By Tony Hicks – The Contra Costa Board of Supervisors, acting in its capacity as the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District Board of Directors, approved a plan Tuesday for Con Fire to apply for up to $5 million in state grants to create a large firebreak project in central county.
Known as the CCCFPD Lafayette/Walnut Creek Shaded Fuel Break, the project would extend efforts by the Moraga-Orinda fire district to protect county residents from wildfire threats from the south.
The Moraga-Orinda district finished its 16-mile, $6.3 million fire break last year.
“We’re proposing to extend from where that project left off and go another two miles in Moraga, cross over into Lafayette, up through East Bay Parks (land), and then around, making kind of a horseshow around Rossmoor,” said Con Fire assistant chief Chris Bachman.
The break would extend another 12 miles and protect approximately 10,000 residents.
The break would be “shaded,” as the tree canopy formed by healthy mature trees would remain mostly intact, reducing future growth of brush and understory vegetation, while preserving sequestered carbon in existing trees.
Brush would be eliminated around trees from the ground up to six feet of the trees. The break would be 100 feet wide.
A staff report for Tuesday’s meeting said “The desired result is to restore fuel loading to more natural levels that can be maintained by the periodic introduction of prescribed fire.”
Fire officials said the grant application would be sent Wednesday. If the application is approved, officials said work on getting the necessary environmental studies and permits would commence “immediately.” The project would take two to three years.
Con Fire also updated the board on fire station construction projects in Bay Point and Pacheco. Much of the exterior work on station 86 in Bay Point is done and workers are painting the interior.
Work on the grounds is about to start, and officials say firefighters could occupy the building by fall.
The environmental approval process for station 9 in Pacheco has been held up by drainage issues, something officials say they hope to solve soon.
Will this fire break be available to hikers?
It sounds like it’d be a great hike.
@Cellophane – I think much of it is on private property, many areas have very steep terrain, and some of the breaks follow major roads. They cleared brush away from the shoulders. A hike on these firebreaks would not be your typical forest bathing experience.
Below is a link to the project web site. There is a section that goes through Briones Open Space that would be open to hiking. For the parts around San Pablo Reservoir you would need an EBMUD trail permit though even with that there still areas of the reservoir’s watershed that are off limits.
https://deercreek.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=74175448689248a9b7788f7313e3519a
If the long link does not work then try https://tinyurl.com/unakbx8m
That’s a lot of money. Make inmates do it for free. It’s only 6 feet high.
Great idea! But, it would never happen here in California, the state that strives to encourage, support and protect criminals.
The inmates that are trained in firefighting, are the minimum security inmates that Newsom let out early.
The fire danger in Lafayette and Moraga is not mitigated by a shaded fire break. The danger is a fire that starts in the well populated areas and runs a few hours like the Oakland firestorm. Nevermind the lack of fuel abatement along the roads leading out of Moraga.
Are the authorities in this state finally figuring it out? Amazing. This should have been the practice all along. Many homes and lives could have been saved by proper forest management.
No, just our own county fire district.
Our state officials have refused to to listen to our own fire officials and instead listened to woke environmental lobbyists for the past twenty years.
That’s why we’re at least twenty years behind on on this type of work.
… I’m no expert but sounds like a good idea on the surface…. assuming it’s good I’ll bet Newsom doesn’t approve it – just because it wasn’t his idea
The leader of the free world suggested rakes. What’s wrong with rakes?