Treesearch

Each parcel of government land carries specific land use constraints and objectives. This is also true of private housing and business developments. When government land, which was acquired to protect the natural or cultural resources, borders private land, which was acquired to build and protect houses or businesses, conflicts arise. The flammable native vegetation on the agency land is both a threat to the adjacent private landowner and the primary resource that the agency is sworn to protect. This paper covers the California Department of Parks and Recreation’s response to this conflict.

The urban and wildland interface (mix) problem exists in many communities in the United States. To effectively deal with these complex issues, cooperative approaches should be used to solve regional problems. This panel discussed the unique programs currently at work in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties in northern California. These programs were designed after the 1991 Oakland hills firestorm to address the specific problems in this predominantly urban intermix locale. The panel discussed the benefits derived from the formation of regional cooperatives that go beyond traditional geopolitic...

Emergency preparedness activities of one Berkeley-Oakland Hills neighborhood at the wildland/urban interface include establishing clusters that reduce fire hazards and fuel loads, setting aside emergency supplies, and identifying evacuation routes; taking emergency preparedness courses from the Offices of Emergency Services of Berkeley and Oakland (the CERT and CORE programs); and setting up and exercising a citizen-band radio network. With the cooperation of the Berkeley and Oakland fire and police departments, on-foot evacuation and earthquake drills have been held. Problems discovered...

A fire growth model (FARSITE) has been developed for use on personal computers (PC’s). Because PC’s are commonly used by land and fire managers, this portable platform would be an accustomed means to bring fire growth modeling technology to management applications. The FARSITE model is intended for use in projecting the growth of prescribed natural fires for wilderness areas. The PC model requires the support of a geographic information system (GIS) to manage and provide landscape data. FARSITE currently uses a stream of weather and wind changes along with landscape data downloaded from...

To reduce the risk of wildfire in the California urban interface often requires actions that will be viewed by members of the public as having adverse effects on such resources as wildlife, vegetation, views, air quality, and recreational opportunities. These citizens can substantially delay and even thwart development of fire management plans. In developing such a plan for an area in southern Marin County, California, public agency staff and its consultants encountered significant public opposition. The successful completion and adoption of the plan required an extensive public participati...

The law is a strict master regarding any kind of deliberately set fires. The value of natural resources and resource management is low on the list of priorities for this state’s lawmakers. BEWARE is the key word for those who dare to challenge the traditional notion that all fires must be extinguished immediately, except those within the safe confines of your fireplace or backyard barbecue. In order for fuel management with fire to be more easily utilized, the laws regarding fire management and resource protection will need to be amended to include the value of fuel management as a...

The Federal Clean Air Act of 1963 offers a challenge to the future of prescribed and natural fire programs in the United States. One aspect of maintaining healthy ecosystems for humans and natural resources is clean air. In addition, prescribed and natural fire programs are an important tool in maintaining healthy ecosystems, as well as satisfying the requirements of Federal and State legislation concerning home and structure protection, protecting endangered species, maintaining natural wilderness processes, providing for multiple use, and providing healthy forests and resources for...

Fire activity in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties has been recorded in historical documents. In pre-European times the Native Americans in the hills above the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay used fire to remove unwanted underbrush to improve the wildlife habitat. This type of "prescribed" burning may have been the earliest fire management in this region—the characteristic low levels of lightning activity in northern California resulted in few naturally occurring fires. In the 20th century, patterns of fire in this wildland and urban interface have caused much destruction. The history...

Prescribed burning in California has evolved from the original practices of the Native Americans, through years of experimentation and controversy, to finally become an accepted ecosystem management activity. When Dr. Harold Biswell arrived in California, he began research on improving game range by using prescribed fires and on understory burning in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex Laws.) stands. Through a series of field days that included demonstration burns, Dr. Biswell was able to educate and inform both the public and professional foresters about the benefits of prescribed...

A personal overview of why California is suffering billion-dollar-per-year costs and losses from wildland fire is presented. Two primary and ten supplemental factors contribute to the huge losses. The primary factors are lack of planning effectiveness and lack of adequate fuels management on a sustained basis. Supplemental factors target organizational and political weaknesses that contribute to the destructive consequences of the primary factors. Correction or elimination of the dozen factors can significantly reduce costs and losses in the future. Actions to make the needed corrections...