February 2024

From Seth Schalet, Santa Clara County FireSafe Council CEO

As I write this note, I think back to the recent San Francisco 49ers incredible come from behind win over the Detroit Lions, making it to the Super Bowl this Sunday. In one of his post-game interviews, SF Quarterback Brock Purdy said this: “To pull a comeback like that in the NFC Championship, it was special for me. We’ve still got one more to go. But to have a performance like we did as a team, that was huge. You’re always going to remember that.” Go Niners!

Why start a Newsletter with a sports quote? Because it reminded me about how I feel towards the SCCFSC team. Everything we do here at SCCFSC is a team effort. Our Hazardous Fuels Reduction (HFR) projects are exhibit number one. Not only do we work internally as a unit, but when you collaborate on multi-stakeholder engagements—like our Forest Health Grants—where we partner with Midpeninsula Open Space District, Santa Clara County Parks, San Jose Water, Auten Resources Consulting, Ascent Environmental, CAL FIRE and Santa Clara County Fire, with the landowners and neighbors---you often need to make adjustments—to the schedule, to the equipment needed in the field, to the things beyond your control, like the weather, or the discovery of new sensitive habitats. We have had many challenges to overcome with complex projects like these, or even our other projects such as Evacuation Routes and Fuel Breaks. Yet, collectively, the teams work extraordinarily well together, overcoming these issues, pivoting, making the right adjustments finding novel solutions around roadblocks. As Brock said, “You’re always going to remember that.”

This month, we will have lots to share about the Community Wildfire Projection Project (CWPP), where on February 7th, Amanda Brenner Cannon and I will present to all the Santa Clara County fire service agency Chiefs, solicit their input and feedback on moving forward with the individual annexes. More to follow after our meeting. See the CWPP website here: https://santa-clara-cwpp-sccfc.hub.arcgis.com/

The California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force is looking for public input on the process for selecting Core Reporting Metrics that will be used to track and report progress on landscape resilience goals. On Friday, February 9th from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM (Noon) the Task Force is holding a Zoom-based Core Reporting Metrics Virtual Public Workshop will help frame the need, and use of the Core Reporting Metrics and provide an opportunity for public engagement in the development of Core Reporting Metrics to ensure they are meaningful to stakeholders and their work. We have provided a registration link to this free workshop, and I hope can participate so your voice is included in the finale release.

A special thank you to friend and mentor Craig Clements, Ph.D., Professor, Director, NSF IUCRC-Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center, Department of Meteorology and Climate Science, San Jose State University’s Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center (WIRC) for the invitation the attend the Industry Advisory Board (IAB) Meeting on January 16-17, 2024 (but not the actual IAB meeting sessions)-as you have to be an IAB member for those. I was able to see the new project proposal presentations on wildfire modeling and other topics, and network with some of the best minds in wildfire research and in our fire service agencies and utilities. San Jose State University’s Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center (WIRC) is an incredible regional asset, and I was truly knocked-out by the progress Craig and his team have made scaling the WIRC in just short period of time. The SJSU WIRC has a new website—check it out here: https://www.wildfirecenter.org/

As you may recall from prior Newsletters, SCCFSC led the installation and support of wildfire sensors—a product called NSHIELD—from N5 Sensors, throughout portions of San Jose Water’s watershed. Recently, over the last week or so, certain sensors have been sending intermittent “alerts” to the monitoring team, sensing the presence of atmospheric smoke. We were anticipating such “alerts” from sensors during the winter due to the prevalence of wood burning stoves in the area. San Jose Water personnel made several trips to the site to note smoke coming from nearby chimneys and wood burning from a nearby (across canyon) homeowner. Here is a picture of one of the sensors in the field. San Jose Water is quite pleased thus far, and the sensors are functioning as we hoped they would.

In this issue, I have included links to some of my favorite recent articles, research papers, podcasts, and webinars that we hope you also find interesting on the latest trends in wildfire research, policies and impact to communities. 

