Attachment 3Report to Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors
WILDFIRE RISK & RESPONSE
April 2019
ATTACHMENT 3
County of Santa Clara
Fire Department
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Wildfire Risk & Response
BACKGROUND
At the December 4, 2018 Board of Supervisors meeting, a board referral was given to the
County Fire Chief due to the implications of the huge increase in wildland fires in the region
and the potential risks to Santa Clara County. Specifically, the referral requested information
on tools, technology, strategies, policies, procedures and resources available in the County as
well as what additional resources are needed to protect our community. The Santa Clara
County Fire Department (Central Fire Protection District) Fire Chief was asked to coordinate
with the other fire districts (Los Altos Hills and South Santa Clara County), the Roads and
Airports department, and County Parks and report back to the Board no later than April,
2019.
The Board’s request came shortly after the Camp fire destroyed the communities of Concow,
Magalia, and Paradise in Butte County, ending the deadliest and most destructive year of
wildland fires in California history. More than 20,000 structures were destroyed, over 1.9
million acres burned, and 98 people were killed. The Camp fire alone is estimated to have
cost over $120 million to contain1 and burned more than 18,000 structures, becoming
California’s most destructive wildland fire ever. This is remarkable considering just 13-
months prior the Tubbs fire in Sonoma County had been the most destructive fire in
California history burning 5,636 structures and killing 22 people. These fires fueled by dense,
dry vegetation and warmer, drier weather have unfortunately become increasingly more
common over the last several years and have resulted in rising suppression costs. In fact, the
last ten fire seasons have produced 7 of California’s most destructive wildland fires (Table
1).
Table 1. Most Destructive California Wildland Fires
Incident Acres Structures Deaths Date
Camp Fire 153,336 18,804 86 Nov 2018
Tubbs 36,807 5,636 22 Oct 2017
Tunnel 1,600 2,900 25 Oct 1991
Cedar 273,246 2,820 15 Oct 2003
Valley 76,067 1,955 4 Sep 2015
Witch 197,990 1,650 2 Oct 2007
1 Camp Fire, Incident Status Summary (ICS-209), November 25, 2018
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Wildfire Risk & Response
Woolsey 96,949 1,643 2 Nov 2018
Carr 229,651 1,604 8 Jul 2018
Nuns 54,382 1,355 3 Oct 2017
Thomas 281,893 1,063 2 Dec 2017
Source: California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
It is clear we are seeing unprecedented fire behavior and destruction and need to take
immediate action to reduce our risk and ensure Santa Clara County can respond effectively to
the, “new normal.”
To do this I recommend establishing a County Wildland Fire program, adopting the
Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) annexes 1, 2, 4, 13, 18, and approval of a 2-
year workplan for the newly established Wildland Fire Program with a focus on
operationalizing the CWPP. A Wildland Fire Program within the County Fire Marshal’s
Office staffed with a program manager/interagency coordinator, a pre-fire planner and a
Senior Deputy Fire Marshal will serve as the foundation of the workplan and provide
countywide coordination amongst the many stakeholders. In addition, the program will
immediately develop a best practices report summarizing the county level wildland fire
preparedness efforts in other counties (Alameda, Marin, Santa Barbara and Ventura
Counties) to ensure our long-term strategy is based on the combined experience of our
partners throughout the State. Specific recommendations include:
• The creation of a County Wildland Fire Program within the County Fire Marshal’s
Office to coordinate a unified approach to wildland fire risk reduction countywide,
including program funding out of the general fund and workplan authorization
(Attachment B – Workplan).
• Board adoption of all Community Wildfire Protection Plan Annexes (Attachment C –
CWPP incl. Annex 1, 2, 4, 13, 18) over which the County has authority.
• Funding for one Type 6 fire engine and one brush masticator tractor to accelerate
implementation of Department of Parks and Recreation hazardous fuels reduction
projects.
• Establish a policy for effective, integrated roadside vegetation management (fire fuel
reduction) for County roadways, including chemical herbicide application and mowing
in areas designated as high or very high fire hazard severity zones as defined by the
California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, and authorize the administration to
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provide exemptions for the use of effective, economical pre- and post-emergent
herbicide on roads in the designated high fire areas.
