Contact: Leigh Ann Gessner
650-773-3638, lgessner@openspace.org
Midpen Open Space finalizes new Wildland Fire Resiliency Program allowing expanded vegetation management work to begin
LOS ALTOS, Calif. [May 14, 2021] — A major milestone was reached this week in the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District’s efforts to proactively expand its ongoing wildland fire prevention, preparation and response work. At a public hearing May 12, the Midpen board of directors approved the newly developed Wildland Fire Resiliency Program, including certifying the environmental impact report, allowing work to begin.
“This program is really a game-changer for us,” Midpen General Manager Ana Ruiz said during the hearing. “It is going to expand Midpen’s ecologically sensitive vegetation management work by approximately 600% over the next 10 years. We are lining up grants, expanding partnerships and building capacity to pursue this work that will provide significant benefits to our region and increase the resilience of our public open space lands.”
Midpen’s Wildland Fire Resiliency program was developed over several years through a public process that included input from local, state, federal and fire agencies; environmental advocacy groups; Native American tribes and community members. Full implementation will be dependent on grant funding and partnerships as Midpen increases its capability to implement the proposed work. The goals of the program are to assist ecosystems in becoming healthier and more resilient, reduce wildland fire risk and facilitate fire agency response. The program has four components, designed to prioritize potential treatment areas using best available science:
- Vegetation management plan
- Scientific monitoring plan
- Pre-fire plans to assist fire agencies
- Prescribed fire plan
The prescribed fire plan requires further environmental analysis and would tentatively be added to Midpen’s land management toolbox in 2023.
Wildland fire prevention, preparation and response are central to Midpen’s work in caring for the land. Staff work year-round maintaining hundreds of miles of fuel breaks and fire roads. Through Midpen’s conservation grazing program on the San Mateo County Coast, approximately 6,500 acres are grazed by cattle to help restore native grasslands while reducing fuels for fire safety. Midpen provides annual wildland fire training to staff who are often first responders to fires and assist fire departments, including on the CZU August Lightning Complex Fire, and as ecological advisors. Smoking, campfires and firearms are never allowed in Midpen preserves.
“I’m very confident that with the adoption of this Wildland Fire Resiliency Program, we are truly changing the paradigm in how we as a public agency prepare for and adapt to our changing climate, and prepare our extraordinary lands to be wildfire resilient,” Midpen Ward 7 Director Zoe Kersteen-Tucker said during the hearing. “I am eager to begin this important work.”
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The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District’s mission is to acquire and preserve a regional greenbelt of open space land of regional significance in perpetuity, protect and restore the natural environment and provide opportunities for ecologically sensitive public enjoyment and education. On the San Mateo County coast, our mission also includes preserving agricultural land of regional significance and rural character and encouraging viable agricultural use of land resources. Midpen has successfully protected more than 65,000 acres of public open space land in the Santa Cruz Mountains region since 1972.