Meetings/20181111

Barbara & Kevin O'Riley ( rinders - 610 Madrone ) hosted a meeting to discuss approaches to tree maintenance and thinning in the Canyon.

Rich Samson, Battalion Chief for CalFire, was presenter. He described himself as a forester and as an enforcer for forestry issues in our region.

Originally presented as a forum for talking about comprehensive tree-thinning with a neighborhood cost-sharing aspect, Mr Samson rapidly directed the discussion to fire safety.

The first thing I have in my notes is his dispelling the notion that 'we don't have any fires around here.' He points out that in the 60's 36,000 acres burned above Pescadero. He said the Gazos fire in January, and the recent 100' square fire off Cloverdale should of dispelled the notion that we're somehow immune to fire.

So since we're going to have a fire in the Canyon (or above ) what does he see as the communities priorities?

1. access and escape. Big engines will have a hard time getting in here as it currently stands. The small engines ( ?wildcats? ) are only operational during the dry seasons, and are mothballed the rest of the time. ( I think he said this is a statewide decision, so some regions may still be well suited to the small all terrain engines but won't have them available )
2. the canyon needs turnouts. these need to be engineered to support a loaded water truck, and to be about as big as a city bus. As the route in is essentially 1-way the trucks won't be coming in if they see smaller vehicles blocking the road.
3. the canyon road system needs 30 circles to turn the trucks in. If a branch of the roads doesn't end in such a turn around the truck isn't going in.
4. quick dips for drainage are bad for standard fire trucks. The lack the clearance of the little trucks. He cited the dip up on Madrone as you head to the dead end, after the Fern bridge.
5. the trucks need clearance from vegetation. they need a 15' high top clearance which is 10' across. They need 10 feet on either side of the road, so in the end one needs to clean a trapezoid shape for fire engine access. his phrase 'everything you see that's green will be on fire' he repeated a number of times, as he outlined the difficulties he sees in the Canyon's road system.
   1. he suggested we find a contractor who has a 'masticator' or flail cutter. These are the mowers-on-arms you've seen the County use along the roads. These would be used to en-mass cut back vegetation from roadways.
6. the water company should consider cutting side routes around some of the larger trees, and removing stumps close to the road ( within the trapezoid he described )
7. sight lines have to be good enough to allow the equipment operators to feel confident about their activities.
8. there need to be bollards around the fire hydrants. this is because they will break when a panicked person happens to run into them in the dark, and ... well cascade failure in my terms ( casey )

After thoroughly alarming us with this he moved on to the meetings original topic

• fire is a 'contagion' condition - just clearing your lot is nice but doesn't help you if your neighbor's is full of fuel. That's why he approves of a neighborhood approach to thinning etc.
• examine everything holistically.
• clear the big trees of dangling limbs up to at least 15 feet. This is to deter a ground fire from becoming a crown fire.
• clear the suckers, they will facilitate fire climbing up the trees
• clear the IVY. everywhere. It draws vermin, it catches on fire easily, it holds treefall in the air where it dries into nice kindling, and it makes unpredictable footing for emergency workers. Strip it off where it's climbing trees as it will lead the fire directly up its path.
• try to get rid of the Firs.
• up north all the ornamental plantings exploded. Holly's are very oily, as are madrones. cut them back or down.
• Now don't expect a lot of $ from commercial harvesters - the proximity of all these houses to the valuable trees increases their harvesting cost.
• he pointed out ( we actually walked around the neighborhood ) clusters of trees which had grown out of suckers. In many cases he was suggesting leaving only 1.
• cut stumps as low as possible. Less fuel, and if maintanence is deferred/abandoned the resulting sucker-tree will be stronger.

He moved onto tactical concerns

• there is a 150' exemption for tree cutting. ( I didn't get which overlapping network of concerns this was an exemption to. ) This will overlap in this neighborhood.
  • there is a 45 day limit per permitted cutting
  • therefore cascade permits and harvest work across the community.
• a Modified Timber Harvest Plan" doesn't have a time limit. However this is serious multi-party work, which would be a long effort.
  • you will need licensed timber operators. Bob Renyolds of Big Creek has foresters ( which will be necessary for a Modified Timber Harvest Plan ) and may well have references for licensed timber operators.
• Aside from Merlets ( sp ) this is a Class 1 Fishery. This will produce additional paperwork and expense.
• when the cutting happens everything that is 'waste' has to be chipped or burned.
  • yes burning with a permit is legal. Burns, however, are the source of the majority of our call-outs
  • chipping - has to be distributed to no more than 12" in depth. While duft is great, and helps maintain moisture, chips dry out and become vectors for invasive plants. as well as ground fuel.

There was then some jumping around

• Back to Access- outside the gate pester the County. Inside the gate is the community's baliwick. You will need to engage civil engineers.
• Trucks - the little trucks ave 500 gallons of water. This lasts about 1 min.
• the 'tenter' or tanker truck around here lives in La Honda. It has 3K gallons if it can get in here, and that gives you 6 min of supression.
• be sure that any local storage tanks have 2 1/2" male nation standard threads
• signage; beautiful and terrible. need 3" high letters seen from street. Remember it will be dark and your firefighters may be from Watsonville.
• invest is a stockpile of glowsticks. these are handy so the last of your CERT people to leave the canyon ( because in a big fire you are leaving the canyon and you have at best a half hour ) can leave a glowstick trail on the street leading to the burn.
• come up with a flexible escape routs with signage ( this is something we've been talking about in BCERT meetings for a while ) and have an understanding / enforce 1-way use of Redwood or Madrone as needed.
• be sure people know how to lock the gate open as you abandon the community