Funding these four recommendations would have a FY2019-20 impact to the general fund of
$1,211,511 recurring and $437,500 in one-time funds (Attachment D, Detailed Costs). The
detailed wildland fire program within this report, if implemented, will have a positive impact
on seniors and children to the extent that improving wildland fire preparedness and response
will enhance public safety. Seniors are often amongst the most vulnerable populations in our
communities, particularly during emergencies that require evacuations.
The “New Normal”
Unfortunately, recent climate reports forecast our risk to wildland fire is increasing.
According to the recently published, California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment:
California’s Changing Climate 2018 (Attachment E), “the science is highly certain that
California will continue to warm and experience greater impacts from climate change in the
future.” The report forecasts the area burned by wildland fire will increase as a result, and the
last few fire seasons lend support to the prediction. Warmer, drier weather and dense
vegetation adjacent to our communities are magnifying our historic wildland fire risk. This
phenomenon can best be illustrated in the equation shown below.
FUEL + WEATHER + WILDLAND URBAN INTERACE = DESTRUCTIVE FIRES
Within the equation, historic fire suppression efforts and land preservation have created an
abundance of dry, dense vegetation on our protected lands that are adjacent to communities.
Hotter, drier weather driven by climate change has further stressed the vegetation leading to
fires that grow explosively under certain weather conditions and burn through communities.
The November 2018 fires in Northern California are currently estimated to have resulted in
$11.4 billion in insured losses.2
While the County has limited ability to influence the changing weather conditions, it can take
a more active role in managing the tremendous fuel loading present in the wildland areas. To
provide a sense of the magnitude of the work to be done, in 2018 CAL FIRE’s Director
established their goal for treatment of state responsibility area (SRA) lands was
approximately 40,000 acres statewide, with 20,000 acres of prescribed fire and 20,000 acres
of fuels treatment. It is estimated that between 1999-2009 the state was only able to achieve
approximately 13,000 acres of fuels management per year, statewide. While CAL FIRE has
been able to increase the pace of fuels treatment, Scott Stephens, a wildland fire expert from
the UC Berkeley Center for Fire Research estimated in 2015 that California, “must increase
2 http://www.insurance.ca.gov/0400-news/0100-press-releases/2019/release14-19.cfm
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fuel-reduction efforts to ten times the area that is currently treated.”3 It is also believed a
more proactive approach to fuels reduction and prescribed fire may generate lower carbon
emissions than the larger, uncontrolled fires.4
Furthermore, each CAL FIRE unit in the Northern Region, including the Santa Clara Unit,
has been tasked with treating a minimum of 2,000 acres of the 40,000-acre statewide goal. If
the Santa Clara Unit, which covers portions of Alameda, Contra Costa, San Joaquin, Santa
Clara and Stanislaus counties, completed all of the assigned vegetation management work in
Santa Clara County, that would represent just 0.4 percent (2,000 / 554,200) of the 554,200
acres of unincorporated wildland areas in the county.
It is clear that the state has responsibility for the SRA watershed areas, which make up most
of the unincorporated lands, however, the county is responsible for land use planning and
development that occurs within the Santa Clara County unincorporated areas. Over the last
30 years, the county has seen an increase in urban sprawl/development in the unincorporated
wildland urban interface areas, which in turn, has increased the risk to those communities
should a wildland fire occur. This is not unique to Santa Clara County as many counties
across the state are taking a more active role in supporting and augmenting the limited state
resources to protect their citizens who reside in fire-prone, unincorporated areas.
Despite significant efforts and spending to prevent future fires by the state, achieving greater
vegetation management goals remains a significant challenge and cannot be accomplished by
the state alone. To achieve greater vegetation management within Santa Clara County,
greater coordination between local land owners, the state, local agencies responsible for fire
protection and the County must occur.
