From Seth Schalet, Santa Clara County FireSafe Council CEO

May and June were productive months. We were told a few weeks back, we were awarded a new $60,000 grant from PG&E to support chipping. We want to thank Supervisor Joe Simitian and his staff, especially Kris Zanadri, for the support provided in this effort. We are in the process of completing some grant pre-planning requirements before a portion of the funding is made available. Also, as you may have read the Mercury News article, the County Board of Supervisors approved a new contract, of up to $250K per year, over five years to support chipping and defensible space. We are working with County Fire, who will oversee the contract, on planning and next steps, including contract finalization. We will have another, more specific update in next month’s newsletter.

We continue work on our original Los Gatos Creek Watershed Collaborative Forest Health Grant and as mentioned in prior communication, we were notified by CAL FIRE we were awarded a Phase Two Forest Health Grant award of $6.3 million. At this point, we are waiting to receive the contract from CAL FIRE and will move forward with planning and a vendor RFP in the coming months.

Senator Josh Becker, District 13, is currently working on supporting a Bay Area Caucus ask for the Natural Resources bond, for which he is a co-author, SB 867. I had the opportunity to discuss the Bill with his staff and they have worked most diligently to make it a comprehensive commitment that includes wildfire related initiatives. We are grateful for Senator Becker’s leadership on these issues and look forward to following the legislation as it makes its way through the process.

As always, read on to learn all about the work the Santa Clara FireSafe Council is doing.

Seth

Santa Clara County supervisors approve 5-year, $1.25 million wildfire mitigation contract

County’s FireSafe Council will work with Central Fire Protection District

Read More

We want to hear from you! Monday, June 19th through Sunday, July 2nd is our CWPP Public Comment Period where the public can provide feedback and input into the CWPP draft.

Learn More

Crews have progressed steadily with vegetation treatments on SJW property. Operations have moved up the watershed in the vicinity of Sears Road and Wright's Station Road and, this past week, near Morrill Road. The treatments near Morrill Road mark the southern extent of the work and the top of the watershed. Crews treated approximately 50 acres in May. 

Learn More

We've started the Mt. Madonna/Summit Rd. Escape Route Project and as expected it has been very challenging. The vegetation has not been treated in that area for over 20 years. In some places you could not even walk into the forest. The two masticators are making progress, but slope and sensitive plant species are making progress slower than expected. Our contractor continues to perform at a very high level. The crews are removing the material that the machines can't get. The local residents continue to be patient with us even though waits of 5-10 minutes are not uncommon. The road is single lane and dirt so moving the equipment to a wide spot has to be done for every vehicle. Our traffic control contractor is up for the challenge though and so far we have had no accidents or mishaps. The weather has been good for this type of work though, the dust is down and so is the fire danger. See before and after pictures below. Learn More