By Jennifer Upshaw Swartz
The Marin Independent Journal
MARIN, Calif. — Standing in a semi-shaded grove of oak trees, Marin County fire Capt. Tim Walsh studied the scene before him. It was trees, some scarred with black knobs, others splitting down the middle in some places. They were dead or dying, tucked into secluded woodlands — out of sight and out of mind.
“It’s a sudden-oak war zone,” he said.
Last week, the Marin County Fire Department’s Tamalpais Fire Crew, supervised by Walsh, set out to clear away nature’s dead.
The special 13-member team that works year-round clearing brush tore into the thick vegetation on city land abutting China Camp State Park and homes on Knight and McNear drives in East San Rafael’s Glenwood neighborhood. The crew will spend about a month thinning 6.2 acres riddled with dangerous French and Scotch broom, bays and trees plagued with sudden oak death.
The end result will be a shaded fuel break about 100 feet away from the homes to give firefighters a chance to protect themselves, the surrounding homes and the people who live in them.
“It’s going to keep the fire on the ground, it’s going to be a less intense fire and it’s going to be more manageable for us,” Marin County fire Chief Ken Massucco said. “We have to do work like this.”
A joint project of the Marin County Fire Department, San Rafael Fire Department and the California State Park system, the effort is part of the county’s mission to rid Marin of volatile hot spots where nature conspires to create potential catastrophe with its dense, dry brush and invasive flammable fuels.
Conditions in Marin are similar to those in Santa Cruz, where unnatural vegetation has taken root, and last week burned with a vengeance, despite recent heavy rains. For reasons unknown, fire officials say the fire season in California, on average, has lengthened by six to seven weeks.
“While we have had rain in the last few weeks, fire season is year round,” San Rafael fire Chief Chris Gray said. “The winds can drive wildfire fueled by several years of drought-stressed vegetation as we see with the fire blazing in Santa Cruz.”
About 1,500 firefighters, including firefighters from Marin, battled the Loma fire, a 485-acre blaze that started on Oct. 25 in the Santa Cruz mountains. Fire officials are looking into whether a recent brush-burning operation in the area is connected to the blaze, which destroyed one trailer and two outbuildings and threatened more than 160 structures.
About 10 inches of rain less than two weeks earlier was not enough to prevent the fire, which was encouraged by winds, fuel and heat, fire officials said. Fuel breaks were vital in helping fire crews stop last year’s Summit fire, which burned 4,270 acres and destroyed 35 homes in the same area, and the Croy fire, which burned 3,127 acres in 2002, fire officials said.
The Tamalpais Fire Crew is best know for its long-term endeavor to create a 77-mile continuous fire break that wends its way through Southern and Central Marin. To date, 20 miles of the fire break has been created. Funded by Marin County, the five-year-old pilot project costs about $357,000 per year. Fire officials hope to someday make the Tam Fire Crew permanent.
Notable breaks they have finished and now need regular maintenance include Blithedale Ridge in Mill Valley; the Indian Fire Road in Kent Woodlands and the mid-peak communications facility, where sensitive communications equipment is housed on Mount Tamalpais. Future breaks are planned in areas such as Bolinas Ridge, Sausalito and the Ponti Fire Road in southern Novato.
“This problem exists throughout the county,” Walsh said. “It’s like trying to empty the ocean with a bucket.
“We’ve made significant strides,” he said. “Sooner or later we’ll take care of the problem.”
Copyright 2009 Marin Independent Journal