As I consulted my trusty Readers Digest to try and find some interesting tidbits about March to start off this newsletter, I came across the usual stuff; Saint Patrick's Day folklore, the famous Shakespeare line from Julies Ceaser, “beware the Ides of March,” the fact that the board game Monopoly was invented on March 7, 1933. 

Then, like a bolt of lightning, it hit me, the most intriguing March fact of all. On March 17^th, 1973 (Saint Patty’s Day), Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” first hit the Billboard Top 200 chart at number 95. A mere 14 years later (736 chart weeks, to be exact), it finally left the top 200 for the first time, setting a still-unbroken world record. It “Speaks To Me.”

For the FireSafe Council, March came in like a Lion, and it is not going out like a Lamb in terms of projects and opportunities including a PG&E grant application and a proposal to support Palo Alto’s wildfire project needs. On March 31, we will complete our original CAL FIRE Forest Health Grant, on time, on budget, and with an extra 75 additional acres or so than our grant agreement required thrown in for good measure! Our regional CAL FIRE Forest Health Grant Manager, Nico Alegria, joined us for a project close-out tour on Friday February 28^th with many of our project partners participating. The results are in, and CAL FIRE is very happy with how FHG#1 turned out. I would be remiss if I did not take the time to recognize our FHG team, Senior Forest Health Project Manager, Stephen Harrington, Planning Manager, Mike Mathiesen, Operations Manager, Dave Manson and Project Managers Irene Armstrong and Rosie Eisner for their truly rock-solid work on this. Our partners, Auten Resource Consulting, Ascent Environmental, San Jose Water, Santa Clara County Parks, Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, the Aldercroft Heights Firewise members and the Lupin Lodge crew for your time and engagement. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Now it is on to our second Forest Health Grant, which we will do in three phases. I am pleased to share that our FHG team reviewed multiple bids and has selected BurnBot as the contractor to lead the first phase of 155 acers. They have a terrific team and seasoned leadership, enabling us to continue to build out our technology capabilities utilizing their remote-controlled mastication equipment. Hand crew work will supplement remote-controlled mastication where needed. Here is a short video on their remote-controlled masticator used in Bonny Doon.

We have received many requests for the video of last month’s guest speaker, Mojtaba Sadegh, Associate Professor at Boise State University who presented his study titled Inference of Wildfire Causes From Their Physical, Biological, Social and Management Attributes. Here it is for your viewing pleasure.

I am excited about our ongoing partnership with Stanford University. Shout-out to Stanford’s Cody Hill, Associate Director, Resilience and Emergency Response, with whom I work closely on our wildfire projects, for introducing me to Adrienne Baer, Ph.D. student in the Center for Work, Technology, and Organizations within Management Science and Engineering. Like me, she is a Philly native, and Adrienne and I have been collaborating on enabling her to engage with us over the next year to support her Ph.D. research project entitled Investigating Barriers and Boons in Organizational Adoption of Novel Data Technologies for Wildfire Adaptation and Mitigation. She begins in earnest next week helping to study organizational effectiveness, Fire Safe Councils, how SCCFSC can enhance our effectiveness and technology practice—welcome Adrienne.

For the last few months, we have collaborated with Stanford on planning to bring a UK firefighter, Monica Staniek, Ph.D., Firefighter, Bromborough Green Watch, Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service, over here for several weeks in May to support her research on wildfire technology utilization, and the similarities and differences of US and UK wildfire practices. The recent national resilience review for the UK fire services has stated that funding will be allocated to wildfire prevention and technologies, which could help improve the way the UK deals with wildfire related incidents, which are on the rise. Wildfire related technologies are therefore of high interest to the UK’s national resilience team.

SCCFSC will bring her out to several of our hazardous fuel reduction projects, review our N5 Sensors and Ladris fire spread and evacuation platform partnerships and how the systems are being used, and hopefully, take her on a visit to an Emergency Operations Center. Stanford has plenty planned as well, including meeting Stanford wildfire policy and health researchers, visiting Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve and much more. 

