Oakland’s plan for preventing fires doesn’t go far enough
Public needs more details of methods that will mitigate risks
The city of Oakland released in May its draft plan to reduce the risk of wildfires within the wildland/urban interface of Oakland. Unfortunately, the draft plan has missed the mark on several fronts and must be revised before the City Council Public Safety Committee votes on Tuesday.
Getting the plan right is important because it will become the basis for an environmental impact report and the creation of a special wildfire management district that will assess property owners for the cost of reducing the threat of future wildfires.
This plan addresses vegetation management in the area of Oakland that abuts Berkeley on the north, San Leandro on the south, Contra Costa County on the east, and a few blocks west of Highway 13 and Interstate 580, including Dimond Canyon.
Wildfire has now become a major threat. Lookout towers in this area reported fewer than four fires a year since 1923, but in the past month alone, there have been eight wildfires.
Between 1923 and 1998, fires spread by the Diablo winds burned 9,840 acres, destroyed 3,542 homes, and took 26 lives, with more than $2 billion in financial losses. Diablo winds are hot, dry onshore winds that occur in the spring and fall. When these wildfires are mapped, it becomes apparent that they often recur in the same general areas.
The vegetation management plan:
Doesn’t take into account the “new normal” of wildfire in California — one where, after years of drought, we are seeing larger, more rapidly spreading wildfires throughout the year. There is no longer a fire season. Wildfire prevention is a year-round concern.
Filters its approach through the lens of potential ignition zones — roadsides or near structures — without taking into account the fact that wildfires are spread by embers that can travel miles away from the source. While Oakland’s vegetation management plan focuses only on city-owned parks and open spaces, the fact is that most of the wildfires in Oakland started elsewhere and spread to city-owned land. The draft plan has no strategy for dealing with the larger area, which would require close coordination with other landowners, public and private.
Doesn’t contain enough specificity about how to reduce the fire risk in Oakland’s parks and open spaces, and it does not ensure that the fire danger will be significantly reduced.
Doesn’t consider the role played by thousands of volunteers performing environmental restoration work. The knowledge and expertise within key volunteer groups is an asset in the fight against wildfires that should not be overlooked.
The plan needs to include:
Specific methods in specific locations so that the public knows what will be accomplished and that contractors hired by the city to do the work will understand what will be expected of them.
Detailed descriptions of the methods to be used to remove hazardous vegetation in these identified projects so we can know that they will be effective. For example, trees on ridge lines known to be at high risk of spreading wildfire must be removed by means known to permanently solve the problem.
A prioritized project list, based on fire modeling that uses fuel load, proximity to densely populated neighborhoods, ability to spread fire widely and history of fire in the vicinity. This will enable the city and its citizens to decide how many and which projects we can afford to undertake.
Identified projects, so that cost estimates can be made and a budget developed. Currently, the draft plan is not a 10-year plan; it states only that projects will be undertaken when “budget and time allow” on an annual basis. Without specificity for each site and the methods to be employed in each, no cost estimates can be made or funds identified.
Finally, the plan must require that the city work closely with the other cities, the East Bay Regional Park District, East Bay Municipal Utility District, the University of California, Cal Fire and other landowners in the hills so that fire prevention will become an effective strategy.
Oakland needs to get this right to protect the entire East Bay.
Sue Piper, a survivor of the 1991 Oakland hills fire, is the chair of the Oakland Firesafe Council. She is joined in this view by other 1991 fire survivors, park stewards and neighborhood associations in the fire-prone Oakland hills, including the Claremont Canyon Conservancy, Friends of Beaconsfield Canyon, Friends of Montclair RR Trail, Friends of Sausal Creek, Garber Park Stewards, Montclair Neighborhood Association, North Hills Community Association, Oakland Landscape Committee, Piedmont Pines Neighborhood Association.