Fire Hazard Mitigation Program & Fuel Management Plan for the East Bay Hills

The East Bay Vegetation Management Consortium has completed a Fire Hazard Mitigation Program and Fuel Management Plan for the East Bay Hills. The Plan describes standards for structures and vegetation to reduce fire hazards and enhance public safety in the project Study Area which includes over 37,000 acres of public and private lands.

Purpose of the Plan

There is currently a fire hazard in much of the study area. Over the years urban development has expanded into adjacent wildlands, increasing the density of homes and vegetation that contribute to fires in the East Bay Hills. This build-up of both natural and man-made fuel, combined with steep topography and periods of extreme weather, create the potential for catastrophic fire behavior. An uncontrolled fire can destroy homes, threaten public safety, damage plant and wildlife communities and potentially contribute to erosion and sedimentation in the streams and the reservoirs that supply drinking water to many East Bay residents.

Reducing the level of hazards for fire in the urban wildland intermix of the East Bay Hills is a key goal of the Plan. It is not realistic to eliminate the threat of wildfire, but the hazards can be managed to an "acceptable level of risk." The Plan focuses on the portion of the study area where wildlands and urban areas meet -- where fires pose the greatest risk to life and property.

Targeted Actions:

reduce heat output of fires,
modify structures to increase their potential for survival when exposed to fire, and
make it more difficult for fires to ignite and burn erratically.

Fires will continue to occur in the East Bay Hills. However, by implementing the recommended strategies East Bay residents and public land managers can reduce the potential for a small fire to grow into another catastrophic event such as October 1991.

All of the public land managers are concerned about the potential impacts -- social, economic and environmental implications (especially biotic, geologic, visual and air quality) of the actions required to reduce fire hazards. The Plan has established a regional program to continue to refine vegetation management standards, share information about the effectiveness, potential impacts and mitigation measures and to evaluate the success of the recommendations. The Plan is designed to track decisions and actions as each year's work program is established, and encourage changes to continually improve Plan implementation.

It is clear that to reach the goal of reducing fire hazards private citizens and public land managers must form an active partnership. Fire does not discriminate whether its fuel comes from plant materials or homes, nor who owns or manages the property. The strategies developed in the Plan will be successful only if they become common practices for both private and public landscapes and structures and if these practices provide for long term sustainability.

Process for creating the Plan

In 1992 the Vegetation Management Consortium (VMC) was formed with representatives from 9 local cities and agencies that manage public lands and regulate private lands in the East Bay Hills. Participants include staff from a variety of departments within these jurisdictions. The VMC is a part of a larger network of groups that are addressing the fire issues in the hills and include the:

Hills Emergency Forum (HEF) made up of city managers and CEOs of 7 cities and special districts,
East Bay Hills Fire Chiefs' Consortium (EBH FCC) made up of 16 Fire Chiefs in the region.

The Plan was developed through a year long process involving scientific analysis, inter-agency cooperation and public participation. Researchers at the AEGIS Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley developed a computer based Geographic Information System (GIS) that identified existing conditions and potential hazards in both the residential and wildland portions of the study area. This hazard assessment was utilized by the Consulting Team and Vegetation Management Consortium to develop appropriate mitigation measures and establish standards for a regional approach to vegetation management. Input was provided by both a Technical Advisory Committee and a Citizens Advisory Committee. A series of five workshops were offered early in the planning process to gather input from the general public as well as local home owner associations. Three open house presentations in September 1994 provided the general public with opportunities to comment on the draft recommendations.

Reducing Fire Hazards

The plan identifies hazard reduction programs targeting three critical factors involved in wildfires and the ability to reduce their potential damage:

ignition,
fire spread and behavior, and
"values at risk" or vulnerable receptors such as houses and adjacent landscapes.

The Plan recommends several strategies to establish a network of fuel modification zones and fuel breaks that will provide a buffer between the developed urban areas and adjacent wildlands. These zones will provide areas of more benign fire behavior, as well as locations from which to attack and potentially control a wildfire.

The plan also recommends actions to increase the chances for private landscapes and structures to survive on their own in the event of a wildfire. Local history has shown that wildfires often start within the urbanized areas and that it is important that hazard mitigation takes place on private property as well as public.

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