East Bay Regional Park District Board Approves
Future Wildfire Hazard Reduction and Resource Management Plan
On April 20, 2010, after four years of planning and public review, the EBRPD Board of Directors approved a long-range wildfire fuels hazard and resource management plan encompassing thirteen parks from Richmond to Castro Valley. The District created this comprehensive plan to reduce the risk of a catastrophic firestorm such as the one that occurred in 1991 in the Oakland hills which took 26 lives, destroyed 3350 homes and 450 apartments, and caused $1.6 billion in property damage.
The plan outlines a strategy for improving the protection of lives and property through vegetation management of 3,600 acres in thirteen regional parks, also coordinating with East Bay cities to provide neighborhood fire protection by educating homeowners and designing fire-safe homes and landscapes. The Plan area has gone through an extensive environmental analysis which was documented in a detailed EIR. Five public information meetings were held between April 2006 and September 2009 prior to the board's approval.
> More information: www.ebparks.org/stewardship/fireplan
Protecting the Public and Natural Resources:
The Park District Releases its
East Bay Hills Wildfire Hazard Reduction And Resource Management Plan
More information: EBRPD Wildfire Hazard Reduction and Resource Management Plan and EIR
| Between 1990 and 2003, wildfires destroyed some 11,000 homes in California. The 1991 Oakland Hills fire destroyed 3,300 homes, valued at $1.7 Billion, and killed 25 people. It was the largest wildfire in the history of the Bay Area, but only the latest of 15 major wildfires in the East Bay hills between 1923 and 2003. Common to all these catastrophic fires were hot dry days in the fall and “Diablo Winds” from the east, driving fires through dry vegetation and hills neighborhoods.
Wildfires, from both natural and human causes, are inevitable. But good advance planning and preparedness to respond to these fires and reduce the fuels that feed them can help prevent a wildfire from becoming a major catastrophe. The East Bay Regional Park District has just released a Draft Wildfire Hazard Reduction and Resource Management Plan and Environmental Impact Report, covering 19,000 acres of parkland in 13 Regional Parks in the East Bay hills. The Plan outlines a strategy for vegetation management intended to protect lives and property by preventing the spread of wildfire from parkland into adjacent neighborhoods. It will also complement the efforts of other East Bay cities to provide neighborhood fire protection by educating homeowners and designing fire-safe homes and landscapes. The Plan and the Park District’s fuels management activities are funded through Measure CC, the 2004 property tax passed by voters in western Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. The Wildfire Hazard Reduction Plan will guide vegetation management and the expenditure of those funds. At the same time, the plan emphasizes protection and enhancement of natural resources in the park lands. The Plan is based on four goals:
The Plan and Environmental Impact Report (EIR) are available for review at the East Bay Regional Park District Headquarters, 2950 Peralta Oaks Court, Oakland, and at the Berkeley, Oakland and Richmond public libraries. CD copies of the Plan may also be obtained at the Park District Headquarters, 2950 Peralta Oaks Court, Oakland (510-544-2300); and it can also be downloaded from this web site. |
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