Critics Challenge Cal Fire’s Massive Wildfire Mitigation Plan

By Megan Burke, Maureen Cavanaugh, KPBS

The California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection is proposing a "vegetation treatment" plan to protect California from future wild fires.

The plan proposes the use of prescribed burns, chopping down, weeding, grazing animals and herbicides on tens of millions of acres of state and federal lands across California over 30 years.

The controlled burn method to reduce the intensity of wildfires has been in operation for years. It has also been the target of criticism, especially in Southern California.

Last week, a public hearing was held in Ventura to discuss the project after state agencies received thousands of letters against it.

Rick Halsey is a biologist and director of the California Chaparral Institute. He said the plan is a "major threat to nature" in California because one-third of the state lands would be cleared.

Halsey said prescribed burns, which make up more than 50 percent of the vegetation treatment plan, don't actually work to prevent wildfire in San Diego County and Southern California.

He points to the recent Silver Fire, which burned 20,000 acres and destroyed 48 homes near Banning, as a challenge to the theory that prescribed burns prevent fires.

Halsey said because the Silver Fire burned in part of the footprint of the 2006 Esmerelda Fire, it proves that young vegetation can carry a fire, which is contrary to what proponents of prescribed burns say.

Halsey said there are other ways to protect homes in San Diego County from wildfires. He said communities can require fire-resistant construction and defensible space as part of hazard zoning policies.

Cal Fire said the vegetation treatment plan is necessary because of an increase in the number and severity of wildfires in the last 30 years and an increasing population in the state with millions of people living in rural or fire-prone areas.

In the executive summary of the project proposal, the agency points to the influence of climate change on wildfire severity.

It says an increase in drought, higher temperatures and more grasslands all point to the need for the vegetation treatment plan.

Listen:

Aired 8/14/13

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Rick Halsey, biologist and director of the California Chaparral Institute.

We invited officials with the California Department of Forestry and local officials with CalFire who are promoting the Vegetation Treatment plan to be interviewed but after agreeing to be on the program, they were not able to join us today. We are hoping to have them on with us tomorrow.

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