Last, but not least. On Saturday January 27, I had the opportunity to attend a presentation by SCCFSC board member, Kevin Conant, who by day serves as the Santa Clara County Sr. Public Safety Specialist for PG&E. Kevin’s presentation was titled Community Wildfire Safety Program & Winter Preparedness for the Los Altos Hills County Fire District. Special thanks to Victoria Bebee, Los Altos Hills County Fire District’s Emergency Services Manager and CERT/TEEN CERT Program Manager for putting this on and inviting Kevin to speak. Kevin’s presentation was compelling and informative, and I decided to include a link to Kevin’s slide deck and a few event pictures in this Newsletter. Please take a moment to review it.

With that, thanks for reading my introduction.

Cheers,

Seth Schalet

CEO, Santa Clara County FireSafe Council

Spring Chipping!

Planning for the annual spring chipping has begun and we will be opening registration March 11th, 2024. Stay tuned for more details pertaining to event dates and service zones in future newsletters and our website. Learn More

Monterey Cypress

(Hesperocyparis macrocarpa)

Monterey cypress is capable of seedling establishment with or without crown fire, although fire provides optimum site conditions for regeneration. Monterey cypress is a fire-adapted species with serotinous cones. Serotinous cones meaning late in developing, opening, or blooming. Most seed falls in the first few months following fires that occur in late summer and fall and are followed by winter rains, so we have nutrient soil and water to provide an ideal environment for seed germination. The wood is durable and develops a large proportion of heartwood, which splits well, dries quickly, and is clean burning. Learn More

Irene Armstrong

I've been a project manager with the FireSafe Council for just over two years now! It's a very rewarding experience to work in a place where you learn new skills and make connections with team members, residents, partners, and communities! I have an interest in arboriculture and geographic information systems, which I get to explore within the job. In my personal time I like to surf, thrift, read fantasy and science fiction novels, and I take piano lessons! I live in Pacifica with my cat named Rocket! I'm from Arizona originally and have been in the bay area for almost 5 years and absolutely love it.

Last summer, the Santa Clara County FireSafe Council (SCCFSC), CAL FIRE, County Fire, the Office of Emergency Management, and other partners presented the updated county-wide CWPP document and we unveiled the new CWPP hub site including the hub site's story map and project tracker. While the project to update the county-wide document is complete, SCCFSC has continued to lead the next steps of the project; work with Annexes to complete their updates, incorporate Annexes as they are completed, provide training and support for the CWPP project tracker, update and maintain the CWPP hub site, and provide continued support and updates to the CWPP and Annexes annually. 

Since completing the county-wide update, SCCFSC has been working with Annexes on their updates. We are gearing up to send out a big update to that team. Last fall, we hosted a training session on the project tracker and had some hurdles before we were able to provide access to partners. We have made progress, and that access should be included in the next Annex update. We are excited to see this component of the project come together as the project tracker will be a tool to track progress and to see what types of projects are taking place throughout the County, where, and who is managing them. 

Our current priority is to continue working with Annexes in the coming months to get their updates complete so they can be added to the new Annex tab on the CWPP hub site. We will continue to maintain the page and work with partners where they need support.

Click here to go to CWPP Hub Site

We've been working with our rainy day schedules to ensure safety. When weather permitting and we can work it has been in Santa Clara County Parks with good progress. We did 32 acres in January. First collaboration is 60% complete for 570 out of 938 acres.

Stephen Harrington, Senior Project Manager for the Los Gatos Creek Watershed Collaborative, will be speaking at an upcoming webinar in March for the CAL POLY Fuels Management Training Program. This webinar is an opportunity to learn how to create successful partnerships and collaborations on forest health projects with insights and experiences from the Los Gatos Creek Watershed Collaborative. Learn More

We are currently in the process of acquiring the necessary permits, and conducting a biological survey sometime in the coming month before the start of the project. ROE's are now available to fill out on our website. Project work days will be March 18th-22nd. Learn More

SCCFSC was featured in the December 21st FACnet blog that features the work that SCCFSC did to increase funding for the chipping program after last winter's storm, and the fall chipping program led last year. Great work team!

Learn More

Gender disparity in the national firefighting workforce: “According to the National Fire Protection [Association], as of 2020, only 12 percent of federal wildland firefighters are women … 5 percent of park leadership roles like fire management officers are women, and that decreases as you go up to the regional or the national level.” 

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