Historical Wildland Fire Risk in Santa Clara County
As defined by the Probability and Consequence Matrix found on page 24 of Santa Clara
County Fire Department’s Standards of Cover (SOC) document (Attachment F), a fire within
the wildland urban interface is categorized as a maximum risk event. This is based on an
assessment of probability of an event occurring and the associated consequence. A maximum
risk event indicates the potential for a severe loss of life, severe loss of economic value, large
loss of property, or it poses special challenges for emergency responders. There are
approximately 554,200 acres of unincorporated, wildland areas in Santa Clara County. Over
205,000 of these acres lie within the boundaries of the three dependent fire districts within
the County and are considered dual jurisdiction where both the California Department of
3 https://www.ppic.org/blog/managing-wildland fires-requires-new-strategies/
4 https://fireecology.org/Resources/Documents/AFEs-Prescribed-Fire-Position-Paper-2013.pdf
County of Santa Clara
Fire Department
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Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) and the local fire districts share jurisdictional
responsibility (Attachment G). The unincorporated wildland areas are divided into two main
regions that differ from a fuel, weather and development perspective; the east foothills /
Mount Hamilton range and the west foothills / Santa Cruz mountains. The vast majority of
this acreage is categorized by CAL FIRE’s Fire and Resource Assessment Program (FRAP)
as High or Very High Fire Hazard Severity zones (Attachment H).
The FRAP assessments, adopted in 2007, are consistent with the significant, recorded fire
history in Santa Clara County. Most recently, in September 2016, the Loma Fire burned
4,474 acres, and destroyed 28 structures. A consultant hired by the Santa Clara Valley Open
Space Authority estimates the economic loss associated with this fire between $29 to $34.5
million.5 While small in comparison to recent fires in other parts of California, it is one of
many examples indicative of Santa Clara County’s susceptibility to wildland fire. Other
notable fires include those shown below.
Table 2. Wildland Fires in Santa Clara County
Year Name Location Acreage Structures
Destroyed
Est.
Suppression Cost
(inflation adjusted)
2016 Loma Fire Loma Prieta / Casa
Loma
4,474 28 $17.3million
2008 Summit Fire West / Santa Cruz
Mtns
4,270 99 $17.5million
2007 Lick Fire East / Henry Coe SP 47,760 24 $11.5million
2003 Jump Fire East / San Antonio
Valley
4,894 0 N/A – Managed as
part of a complex
2002 Croy Fire West / Santa Cruz
Mtns
3,127 46 $9.7million
1999 Malech East / San Jose
foothills
1,200 0 N/A
1997 Cats Los Gatos / HWY 17 15 6 N/A
5 Open Space Authority Report/Earth Economics: The Economic Impact of the 2016 Loma Fire FINAL 20170505_2.pdf
County of Santa Clara
Fire Department
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1985 Lexington
Fire
West / Santa Cruz
Mtns
14,000 42 N/A
1985 Liddicoat Los Altos Hills 200 9 N/A
Current Planning and Preparedness
Due to the jurisdictional complexity involved, planning for wildland fires in the
unincorporated areas of the county involves coordination amongst a number of stakeholders
and landowners (Attachment I). Aside from the communities affected by the risk, the primary
stakeholders include the local fire districts, open space / park agencies, and CAL FIRE. The
county’s dependent fire districts (Central, Los Altos Hills, and South Santa Clara County) are
working collaboratively with these stakeholders to reduce the risk to the community.
Specifically, interagency planning has historically focused on response coordination, tactical
preplans, and mitigation strategies.
From a response perspective, all of the fire departments in Santa Clara County cooperate
through the local and statewide mutual aid agreements to respond in a coordinated fashion
should a large wildland fire occur, recognizing a large wildland fire will exceed the ability of
any agency’s ability to mitigate the emergency on its own. The Santa Clara County Mutual
Aid Plan (xsc.sccfd.org) guides the coordinated response of all fire agencies within the
county. This plan is exercised monthly and includes an annual wildland fire response
exercise. In 2018, 6-days of drills were conducted in the San Jose and Los Altos Hills
wildland urban interface areas.
The fire districts have also worked closely with CAL FIRE to develop tactical pre-plans for
communities at risk. There are currently three completed pre-plans for the East and West
Lexington basins and the Holiday Lake Estates/Jackson Oaks area of Morgan Hill, and a
fourth has been started to cover the Saratoga basin. The pre-plans are tactical documents that
provide identified resources for an incident commander to quickly and safely deploy
resources and evacuate civilians to safe areas.
