LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Re: Plumas Lake

When will we be getting a supermarket here in Plumas Lake?

Also, fast food, a coffee shop, a pizza place, an ice cream shop.

Raymond Campbell Plumas Lake

Re: ‘Vegetation Management’ round two

I’d like to alert fellow Foothill residents that we are about to be subjected to another round of “Vegetation Management” similar to what was recently inflicted upon us by PG&E.

In this case it is the Yuba Firesafe

Council with a plan that will clear 150 feet on either side of county roads and 30 feet beside secondary roads including removing anything less than 12 inches in diameter, chipping of everything so cut and use of an unnamed herbicide to prevent regrowth. The reasoning behind such aggressive clearing has not been explained, nor have sites where this has already been done made available for view.

Property owners have been asked to sign a blanket “Right of Entry” form which gives the Firesafe Council the right to act as they will on your property for the next three years. Verbal reassurances were given that property owners could have their land’s treatment “customized” but nothing on the form itself says that or describes how it would work.

We all remember what a mess it was with multiple out-of-state based unsupervised PG&E subcontractors wandering around doing whatever they wished. If you objected to a tree-cutting that they wanted, they simply waited until you weren’t home to sneak in and do it anyway. Unfortunately this new plan works much the same way, with subcontractors bidding on the work and the lowest cost bidder getting the job. And no guarantee that the problematic PG&E subs won’t be right back out here acting as they did before.

Let me be clear - I am sure that there is something of merit in what the Firesafe Council wants to do. But let’s not repeat the methods that caused such problems in the past. I would like to see this project become a true public/private partnership with both sides working together rather than just something imposed on property owners.

William Coney Dobbins