FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Leigh Ann Gessner
650-691-1200, lgessner@openspace.org
Midpen staff perform annual wildland firefighter training ahead of fire season
Midpen’s Wildland Fire Resiliency Program includes year-round vegetation management
Los Altos, CA — Yesterday, Midpen rangers and other staff participated in an annual training under the instruction of fire professionals with the South Bay Regional Public Safety Training Consortium to maintain their skills and practice with essential firefighting equipment. Dozens of Midpen staff had a classroom learning session at Midpen’s Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve, then practiced essential firefighting skills outdoors including mobile attacks, progressive hose lays, constructing handlines and deploying fire shelters.
Though fires rarely start within Midpen preserves, the training allows Midpen rangers to be first responders to wildland fires in and around Midpen preserves as needed until responding firefighters arrive. This includes roadside fires caused by vehicles that can threaten to spread into open space lands. It also means Midpen staff are prepared to assist fire agencies with firefighting when needed and requested. Some Midpen ranger patrol trucks are equipped with water pumpers during fire season. All rangers carry firefighting gear and tools in their patrol trucks to quickly respond to reports of fire. Midpen also owns water trucks that can deliver water to fire incidents when needed.
Midpen staff work year-round to reduce wildland fire severity and risk in our region by managing vegetation in the public open space preserves it manages with a focus on ecological health and wildland fire resilience. Midpen’s Wildland Fire Resiliency Program has proactively expanded environmentally sensitive vegetation management in Midpen preserves to promote healthy, resilient, fire-adapted ecosystems; reduce wildland fire risk; and facilitate efficient response by fire agencies. Midpen has expanded its capacity through hiring new staff, partnering with organizations such as the San Jose Conservation Corps and Charter School and receiving state grant funding in support of forest health and wildland fire resiliency work.
“Fire is a fact of life in California and native plant communities in the Santa Cruz Mountain region have evolved over millennia with fire,” Midpen Senior Resource Management Specialist Coty Sifuentes-Winter said. “A changing climate, a long history of intense logging resulting in dense regrowth, coupled with fire suppression, and the fact that people cause the majority of fires in California all contribute to a longer, more intense fire season. Midpen’s Wildland Fire Resiliency program is aimed at helping Midpen meet these new challenges.”
For more information, visit openspace.org/fire.