By the time you read this newsletter, we will have hit the “send button” on our Community Wildfire Defense Grant (CWDG) application for approximately $4,000,000 in new multi-year funding to support projects in our Community Wildfire Protection Plan. We worked closely with both CAL FIRE and the Santa Clara County Fire Department’s Wildland team in reviewing and selecting appropriate projects. These are highly competitive grants, and it will be many months before we know the result. Thank you to Amanda Brenner Canon, Sara Kniss (grant writer), Jim Young (fuels/projects) and Irene Armstrong (GIS mapping support) for all your time and effort to get this out the door.

On February 21, I spent the morning with City of Palo Alto Fire Marshal Tamara Jasso, Supervising Park Ranger, Mike Warner, Santa Clara County FireSafe Council teammates Nestor Valle & Jim Young reviewing potential enhancements to strategic wildfire fuel breaks and evacuation route hardening on upper Page Mill Road to connect to Highway 35 (Skyline Blvd.) We appreciate the commitment Palo Alto has to wildfire preparedness and are grateful for our partnership in helping to support strategic initiatives for community preparedness and safety.

On February 26^th, I attended The City of Palo Alto’s External Stakeholders Emergency Operation Plan (EOP) rollout workshop. Thank you to both Nathaniel Rainey and Andres Orozco for leading the OES session and walking us through the core highlights—well done. Thank you also to all the partners & stakeholders that participated.

Over the last month, I have met with various elected officials and their staff to discuss everything from wildfire policy, FireSafe Council programs and projects, technology offerings and answering their questions that the LA wildfires have brought to the fore. Thank you, Congressman Liccardo, Eric Henshall, Senator Josh Becker, Gilbert Martinez, Supervisor Margaret Abe-Koga, Sandy Runyan, Assemblymember Gail Pellerin, Mary Anne Groen, Supervisor Otto Lee, Emily Pachoud and Suzanne Wheaton.

On March 10, 2025, Winslow Hansen presented to the Wildfire Science & Technology Commons (I am a member) on the Western Fire and Forest Resilience Collaborative, a multi-institution research program funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. If you missed this webinar, watch the recording here—highly recommended:

I want to include a special podcast in this newsletter with someone who has become a good friend and mentor over the last few years, Christopher Anthony. Chris served California as a Governor Appointee overseeing nearly all aspects of CAL FIRE’s Fire Protection, Resource Management, Support, and Administrative functions as the Chief Deputy Director. He was responsible for implementation of strategic initiatives and policies critical to ensuring operational readiness, wildfire resiliency, community preparedness, and deployment of innovative technological advancements into day-to-day operations. During his appointment he worked across numerous internal program areas and with tribal, local, state, federal, non-profit and private entities to ensure efficient implementation of investments made by the Administration and Legislature; investments which led CAL FIRE to exceed 12,000 employees with a budget of over $4B to address the increasing size, severity and scope of wildfire impacts in California. He had the unique opportunity to serve in resource management, fire protection, fire prevention, law enforcement, administration and executive level positions during his 27 years with CAL FIRE. He was the Deputy Task Force Leader for the Governor’s Tree Mortality Task Force, a member of the State Board of Fire Services, coordinated with numerous state agencies and the Administration during emergencies of statewide significance, served on local, state and federal Incident Management Teams in Command and General Staff positions, and responded to major incidents throughout California during his career. He currently consults and advises for firetech companies, academia, philanthropic and non-profit organizations; and sits on the Boards of the Earth Fire Alliance and California Fire Safe Council. Give a listen here: The International Association of Fire Chiefs Wildfire Chronicles: Heroism Beyond the Flames. Innovations in Wildfire Strategy with Chris Anthony

Finally, on March 10^th, the County of San Mateo held a wildfire evacuation and emergency response tabletop exercise utilizing fire spread and traffic analysis/routing modules from our partner Ladris. Santa Clara County’s Office of Emergency Management also attended. A special thank you to Leo Zlimen, CEO and Cofounder of Ladris for the invitation. Thanks, Leo, for the post event lunch—I enjoyed spending time with the Ladris team and our mutual friend, former Menlo Park Fire Chief Harold Schapelhouman, who serves on the Ladris Advisory Board. 

As always, you will find several articles, podcasts, and research studies I found interesting and hope that you will as well. Now, let’s hear from the FireSafe team.

Yours truly,



Seth Schalet

CEO, Santa Clara County FireSafe Council