County’s plans for wildfire fuel reduction fall short

One contribution to climate breakdown will be greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles and equipment needed to reduce and remove vegetation as well as from (if used) pile and prescribed burns.

Another, carbon removed from the ground during fuel reduction will, mostly, end up in the atmosphere. It is unstated if the county plans to monitor sequestered carbon pre-and post-treatment. but such monitoring would allow for the periodic adoption of adaptive management strategies that ensure the projects are restorative, not destructive. With restorative programs, carbon returns to pre-treatment levels within a decade, and more fire-resilient ecosystems are fostered.

Finally, despite aggressive fuel reduction, wildfires will still occur in California, and drought, increasing summer/fall temperatures, and periodic high wind conditions, all related to climate breakdown, will likely worsen fire severity. The single most important driver of property destruction from wildfires is embers and fuel reduction won’t prevent the dissemination of embers in wind-driven fires. Property is better protected by making buildings less flammable and surrounding them with 100-foot defensible spaces, as well as refraining from further construction adjacent to fire-prone wildlands.

A whopping $18.75 million is to be spent on San Mateo County’s fuel reduction program. Sad, because likely, more harm than good will come of it. Not just sad, what a waste.

Jennifer Normoyle

Hillsborough