Plan addresses wildfire worry with fuel break

The Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority, formed by voters in 2020 to bolster local protection from runaway wildland fires, is preparing plans to create a 38-mile safety corridor from Corte Madera to Fairfax.

The project will reduce overgrown vegetation, dead and diseased trees and invasive vegetation, creating a buffer aimed at improving firefighting crews' odds at halting a wildfire before it reaches nearby homes.

Working with the county, Ross Valley, Kentfield and Corte Madera fire departments, this project is exactly what voters expected when they passed Measure C and its local sales tax increase.

With the exception of the 2020 fire in the Point Reyes National Seashore, Marin has mostly been spared from the destructive and deadly wildland fires that have scorched other Northern California counties.

Over the past decade, we have seen horrifying wildland fires — such as the Camp, Caldor, Tubbs, Creek and Dixie — quickly spread across thousands of acres, turning neighborhoods into ashes and claiming many lives and livelihoods.

Those fires have spread with speed and intensities that have grown faster than firefighting crews could control them. Firefighters returning from fighting those fires have warned they could happen here, fueled by overgrown vegetation and dead and diseased trees in open space areas near neighborhoods.

Creating and maintaining a so-called fuelbreak would help slow the flames, reduce their ferocity and provide firefighters space where they can attack and stop the fires and protect neighborhoods.

In the past, the creation of fuelbreaks has drawn criticism for removing too much vegetation. But so far, the authority's plan has addressed worries about possible harm to habitat areas.

The plan is not a clearcutting, but the creation of a protective swatch. Many trees would remain, but lowlying limbs would be removed so they would be less likely to burn. Those trees also provide shade, which retains moisture that also slows the spread of fires.

It is an ambitious plan, not only in its creation, but also in ongoing maintenance.

Central Marin fire Battalion Chief Todd Lando, a wildfire hazard mitigation specialist, said the project will not only help protect homes, but improve the health of Marin's forested areas that are now compromised by dead and diseased trees.