With respect to mitigation, there are two principal planning documents completed in the last
few years to quantify the wildland fire risk and a number of public education campaigns have
been delivered to inform the public. The planning documents are the Santa Clara County
Operational Area Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP, Attachment J) and CWPP. The HMP is
important because it can be incorporated as a component of a community’s general plan to
ensure future development is consistent with the community’s risk. CWPPs, authorized and
defined in Title I of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act, are important because they identify
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specific mitigation projects (Attachment K – CWPP Annex 2, Chapter 2, page 32) to reduce
wildland fire risk to communities, municipal water supplies, and other at-risk land. The Santa
Clara County FireSafe Council and CAL FIRE were integral in the completion of the CWPP
as were many other agencies (Attachment L) within the county.
In addition to the planning documents, to increase public awareness of the wildland fire risk
County Fire launched a Ready, Set, Go (RSG) campaign in 2018 based on the national
standard for wildland fire preparedness and education. The program is also used by the other
county fire districts, CAL FIRE and SCC FireSafe Council.
Current Resources Available
The basic premise driving response to wildland fires is to keep them small. Typically, the
goal is to contain them at 10-acres or less and eliminate any threat to populated areas. To
accomplish this, staffing is constantly flexed (Attachment M) throughout fire season based on
changing weather conditions, and an overwhelming response is launched to get as many fire
engines, hand crews, bull dozers, and aircraft at scene in a timely manner. For example,
under extreme weather conditions, both County Fire and CAL FIRE would dispatch a,
“high,” response to a reported wildland fire. This response would provide 14 fire engines, 4
chief officers, 2 bull dozers, 2 air tankers, 2 hand crews, 2 helicopters, and 1 air tactical
supervisor (aka lead plane). The County Fire resources would be coming from local fire
stations and the CAL FIRE resources would be coming from throughout the greater Bay Area
region (Alameda, Contra Costa, San Benito, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa
Cruz, and Stanislaus counties).
In addition to the large initial response, a growing wildland fire would quickly require
additional resources via mutual aid. Orders would be placed through Santa Clara County
Communications and CAL FIRE’s Emergency Command Center to request more fire
engines, law enforcement and other specialized resources (bulldozers, aircraft and hand
crews). While local resources would arrive quickly, many of the specialized resources,
traveling from outside the county, could take hours to arrive. Also, despite the increase in the
frequency and duration of fire season, many local fire departments have limited their mutual
aid participation resulting in approximately 50% fewer local government resources available
through the mutual aid system today than there were 15 years ago6. Consequently, outside
assistance is not as robust as it once was, and as seen in November of this year, when fires
6 CAL OES
County of Santa Clara
Fire Department
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develop simultaneously in different parts of the State, the availability of wildland firefighting
resources via mutual aid will quickly be limited.7
Tables 3 and 4 show the fire engines and specialized wildland fire resources available in
Santa Clara County, respectively.
Table 3. Fire Engines in Santa Clara County (not all are available for mutual aid)
Type 1 Engine Type 3 Engine Type 6 Engine
90+ 26 15
*Note – this table does not include “reserve” status units
Table 4. Specialized Wildland fire Resources available in Santa Clara County
Water Tender Dozer Helicopter Hand Crews
7 1* 1* 0
*CAL FIRE Dozer and Copter are state resources. The dozer is stationed in Morgan Hill and the helicopter is stationed
near the Lexington Reservoir.
Moving Forward in Santa Clara County
Agencies throughout California are re-evaluating their capabilities to address this, “new
normal,” with a strategic focus on three areas: technology, risk reduction, and response.
Technology (for faster fire detection in remote areas and rapid alert & warning)
With respect to technology, there are a number of tools being deployed in an effort to better
predict and report wildland fires. GIS-based computer simulators allow planners and
firefighters to better understand fire spread and behavior under changing fuel and weather
conditions. Advanced camera systems provide for more rapid detection of wildland fires in
more remote, unpopulated areas. The Marin County Fire Department, along with other North
Bay agencies, recently deployed the ALERT Wildfire8 camera system. The ALERT Wildfire
system is a collaborative project between University of Nevada at Reno, University of
California San Diego / Scripps Institute, and the University of Oregon that provides state-of-
the-art fire cameras to help firefighters discover/locate/confirm fire ignition, scale response
appropriately, monitor fire behavior and increase situational awareness. This is the most
common system deployed in the State of California, with approximately 70 cameras installed
7 https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-woolsey-resources-20190106-htmlstory.html
8 www.alertwildland fire.org
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to date. County Fire has been working with CAL FIRE and the Santa Clara County FireSafe
Council (SCC FireSafe) on a plan to install 10 ALERT Wildfire cameras in the county. The
equipment would be offered at no cost to the County, but the County would be responsible
for providing suitable communications sites for the equipment. County Counsel is currently
supporting this effort and working with Scripps to get an MOU in place as soon as possible
so we can begin installing this new technology within the County.
