, chipping, pruning, and prescribed extraordinary die-off of trees from bark beetles Natural Resources burning to improve forest health and resistance pushed the organization to take a broader and more Conservation Service SITE continued on Page 2 FSC continued on Page 2 MAST APPEAL FSC continued... active role. The MCFSC added to its educational mission the administration of fire abatement grants, the sponsorship of hands-on volunteers, and several other unique projects concerning the fire safety of the mountain. At present the MCFSC has been awarded nearly 1.5 million dollars from the BLM and California Fire Safe Council to abate private properties through private contractors in a cost sharing arrangement with property owners. As of this spring this money has resulted in the fire abatement of 453 parcels of land consisting of 271 acres in the community. Several grants have been completed, several are active, and ways are being explored to find other sources of funding to continue the work, which at the moment looks promising. volunteers also cut and split donated logs which are then The council continues its educational work largely through given to the local HELP Center and directly to families in monthly public meetings featuring guest speakers who need. In the past 15 months the Woodies have donated 166 address fire relevant topics. Several speakers represented cords of wood and provided 5000 hours of effort. experience of the horrific 2003 fires, including Executive In addition to its ongoing programs and activities, MCFSC Directors of Fire Safe Councils at Lyttle Creek and the Rim continues to take on unique roles in the community, of the World. From the south, Lynette Perry, a Fire Safe bringing together fire professionals and local citizens. member from San Diego, twice spoke of her experience in During and after several fires the council has coordinated the Cedar Fire, where her home was one of 19 to survive valuable Town Meetings to enable people to hear directly out of 230 in Cuyamaca. Fire behavior experts such as Dan from professionals about their actions and assessments. Felix of the US Forest Service have also been featured, The council has also initiated and coordinated the and attention has been given to the politics of funding fuel development of a Community Wildfire Protection Plan reduction, with D’Ann Lanning, field representative for (CWPP) for the San Jacinto Mountains, resulting in a Senator Dianne Feinstein. vital interagency plan now before the County Board of MCFSC also sponsors on-going fuel abatement conducted Supervisors. As fire season approaches, MCFSC will by its own volunteers. Known as the “Woodies”, intensify public education and overall fire abatement volunteers fire abate homes of people who otherwise would activity. be unable to do so. If not working on a private residence, SITE continued... APPEAL continued... to a catastrophic wildfire. Measurements will be taken “The MAST organization allows us to accomplish this again on a periodic basis to determine the effectiveness across jurisdictional lines for more efficient protection of of treatments, the health of the trees, and to develop the public and our resources,” said treatment schedules for the Chief Norm Walker of the Forest future. A display board has Service. been set up outside of the Mountain Resource Center As shown in previous catastrophic to keep the public informed wildfires, fires do not stop at about the project. The project property boundary lines. Returning is a cooperative effort between our forest to a healthy state will the California Department of require ongoing efforts and Forestry and Fire Protection, support from fire fighting agencies, the Mountain Communities community organizations, elected Fire Safe Council, Southern officials, and private citizens. California Edison, the Pine The future of the forests in the Cove Water District, and two San Jacinto Mountains depends on how these diverse groups can private landowners. Please stop Firefighters manage a prescribed burn in the by and check it out! demonstration zone. coordinate and leverage resources in a collaborative partnership. 2 MAST APPEAL HELPING PEOPLE HELP THE LAND by Paul Laustsen, NRCS When District Conservationist Bob Hewitt of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) was invited to a Riverside County MAST meeting at the end of 2002 to discuss the possibility of utilizing the Emergency Watershed Protection Program (EWP) to address the tree mortality problem, he was cautious not to promise what he Tobiah Salvail and Robert Dunkle (left to right), NRCS Soil Conservation Technicians, inspect project sites and knew would be a challenge to obtain. The stakes work with landowners to ensure work is properly done. were very high as three California counties were well into the early stages of a severe tree mortality protect the natural resources disturbed by the problem that threatened mountain communities activity, heads turned. with devastating wildfires due to the dead trees and excessive fuels. It wasn’t long after the request was submitted that Southern California suffered the devastating wildfires of October “Nothing like this had ever been done before,” said 2003, called by outgoing Governor Gray Davis “probably Hewitt, “the program was traditionally employed after an the most expensive, widespread and most devastating” emergency, typically a natural disaster such as a fire, flood, wildfires the state has ever seen. These fires ultimately earthquake or windstorm, this was a proactive attempt to burned 800,000 acres and caused 22 deaths. These reduce the likelihood of devastating destruction to life and wildfires came dangerously close to taking off in the tree property before it happened.” mortality area. Recognizing the threat if this were to In collaboration with EWP program specialist Bill Ward happen, Senator Diane Feinstein and Congressman Jerry and county sponsors, Hewitt drafted up the first of three Lewis (CA-41) led the effort to approve funding and damage survey reports that would be prepared by NRCS. provide special authority and direction that enabled the These damage survey reports identified a significant threat Natural Resources Conservation Service to address this from devastating wildfires to over 100,000 people in a threat and do what they do best, help people help the land. three county area impacted by this severe tree mortality With funding for the unique utilization of the EWP program emergency. The state of California had already declared approved, and additional funding to address the erosion this problem to be an emergency situation. The cost issues associated with the 2003 fires, NRCS got to work estimate to provide this protection was approximately with their partners making site visits and planning for $120 million and the investment was predicted to reduce needed action. The result of the planning and hard work potential wildfire damages by as much as $8 billion dollars. resulted in over 350,000 dead, dying or diseased trees being This certainly sounded like a worthy investment. removed in less than two years. Over $111 of the $120 The EWP program is not an automatically or annually million allocated for the project has been obligated, with funded program. Congress funds this emergency program the full obligation anticipated by August 2006.