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San Benito’s Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) is being updated by a partnership among local, state, tribal, and federal officials, as well as non-governmental organizations and private citizens.
Throughout the update period, residents and homeowners’ associations, fire protection districts, nonprofit organizations, and government and business entities, are working together to help make their communities safer from wildfire and provide a roadmap of clear actions for the community.
The CWPP partnership held three meetings in the county during August.
The long list of core collaborators on the update include the San Benito Fire Safe Council, San Benito Agricultural Land Trust, San Benito Resource Conservation District, San Benito Office of Emergency Services, San Benito County Cattlemen’s Association, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources Cooperative Extension, City of Hollister Fire Department, California State Parks, Amah Mutsun Land Trust, Bureau of Land Management, Cal Fire and National Park Service. The consultant team supporting this process includes Environmental Science Associates (ESA) and Spatial Informatics Group.
A CWPP is a community-based plan focused on identifying and addressing the local threats of wildfire. The collaborative process of developing these plans has been a national standard of practice since 2003, following the signing of the federal Healthy Forests Restoration Act (HFRA) into law. The HFRA requires that CWPPs are developed by multiple agencies at the state and local level in consultation with federal agencies and the public. San Benito County adopted its current CWPP in 2010.
Josh Silveira, Cal Fire BEU battalion chief, told BenitoLink that more than 2,000 acres have burned in the county, and his firefighters have responded to just under 100 vegetation fires within San Benito and Monterey counties thus far this season. The largest fire this year has been the Airline Fire which burned 1,295 acres in Paicines in early July.
August CWPP Meeting Notes
The San Benito County agencies involved in the CWPP have held three in-person meetings—one in San Juan Bautista, one in Tres Pinos and the other in Paicines. During these meetings residents were given an overview of the program and speakers presented on various topics regarding wildfire.
At the Aug. 14 Tres Pinos meeting, local farmer Paul Hain explained how fighting a small blaze on his farm this summer was hampered by mistakes he himself made, such as allowing his driveway to become overgrown, which prevented ground-unit access. Fire engines had to enter through a nearby vineyard. He did not have sufficient water storage on his farm, he said, because his tank had been damaged and he had not fixed it.
Lynn Overtree, executive director of the San Benito Agricultural Land Trust (SBALT) talked about fuel reduction and defensible space.
The segments included small group discussions and large group plenaries. However, during the Tres Pinos meeting, the Q&A took more time than scheduled. Residents voiced concerns about fire maps and reported having trouble getting adequate insurance, since companies will not provide coverage to residents in high fire danger zones.
There was also some discussion of purported damage done by fire suppression in California, with some residents stating their belief that this has only increased fuel and caused larger fires. (Scientific study suggests this has been the case. In a paper in the journal Nature, Krieder, Higura et al state “…attempting to suppress all wildfires necessarily means that fires will burn with more severe and less diverse ecological impacts, with burned area increasing at faster rates than expected from fuel accumulation or climate change.”)
Funding for the CWPP is provided by a grant of more than $700,000 through the California Coastal Conservancy and the California Department of Conservation.
The following areas of the plan will undergo change:
- Maps and figures on wildfire risk
- Updated definition of the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI)
- Recommendations to reduce risk at an individual homeowner and community-wide level
- Priority fuels reduction projects eligible for funding
- A publicly available comprehensive plan
More information about the plan can be found at San Benito Wildfire Resilience Program.
Residents are asked to participate in the planning process, and a comment card can be found here.
Related articles:
Local agencies to update county wildfire plan | BenitoLink
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