Additionally, post incident information from both the North Bay fires in 2017 and the Camp
fire in 2018 highlighted the vulnerabilities of emergency alerting technology and the
consistent application of its capabilities. Between the need to order firefighting resources and
issue evacuation information, dispatch centers were overwhelmed. In response, Sonoma
County has created an Alert & Warning Coordinator with specific responsibility for ensuring
all members of the community receive prompt notifications during life threatening
emergencies. While Santa Clara County is currently making significant upgrades to the
technology and personnel at its 9-1-1 Communications Center, upgrading one Dispatcher III
position to a supervisory position (Senior Dispatcher) would provide the staffing necessary to
dedicate an Alert & Warning Coordinator.
Response (building greater regional capacity for specialized resources)
With respect to response, as mentioned previously, the effectiveness of the firefight will be
predicated on the ability to quickly assemble a large firefighting force to keep the fire small.
Agencies throughout Southern California and CAL FIRE are investing significant upgrades
to their aerial firefighting capabilities in response. In fact, CAL FIRE, Los Angeles County,
San Diego City, Santa Barbara County, and Ventura County are all in the process of
substantially upgrading their aerial firefighting capabilities with the purchase of Firehawk
helicopters. (See Table 5.)
Picture 1. Ventura County Fire Department, Firehawk helicopter
County of Santa Clara
Fire Department
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Table 5. Recent Firefighting Aircraft Purchases
Agency Model New or Military
Conversion
Estimated Cost
CAL FIRE Firehawk New $20 million
LA County Firehawk New $14.8 million
San Diego City Firehawk New $19.8 million
Santa Barbara County Firehawk Refurbished $6.4 million
Ventura County Firehawk Refurbished $7.4 million
A number of local government fire departments, such as Alameda County (Table 6) and
Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District, have also added bulldozers to their fleets over the last
few years to increase the local initial attack capabilities. Bulldozers provide the ability to
rapidly build fireline by scraping and pushing away vegetation. This ability saved lives
during the 2018 Camp Fire when bulldozers were able to rapidly construct Temporary
Refuge Areas (TRAs) for those people that were unable to evacuate. They are also useful in
the construction and maintenance of fuel breaks and fire roads, and water diversion during
flood conditions.
Picture 2. Alameda County Fire Department Dozer
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Fire Department
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Table 6. Alameda County Fire Department
Agency Model Estimated Cost
Alameda
Co FD
Dozer – Caterpillar D6N XL with track extension
(CAL FIRE spec)
$600,000
Transport – Kenworth (Alameda Co spec) $200,000
Trailer – Murray Lowboy (Alameda Co spec) $100,000
Dozer Tender – Ford F350 with utility body $75,000
While the local mutual aid system provides a well-tested avenue for deploying or pre-
deploying firefighting personnel and engines, specialized resources such as bulldozers, hand
crews and helicopters are not as readily available locally as they are in other parts of the state
(Table 7). When compared to Southern California counties with more fire history, Santa
Clara County has fewer of these response resources available nearby, particularly when
viewed in the context of wildland acreage to protect. With climate forecasts predicting our
weather to become more similar to Southern California, additional response capabilities
should be considered.
