Enhanced Fire Safety in Carbon Canyon

The Chino Valley Fire District will begin work Monday to strategically reduce vegetation in key locations of Carbon Canyon in order to improve fire safety in the area. The $540,000 project will be funded through a grant awarded by FEMA and the California Office of Emergency Services. The Fire District will fund the project up front and will be reimbursed for 75 percent of the total cost.

The first phase of the project will begin in the far western portion of the project area, near Canyon Hills Road and the Los Angeles County Line. Much of the vegetation  nside the project area has been growing for decades, creating a significant fuel load that poses a threat to the residents of Carbon Canyon. When brush and trees grow without being thinned, they can create a direct line of fuel from a fire to homes and buildings. This vegetation build-up makes it very difficult and dangerous to defend homes. If the vegetation is strategically reduced to no longer create a direct line of fuel to buildings, it is much easier to defend homes. Once the vegetation

has been thinned, the Fire District will periodically re-thin the vegetation as needed.

In 2004 FEMA approved the Fire District's Hazard Mitigation Plan and tentative funding for the project. Biological and historical surveys of the project area were conducted from 2006-2008 to prepare the required environmental documents for FEMA approval. This work was done to identify and protect historical sites, endangered wildlife and sensitive plant species within the project area. Landowner agreements to allow work on private lands were completed in 2009 when the project received the final environmental clearance through the California Clearinghouse.

The Fire District has also contracted with the San Bernardino Unit of CAL FIRE for use of their inmate fire crews from Prado Conservation Camp to assist with the project. The initial thinning of overgrown and dead vegetation on the 200 acre project will take place over the next three years and the Fire District will periodically re-thin the vegetation as needed to help maintain defensible space in and around high-risk developed areas of Carbon Canyon. According to

Chino Valley Fire District Chief Paul Benson, 'The Carbon Canyon watershed has a history of large and damaging wildfires. This program will help reduce the fire intensity in and around developed areas, improve firefighter and public safety during a fire, and significantly reduce the

loss and damage caused by those fires'.