COUNTY OF SAN MATEO

Inter-Departmental Correspondence

Board of Supervisors

 

DATE:

August 15, 2008

BOARD MEETING DATE:

September 9, 2008

SPECIAL NOTICE/HEARING:

No

VOTE REQUIRED:

Majority

 

TO:

Honorable Board of Supervisors

FROM:

Rich Gordon

SUBJECT:

Resolution regarding forestry management and wildfire prevention.

 

RECOMMENDATION:

Adopt a Resolution requesting action by the Governor of the State of California to ensure that the United States Forest Service adequately does the prevention and maintenance work required to mitigate the risk of catastrophic wildfires.

 

VISION ALIGNMENT:

 

Goal(s):

    23 Leaders throughout the County provide the impetus for broader regional

    solutions in land use, housing, childcare, education, health and transportation.

 

BACKGROUND:

The California State Association of Counties (CSAC), in conjunction with the Regional Council of Rural Counties (RCRC) has asked counties to pass resolutions that urge the Governor to advocate on the state’s behalf to ensure that the fire prevention activities that are so desperately needed in the federally owned lands in California are accomplished.

 

DISCUSSION:

California has been besieged by wildfires this year, with over one million acres already burned and the fire season only half way over. Current forest management law, at both the state and the federal level, makes fire prevention work prohibitively expensive, slow to gain approval, and subject to widespread legal challenge. Selective fuel reduction work, along with other forest management tools, must be encouraged in private, state, and federal forestland in order to protect homes, businesses, and natural resources.

Additionally, due to the increase in catastrophic wildfires over the past 10 years, the federal and state agencies tasked with preventative maintenance and mitigation have seen their time and resources refocused on fire suppression. In fact, the U.S. Forest Service's fire fighting costs have doubled since 1994 and suppression activities account for nearly 40 percent of their overall budget.

 

Effectively managed forests have less of a probability of releasing large amounts of harmful GHG emissions into the atmosphere in the form of catastrophic wildfires. Furthermore, as a result of natural absorption, forests reduce the effects of GHG emissions and climate change by removing carbon from the air through the process of carbon

FISCAL IMPACT:

None.