Table 7. Specialized Wildland Firefighting Resources
Department Water
Tender
Bulldozer Helicopter Hand
crews
SRA
Acreage in
County*
Alameda Co FD 2 1 0 0 246,200
Contra Costa
FPD
1 1 0 0 193,400
Santa Clara Co
Districts
(Central,
LAHCFD, So
Santa Clara Co)
3 0 0
0 554,200
Marin Co FD** 3 1 0 2 199,600
Santa Barbara Co
FD**
4 2 3 2 669,100
County of Santa Clara
Fire Department
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Ventura Co
FD**
2 3 3 2 305,000
CAL FIRE SCU
(Alameda,
Contra Costa,
Santa Clara, San
Joaquin,
Stanislaus)***
0 3
(1 in Santa
Clara County)
1
(3,000,000-
acre response
area)
0
(closest
crews from
Boulder
Creek,
Suisun City,
or Marin
Co)
1.3-million
*Source: CAL FIRE, 2016
**Contract counties partially funded by CAL FIRE
***All CAL FIRE resources are dedicated to the “State mission” and will be deployed based on State need
Risk Reduction
While new technology and response capabilities will provide tools to strengthen our
response, the most impactful action that can be initiated immediately, is accelerating our
efforts to reduce the risk. While County Fire and our partners have been working to address
wildland fire preparedness and education for years, the impacts of drought and climate
change have added a new urgency to this work and there are a number of steps that can be
taken to do this.
First, the CWPP provides the risk mitigation framework. It is a tool for identifying,
prioritizing, and tracking wildland fire mitigation measures across complex jurisdictional
boundaries. To date, the only cities that have formally adopted the plan are Monte Sereno,
Palo Alto, and Saratoga. The Santa Clara County Fire Chiefs Association (SCCFCA) is
encouraging all jurisdictions with a local annex in the CWPP to formally adopt their annex.
As a member of the SCCFCA and the County Fire Chief / Fire Marshal, County Fire
recommends adoption of all annexes over which the County has authority.
Second, County Fire will continue to reinforce defensible space requirements in 2019 by
enhancing education and inspection programs. Education will focus on an expansion of the
RSG program and partner with the SCC FireSafe Council to encourage more FireWise
communities. Eleven RSG community workshops are already scheduled to occur in County
Fire’s jurisdiction over the next several months, and SCC FireSafe, County Fire, and South
Santa Clara County Fire are currently working with communities to achieve FireWise
certification. These programs will run concurrently with County Fire’s defensible space
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inspection program. Currently, County Fire is responsible for inspecting 7,378 parcels within
the incorporated boundaries of the city’s served. CAL FIRE inspects some of the 13,220
unincorporated parcels within the boundaries of the dependent fire districts for defensible
space compliance and in 2018 each Unit had been tasked with achieving a 35% inspection
completion target. With the addition of a Senior Deputy Fire Marshal in the County Fire
Marshal’s Office, greater compliance can be achieved. A common county-wide standard may
also strengthen the County’s ability to pursue reimbursement from the State for defensible
space inspections and promote government efficiency. This would be consistent with Policy
#3 of the County’s 2019 Fire Protection Legislative Policies.
Finally, the County can take a leadership role in addressing hazardous fuels on county-owned
lands, such as road right-of-ways and parks.
County Roads (Roads) maintains 630 miles of unincorporated roads that serve as vital
transportation routes during emergencies. Many of these roads are located in high and very
high fire hazard severity zones. Unfortunately, however, vehicles traveling in rural areas are a
common cause of wildland fires (2016 – 281 fires caused by vehicles)9 due to the proximity
of receptive fuels (grass and weeds) adjacent to the roadway.
Since the adoption of the County Integrated Pest Management Program (IPM)(Attachment
N) in 2002 County Roads and Parks have used an integrated approach to vegetation
management. A combination of mowing, mulching and herbicides have been employed to
control weeds and grasses adjacent to roadways. Unfortunately, the use of mowers has been
strictly curtailed due to the possibility of a mower sparked fire. Currently mowing may only
be employed during specific humidity ranges, and with accompanying fire watch personnel.
This is costly and inefficient. Also, in recent years the number of effective herbicides allowed
by the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Prop. 65) has dwindled and
those that have been approved have had poor effectiveness in our County’s roadside and
parkland environments. As a result, an effective herbicide must be identified and approved
through the IPM exemption process. Roads staff and IPM staff have been working together
on identifying effective herbicides for County Roads in high and very high fire areas. At this
point it is apparent that the only effective, efficient and economical herbicides available will
require an exemption from the IPM ordinance. All herbicides used through an exemption
process would be applied in conformance with the manufacturers’ recommended practices
and noticed in conformance with Proposition 65 regulations.
