Bay Area fire chief accuses State Parks of obstructing wildfire-prevention work

Fire officials in San Ramon claim California’s State Parks department blocked efforts to clear extreme wildfire hazards, a decision fire officials say puts threatened wildlife and protected plants ahead of public safety.

Outgoing San Ramon Valley Fire Protection Chief Paige Meyer sent a letter Tuesday to the offices of Gov. Gavin Newsom and State Parks director Armando Quintero, harshly criticizing what he said were obstacles that prevented firefighters from removing vegetation from a 300-acre high-risk area above the Blackhawk community.

The letter accused California officials of “the near-complete dismantling of a life-safety strategy” that aligns with the state’s own determination of which areas pose the greatest risk for wildfires.

“When we started working with them they started bringing up the manzanita, the whip snake, the Native American burials — they dragged their feet,” Meyer said in an interview Wednesday, his last day as chief before retirement.

“If they’re going to prioritize manzanita, the whip snake, and burial grounds over the lives of our residents, then just say it.”

The dispute highlights conflicts that have arisen as climate change has driven increasingly large and frequent wildfires in California while the number of homes in and beside forests and other fire-risk areas has skyrocketed. The pending “Zone 0” rule that would make owners of homes in areas of very high wildfire risk clear vegetation for five feet around houses is facing pushback and resistance is expected to increase as it is phased in over coming years.

Newsom’s office referred questions to State Parks, which said it was reviewing Meyer’s letter and would provide his department with “a formal response and identify potential areas of improvement within the state’s control.”

The governor on Wednesday was in Los Angeles meeting with local officials and residents on the anniversary of the Palisades and Eaton wildfires, among the deadliest and most destructive in state history with insured losses estimated to reach $40 billion.

Incoming Fire Chief Jonas Aguiar said the department identified the 300 acres early last year using state wildfire-risk maps and modeling software that predicts fire spread.

The analysis “clearly identified State Parks–owned lands as some of the most dangerous ignition and firespread corridors threatening surrounding communities,” Meyer’s letter said.

And Blackhawk, a community of large homes in rolling hills where evacuation routes are limited, was in the line of fire from the 300 acres of volatile landscape, Aguiar said.

Fire department officials came up with a plan for clearing the vegetation, and made an offer they believed parks officials couldn’t refuse: The fire department would pay the cost of the clearing.

“We thought we’d shrink their problem. We’d be the one paying for their problem and they’d go, ‘Thank you,'” Meyer said. “We could’ve been done before last year’s fire season.”

Fire officials lined up contractors to begin the work of clearing vegetation using a “masticator” machine that chews up brush, shrubs, small trees and plant debris, Aguiar said.

But State Parks “imposed regulatory and procedural barriers” including prohibiting removal of Mount Diablo manzanita plants, and requiring that the vegetation work be constantly monitored for potential effects on habitats and Native American sites. Parks officials provided only a slim window for the work to be done, Meyer said in the letter.

State officials took until Oct. 15 to issue final approval to start the project, and told the department they had to finish by Nov. 1, because once the weather got too cold, threatened Alameda whip snakes wouldn’t be able to slither fast enough to escape a masticator, Aguiar said.

By the deadline, only 22 acres had been cleared, and the fire department had spent $121,000, “with approximately 75% consumed by State Parks–mandated environmental compliance, monitoring, and oversight requirements, leaving only 25% applied to actual wildfire mitigation work on the ground,” the letter said.

Aguiar said the department had identified more than 3,000 acres needing fire-prevention work in and around his fire protection district, including additional areas of Mount Diablo State Park.

State Parks said federal rules outside the state’s control, concerning the Alameda whip snake that is federally classified, applied to some of the work Meyer’s letter referred to, and were “laid out in detail” when fire department and parks officials began discussing the vegetation clearing. State Parks said it approved the fire department’s permit application within four weeks.

Mount Diablo State Park is “actively working on wildfire resiliency projects,” including one or more controlled vegetation burns between Jan. 15 and March 15, State Parks said.

It was unclear Wednesday whether similar issues have impeded wildfire mitigation measures around other state parks around the region such as Henry Coe, Castle Rock and Big Basin.

Contra Costa County District 2 Supervisor Candace Andersen on Wednesday described state officials’ approach to the fire department’s project as “a frustrating, absurd response” that endangers lives and property.

“While we absolutely want to protect our wildlife, cultural resources, and plants, and have many laws enacted to do so … when loss of human life and significant property is at stake, there needs to be a reasonable, quick process in place to have these regulations waived,” Andersen said.

Andersen noted that the community of Diablo and parts of Alamo have also been designated as having high fire risk, and she said Diablo, like Blackhawk, has limited evacuation routes.

She called for better cooperation between state and local agencies to cut wildfire risk.

“Agencies cannot remain siloed when an issue like this is so important.”

Meyer said the aborted project has not necessarily cut fire risk at all.

Aguiar said the 300-acre area threatens nearly 3,000 homes, and more than 10,000 people.