LAKEPORT >> The Hometown Wildfire Safety Collaborative converged on Library Park January 26 urging county residents to act on the most vital of the coalition’s wildfire initiative: Environmental conservation and scientific research.
Genny Biggs, program director of the Gordon and Betty Moor Foundation said, “Catastrophic fire can threaten global conservation. Too many communities are vulnerable to extreme wildfire,” For Biggs’ Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, a nonprofit, one of seven of Hometown participants, it means partnering with PG&E, a for profit, which just donated $500,000 to Clear Lake Environmental Research Center (CLERC).
“It means tracking wildfire more accurately than current capabilities are,” Biggs said. Yet that also means identifying innovations that make a difference. “PG&E is applying these breakthrough solutions,” noted Andy Abranches, PG&E’s director of Wildfire Management Team. “To get these things done we had an opportunity to support the research and development behind the dynamic pathways of modeling that PG & E is applying in a firesafe way,” he said.
Abranches cautioned, “If maintenance doesn’t happen, we will see catastrophic wildfire come through.” But first it must begin with local ideas he urged. “It starts with funding, but it has to be sustainable,” he argued. “The reason PG&E believes in it, with capital projects, the project is only the start. You must maintain inspection and we’ll find solutions and achieve community resilience.”
Chief architect of fire safe proposals for community resilience is Mike Ciancio, fire chief of North Shore Fire Protection District, who conceived of an idea, imperative to the partnership of the Hometown Wildfire Safety Collaborative. “A couple of years ago I didn’t have an idea of how to develop it,” he said.
“I came to the county fire chiefs with the idea of creating a crew, knowing we couldn’t afford it, but they had enough faith in my vision to say ‘go forward,'” recalled Ciancio. This crew, the Hogback Ridge Crew, reviews the 2023 Lake County Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) and the dynamic fire pathway analysis. Yet, the crew is not funded by the county but 100% by grant works and the work the crew does. Ciancio had to put together a new system and chose Donvan Lee, the public safety specialist, who came from the Mendocino National Forest and brainstormed how to put the crew together.
“This collaborative started with that vision seen by others that it was worthy of investing in.” said Ciancio. He then presented it to the Board of Supervisors and they thought it was something that needed to happen, he recalled.
Meanwhile, it was Lee who hired the captain. Once the crew was assembled, they had to keep them employed noted Ciancio. The Firewise Community found the Hogback Ridge crew additional projects until sustainable funding was secured. “Today we’re adding another partner to this collaborative, PG&E. When it started it wasn’t certain we’d succeed. It’s been a long road but with PG&E they’re going to support the crew’s financials for one year, and part of that (agreement) was to increase the wages immediately, and also to grow the crew by five additional people bringing us up to 16.”
The idea started out that this crew would engage active fires to slow them down. “The collaborative will assist CLERC with determining the priorities,” Ciancio said. “We’ll work daily on the phone with Will Evans deciding what to do next.
And Tom Nixon, CLERC’s board President noted wildfire is one of the biggest economic and environmental problems the county faces. CLERC has secured numerous large grants from Cal Fire for fuel reduction, forest development and planning future projects. “CLERC has been awarded $26.2 million from state and federal sources, to achieve wildfire resilience, including fuel reduction on 6,000 plus acres on federal and nonfederal lands.
Will Evans, CLERC co-founder and executive director, pointed out the Hometown Collaborative must address three things including how to stabilize funding over the long term, with appropriations waiting grant payments and reimbursement. “The partnership with the North Shore Fuels Team (Hogback Ridge Crew) and the PG & E donation has already been making a difference,” Evans said.
The second thing has to do with what are the priorities. By implementing a computer model they find pathways wildfire makes into the communities and to reduce the speed of the fire and increase the time with which the first responders get to the front of the fire path. Finally, what happens to the harvested wood? Evans noted they will develop a pilot project comprising a Mobile Char Carbonizer. “And it couldn’t come at a better time, as CLERC was awarded a grant from Cal Fire to re-plant 1,065 acres up in the Mendocino National Forest that was burned,” Evans said. “So the first of September we’re re-planting and getting rid of all the dead trees. The Mendocino Forest is the most promising site noted Evans, but also in the Cobb/ Middletown area.
“Funders, Cal Fire and the U.S. Forest Service are sparking community interest to prepare themselves to be a fire adaptive community in the future,” he said. “And providing the tools to enable prioritization of how we can mitigate the negative effects of uncontrolled destructive wildfire, it’ll take a community approach, implement a fuel treatment in outlying areas, creation of defensible space and hardening homes, where a neighbor’s home does not become a threat to the community.