9 Source: CAL FIRE
County of Santa Clara
Fire Department
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Authorizing an exemption within the County’s IPM program for the use of pre- and post-
emergent herbicide, would allow Parks and Roads to limit the growth of light flashy, fuels,
which are readily ignitable during hot, dry weather, in designated areas. Herbicides would be
applied in conjunction with mowing and mulching to provide an integrated approach to fuel
management, and would be approved by the County IPM coordinator.
Furthermore, for Parks the IPM exemption would play a small role in their overall natural
resource management strategy. Parks is responsible for managing 52,000 acres of County
parklands, including forests and grasslands located in the wildland urban interface. Park’s
comprehensive wildland fire risk reduction efforts focus on hazardous fuel reduction
projects such as maintaining defensible space around structures and roadways, creating and
maintaining fuel breaks along roads and trails, and managing vegetation in public use areas
(i.e., campgrounds and picnic areas). This work is mostly done manually, through a
combination of Parks staff and contract labor (such as Conservation Corps or CAL FIRE
crews). Park’s implementation of wildland fire prevention efforts is dependent on the
availability of equipment and labor resources. In addition to the selective use of herbicide in
designated areas, Parks has identified three priorities to accelerate its implementation of
hazardous fuel treatment: 1) purchase of a Type VI fire engine ($150,000) for wildland fire
suppression and fire prevention projects; 2) purchase of a tractor masticator ($75,000) for
establishing and maintaining fuel breaks, and; 3) identify additional labor sources to
complete planned fire risk reduction projects.
Picture 3: Parks – Skid Steer Tractor Masticator and Type VI Fire Engine
Hand crews such as those staffed by the Conservation Corps and CAL FIRE have historically
been used to assist with fuels reduction projects. However, as a result of the massive fuel
reduction workload statewide and a reduction in the overall number of CAL FIRE crews (164
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staffed out of 196 capacity10), these resources are not as readily available as they once were.
There are also no firefighting hand crews available locally, within Santa Clara County. The
addition of a fuels crew similar to the program utilized by the Marin County Fire Department
(Table 8), would provide significant additional capacity to conduct hazardous fuels reduction
county-wide. Fuels crews would consist of 12 seasonal employees capable of clearing brush,
assisting with prescribed fire projects, constructing fuel breaks in areas inaccessible to
mechanized equipment, defensible space inspections, and would enhance local wildland fire
initial attack capabilities.
Table 8. Marin County Fire Department / Mt. Tam Crew*
Agency Personnel Structure # Personnel
Marin Co
FD
Crew Superintendent / Battalion Chief 1
Crew Supervisor 1
Seasonal Firefighters 12
*Recent partnership with National Park Service will add a second crew
Furthermore, the State of California recently introduced the availability of approximately $1-
billion in funds11 available over the next 5-years to assist with fuels reduction projects. Some
of this funding has recently been approved for a fuel reduction project along Highway 17.
(Notably – this project must be completed by December 2019.) Having local capacity for
these types of projects will allow the County to be more competitive in application for future
grants as more local resources will be available to complete the work.
Summary
Like much of California, Santa Clara County is at risk from wildland fires. As a result of
climate change, this threat is forecasted to increase. Our region is forecasted to develop
Southern California weather, but our open spaces are filled with Northern California fuels.
While Santa Clara County’s fire districts and all of our partner agencies have cooperated to
plan and prepare, given recent fire behavior and climate change impacts, those efforts may
not be sufficient to address the changing need. As evidenced by the last few fire seasons, it is
clear we are seeing unprecedented fire behavior and destruction and need to take immediate
action to reduce our risk and ensure Santa Clara County can respond effectively to the, “new
normal.”
10 CAL FIRE Communications
County of Santa Clara
Fire Department
Santa Clara County Fire Department Page 17 of 17
Wildfire Risk & Response
To do this it is my recommendation that the Board consider the creation of a Wildland Fire
Program within the County Fire Marshal’s Office to coordinate wildland fire preparedness
countywide.