FOREST SERVICE PLAN TO CLEAR VEGETATION IN PINE VALLEY & MT. LAGUNA DRAWS CRITICISM; WOULD DAMAGE 1,000 ACRES OF CHAPARRAL, GROUP SAYS

April 6, 2010 (San Diego’s East County) – The U.S. Forest Service has proposed a 5,000 acre “Mount Laguna and Pine Valley Community Defense and Healthy Restoration Project” to include prescribed burns, tree thinning and shredding of brush to “reduce the risk to life, property and resource values from an unusually severe wildland fire event, and to improve fire suppression abilities and fire fighters safeties” according to Marian Kadota with the U.S. Forest Service in Carpinteria.

But the California Chaparral Institute has sent a letter to the Forest Service seeking changes to prevent damage to chaparral.

“The California Chaparral Institute strongly supports projects to reduce the risk of wildfire to people and property,” said board member David Hogan. “But the Mount Laguna and Pine Valley project would unnecessarily shred over 1,000 acres of chaparral when more targeted treatments directly around structures would be more effective and less harmful.” The Institute supports thinning and prescribed understory burns in pine forests within the project area, but calls for keeping “ecologically important large, old, live and dead trees and chaparral patches in the forest for wildlife.”
 

Halsey says it’s a myth the prescribed burns are needed to improve health of the chaparral. He argues that unnaturally frequent fire eliminates chaparral and can cause spread of highly flammable weeds. Instead, he calls for retrofitting structures with fire resistant materials and reducing vegetation and landscaping fuels near homes. Chaparral should only be thinned within 100 feet of homes consistent with state law, plus another 30 feet as needed for safe passage on roads. He also called for elimination of cattle grazing in the area, urged review of the program’s effectiveness and impacts, and urged that similar activities by county, state and other entities be taken into consideration.
 

The Forest Service held two meetings in March, inviting about 40 stakeholders including members of fire safe councils, other agencies, Native Americans, environmental groups, and special use holders. At least 17 people attended, Kadota said. “The goal is to go out for public scoping (public comment) of the proposed project sometime this summer. We have until December 2010 to have the environmental analysis and decision made but we’re hoping it will be sooner than that.”