East County News Service

Photo, right:  Cleveland National Forest in San Diego County

February 11, 2025 (San Diego) – Congressman Darrell Issa, a San Diego Republican, has introduced the “Green Tape Elimination Act” that seeks to prevent wildfires by exempting all fuel reduction activities on federal lands from these environmental regulations for 10 years.

• The National Environmental Policy Act 
• The Endangered Species Act 
• The National Historic Preservation Act 
• The Clean Air Act 
• The Migratory Bird Treaty Act 
• The Migratory Bird Conservation Act
  
  

By Miriam Raftery

June 6, 2023 (Wynola) -- Cal Fire leaders have warned that the heavy rains this past winter have fueled growth of brush across the backcountry, setting the stage for what could be a severe wildfire season.

But in Julian, the Wynola Estates neighborhood is working together to protect residents and their homes from wildfires.

After requiring homeowners to clear overgrown trees and shrubs from the community’s 80 properties, the Wynola Estates Fire Safe Council organized a community chipping event. Over 30 thirty residents have come together to collect foliage for chipping.

Source:  California Department of Fish and Wildife

CDFW photo:  heavy equipment is deployed to create fire breaks on CDFW wildlife areas in Merced County.

July 1, 2021 (San Diego) - The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has undertaken the largest wildfire protection and resiliency effort in its history, working to safeguard nearly all of its wildlife areas, ecological reserves and the surrounding communities from wildfire ahead of peak wildfire season this summer and fall.

May 22, 2013 (Spring Valley) – Maybe becoming a volunteer Firefighter is a bit much, but please consider being a volunteer “Fire Preventer.”

The San Miguel Fire District in cooperation with its partner CAL FIRE, is ramping up its “Before the Threat, Are You Ready” preparedness and prevention campaign. This massive public education effort provides critical preparedness information with an old- fashioned door-to-door contact.

Again this year they are hoping teams of community volunteers join CAL FIRE Firefighters in a door-to-door campaign in the Districts high hazard urban interface areas. Two major fires in four years have shown all of us the need to be prepared and to create defensible space, to have an evacuation plan, and have the supplies necessary to take care of your families for up to a week.

September 13, 2012 (Sacramento) – Senator Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego) announced today that her legislation to protect development from wildfire has been signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown.

“SB 1241 will save lives and property.  It will also ease the financial burden for fire suppression on both state and local governments through early, consistent, and meaningful fire hazard planning statewide,” stated Senator Kehoe. “We have fires in California every year.  As more people move into State Responsibility Areas and high fire hazard severity zones, it’s become critical that local governments plan for fire hazards in these high risk areas as early in their land use planning process as possible,” Kehoe said.