By Andrew Edwards
San Bernardino County Sun
Copyright 2007 MediaNews Group, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — Because a $70 million funding pool to remove dead trees from mountain communities will soon run dry, the Mountain Area Safety Task Force is conducting a survey to assess fire-safety attitudes in the San Bernardino and San Gabriel mountains.
The survey was launched in conjunction with a two-year public-information campaign intended to inform mountain dwellers in the San Bernardino National Forest — the nation’s most urbanized national forest — that much of the responsibility for preventing fires lies in property owners’ yards.
“We want to educate people about this. This is now going to be your responsibility,” said Dick Parmelee, Crest Forest Fire Protection District fire marshall.
In San Bernardino County, multiple fire departments and other government agencies responsible for public safety participate in the Mountain Area Safety Task Force. Utility companies and volunteer fire safe councils are also part of the task force.
Government agencies that are part of the task force have used money from a $70 million Natural Resources Conservation Grant that was awarded in 2004 to remove bark-beetle-infested trees from private property and National Forest land near inhabited areas. Officials anticipate that money will be used up by the end of the year.
San Bernardino County Fire Department spokeswoman Tracey Martinez said the survey should help fire officials find out what San Bernardino County’s mountain dwellers need to know. People working on the survey have been calling mountain residents since December, and survey results are expected to be compiled during the week of January 22.
The survey includes questions such as whether a respondent has ever lost property to fire, whether mountain dwellers have cleared away brush or combustible clutter from their yards, and whether they are familiar with fire-prevention laws and guidelines, such as the 2005 state law that requires 100 feet of defensible space around structures.
Laura Dyberg, president of the Mountain Rim Fire Safe Council, expects the survey to be beneficial. She said there is a need to combat what she said is some mountain dwellers’ false sense of security arising from the incorrect notion that the Old Fire of October 2003 burned away all the dead and fire-prone trees in the mountains.
Money from the 2004 grant has been used to remove trees from about 22,400 acres of mountain land, said Tom Schott, the National Resources Conservation Service emergency-program coordinator. There are about 3,000 acres of land near populated areas where grant money has yet to be spent on tree removal.
San Bernardino County Fire Marshall Peter Brierty said he and others involved in tree removal are particularly focused on the remaining acres where grant money could be used.
There are many dead trees in the forest, but Brierty said officials don’t plan to remove trees that don’t appear to threaten lives or property.
“There are millions more trees in the forest that will never get touched,” he said. “Our focus is on houses and people and property.”
Fire and forestry officials do not plan to stop removing fuels after the grant is gone. The U.S. Forest Service has proposed multiple fuels-reduction efforts for the San Bernardino National Forest, including projects that would be accomplished in the Crestline, Green Valley Lake and Bear Valley areas.