July 2025
From Seth Schalet, Santa Clara County FireSafe Council CEO
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July is perhaps the most historically significant month for wildfire in Santa Clara County. To paraphrase Maya Angelou, "You can't really know where you're going until you know where you have been." With that in mind, let’s go back 40 years in time and remember two significant Santa Clara County wildfire events.
Many of our readers will remember or were impacted by the Lexington Fire. July 7th marked 40 years since a huge fire burned in the Santa Clara hills. 14,000 acres burned, 42 structures were destroyed and, miraculously, no one was hurt or injured in the blaze. Many of our partners were early in their career and fought that fire. Here is a recent video of some of those involved sharing their thoughts 40 years on.
| Roll forward 40 years, bringing this conversation to the present, on June 11, 2025, firefighters responded to a vegetation fire in the Town of Los Altos Hills in an area where an evacuation route hardening project was recently completed by Los Altos Hills County Fire District and Santa Clara County FireSafe Council. As the crow flies, maybe two miles up Page Mill Road from where the Liddicoat Fire took place on July 1, 1985. If it wasn’t for the proactive fuel treatment plan instituted by the Los Altos Hills County Fire District, and a swift and strong response by Santa Clara County Fire Department and the Palo Alto Fire Department, it had the potential to become much worse. Here is a report that LAHCFD Field Manager Andrew Harmon presented at their most recent board meeting detailing the incident. SCCFSC is proud to partner with LAHCFD on their wildfire risk reduction programs. | | | |
Got game? I have read a few interesting studies on how gaming is being used to educate participants on wildfire evacuation, defensible space and home hardening. For example, Translating Social Dilemmas into Gameful Designs for Wildfire Resilience Study. It is an interesting way to create a more immersive experience to better engage communities on wildfire preparedness. Look for some future guest speakers on this topic as well as Santa Clara County FireSafe Council events.
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Grateful for our Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District Partnership
SCCFSC has an excellent relationship with our friends at Midpen, as we have collaborated on numerous wildfire risk reduction projects together, and both organizations lean-in on utilizing new technologies with strong evidence based supporting data.
Recently, Land Stewardship & Trails Manager, Michael Gorman, hosted us at their administrative office in Los Altos, to discuss SCCFSC’s partnership with NASA Ames Research Center on analyzing and targeting vegetation most likely to produce high risk embers that can be carried long distances in a wind driven wildfire. Christopher Potter, Research Scientist, NASA Ames Research Center and I demoed NASA’s VERM Index-VERM, which stands for Vegetation Ember Relative Mass index. Our interest is in finding prescribed fire and pile burning opportunities where we can test additional tree and vegetation species to further build out the VERM dataset and incorporate more local specific species to enhance the efficacy in local applications.
Many thanks to Midpen staff including Assistant General Manager, Brian Malone, Land Stewardship & Trails Manager, Michael Gorman, Senior Resource Management Specialist, Coty Sifuentes-Winter, Field Resource Specialist, Chelsea Young, and Acting Area Manager, Cody Fickes, for their support.
Looking forward to continuing our dialogue with them.
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Ok, that’s a wrap for this month. Thanks for reading and now, let’s hear from the team.
Yours truly,
Seth Schalet
CEO, Santa Clara County FireSafe Council
| | | Want to help your neighborhood become Firewise USA™? Email firewise@sccfiresafe.org to learn how to get started. Let’s keep building a safer, stronger community together! | | |
SCCFSC Cost Share Programs —
Neighbor-to-Neighbor &
Special Needs Assistance Program (SNAP)
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The Santa Clara County FireSafe Council offers two different cost sharing programs to qualified residents, the Neighbor-to-Neighbor Cost Share Program and the Special Needs Assistance Program (SNAP).
Our Neighbor-to-Neighbor Cost Share Program is awarding mini-grants to neighborhoods for local fire prevention projects. Neighborhoods can receive up to 50% in cost-share assistance (max $5,000). Funding is limited and awarded on a first come, first served basis.
Our Special Needs Assistance Program (SNAP) is also offering up to $5,000 per applicant to help eligible residents improve defensible space around their homes. For 2025, eligibility is based on location within Communities at Risk or high fire severity zones in Santa Clara County.
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Chipping Depot at Ormsby Fire Station - August 10, 2025
The Santa Clara County FireSafe Council is hosting a one-day, drive-up brush chipping event at the Ormsby Fire Station. This event is not a roadside pickup program. Community members must bring eligible material directly to the site. Learn More
Date & Time:
Sunday, August 10, 2025
10:00 AM – 3:00 PM (lunch break from 12:00 – 12:30 PM)
Location:
Ormsby Fire Station, 1079 Summit Rd, Morgan Hill, CA 95037
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Spring Chipping Program Success!
Spring 2025 Chipping Program numbers are in! By the conclusion of the project, a total of 19,757 cubic yards—or approximately 12.2 acres—of vegetative debris had been chipped.
This volume underscores the program’s effectiveness and importance in managing the annual accumulation of brush and fuels across Santa Clara County.
Planning for the annual fall chipping program is currently happening. Please check our website for upcoming updates. Learn More
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Wildfire Preparedness Workshop
Friday, July 18th · 6:00 – 8:00 PM PDT
Location: Cupertino Community Hall
As part of our Community Ambassador Program, we’ve partnered with the Santa Clara County Fire Department to offer this free educational workshop. Learn how to reduce wildfire risk and prepare your home, family, and neighborhood.
Topics include:
- Home hardening & defensible space
- Community readiness (Firewise USA®)
- Emergency alerts & evacuation planning
Be ready. Get set. GO!
👉 Register here to reserve your spot.
| | | Los Gatos Creek Watershed Collaborative Forest Health Grant Update | | | |
Progress Continues
This month, the team worked on vegetation management in the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD).
In June, they treated 23.15 acres using mechanical methods (mastication).
Drone footage below showing the work and the treated areas at MROSD.
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South Branch FHG2 Project Update
The South Branch part of the Forest Health Grant project is moving forward. The bid package was sent out in June, and we had a bid walk with 12 contractors who came to see the site. Learn More
| | | Aldercroft Heights Community Roadside Vegetation Clearance Project | | | The Aldercroft Heights Community Roadside Vegetation Clearance Project began on June 9th and concluded on June 13th. Over 7 acres of roadside hazardous vegetation were treated along approximately 6 miles of road throughout the community. The work was completed by Denali Tree Service, who provided professional and efficient service throughout the project. | |
The FireSafe Council would like to thank the Aldercroft Heights community for their support and cooperation during the week.
Learn More
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Moody/El Monte Rd.
Evacuation Route
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The Moody - El Monte Evacuation Route Maintenance Project concluded on June 26, 2025.
This was the second project of the series for the calendar year and treated approximately 15 miles of roadside vegetation. Learn More
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Elena - Taffee Rd.
Evacuation Route
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The Elena - Taffee Evacuation Route Project is currently in the project planning phase. The project is set to start on Monday, August 4th and will be the third one of the series for the calendar year. We will be accepting Right of Entries (ROE) for this project during the window: Monday June 30 - Friday July 18, 2025. Learn More
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Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia)
Also known as Christmas berry or California holly is a broadleaf evergreen shrub or small tree native to California. Toyon is drought-tolerant, adaptable to a range of soil types, and thrives in full sun to partial shade. Learn More
| | | Amanda in the News! Fire risk is always something that we should be considering in California. In this video, Program Director, Amanda Brenner Cannon discusses the importance of defensible space and our new collaboration with Nasa Ames to better assess risk to homes from ember brands. | | | |
The FireSafe Council proudly hosted a group of Civicorps members out of Oakland last June to tour some of our projects focused on forest health and to talk about the work that we do and how we all work together to make it all happen. The group of young professionals are part of a program managed by the Watershed Center who focuses on capacity building and workforce development. We spent the day highlighting different career paths, from contractors, to foresters, to project managers. We focused on story telling to paint a picture of where each of us came from to where we are now, and how we play a part in the work that we do, specifically our forest health projects. We worked to inspire a next generation of wildfire practitioners, and I am excited for the future of this workforce.
Program Director, Amanda Brenner Cannon
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Recently, we hosted 13 companies looking to bid on the next 389.3 (yep .3) acres of our CAL FIRE Forest Health Grant #2. Great work by the Santa Clara County FireSafe Council and Auten Resource Consulting teams.
You can still see the burn scar from the 1985 Lexington Hills wildfire (the 13,800-acre blaze destroyed 42 homes) where much of this work will take place. Thank you to all our partners, San Jose Water whose property was used for the bid tour, to Santa Clara County Parks and Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District who are our stalwart partners and landowners in this 2,000-acre phase 2 project, and our partners at Ascent. Thank you to all the vendors who showed up-some who drove from Bakersfield to attend. Bids are due on or before July 11th and we hope to notify the selected winner by July 18th.
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Santa Clara County FireSafe Council is partnering to bring the Open Data Integration Framework for Wildland Fire Management (ODIN-fire) for enhanced situational awareness across all the applications we resell. On June 17, Peter Mehlitz, Senior Software Engineer KBR Inc./NASA Ames Research Center presented on our partnership and the power of ODIN in enhancing local situational awareness. See it here.
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Did you know that you might be able to double—or even triple—the impact of your gift?
Many employers sponsor matching gift programs, which means they will match any charitable contribution made by their employees.
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SCCFSC is a local 501(c) non-profit organization that relies on funding from local partners and residents of the wildland-urban interface areas. While federal and state grants provide a significant amount of support for ongoing projects, donations from the local community is crucial to our success.The SCCFSC appreciates every donation, large or small. When you donate to Santa Clara County FireSafe Council, you are helping us and yourself by mobilizing the people of Santa Clara County to protect their homes, communities and environment from wildfires.
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