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The commission established to look into June’s Angora fire unanimously agreed on dozens of recommendations Friday and will ask the Bush administration to declare a state of emergency for the Lake Tahoe Basin.
The emergency request move would allow for federal funding to prevent future catastrophic wildlife. A five-year emergency plan has been estimated at $7.8 million.
The commission secured dozens of recommendations to the governors of California and Nevada after monthly and twice monthly meetings since August.
The call for federal and state intervention was unanimously agreed upon before the group vote on at least 70 other recommendations. The group's unanimous agreement sets in motion a number of measures aimed at protecting life, property and the environment.
Members of the California-Nevada Tahoe Basin Fire Commission had expressed both agreement and disagreement on a number of items in the 192-page document but poised themselves to be unified in the final recommendations to the governors.
The plan will now move to a 30-day public review before reaching the governors desks.
Among the recommendations in the plan, the document addresses a re-prioritization of forestry practices in the Lake Tahoe Basin and the means to pay for them.
Some 70-plus recommendations includes strong language in its adoption, including changes in several policies on the books when it comes to the management of dead and dying timber, the removal of trees, otherwise known as thinning, and how to attack a forest fire once it starts.
The emergency request move would allow for federal funding to prevent future catastrophic wildlife. A five-year emergency plan has been estimated at $7.8 million.
The commission secured dozens of recommendations to the governors of California and Nevada after monthly and twice monthly meetings since August.
The call for federal and state intervention was unanimously agreed upon before the group vote on at least 70 other recommendations. The group's unanimous agreement sets in motion a number of measures aimed at protecting life, property and the environment.
Members of the California-Nevada Tahoe Basin Fire Commission had expressed both agreement and disagreement on a number of items in the 192-page document but poised themselves to be unified in the final recommendations to the governors.
The plan will now move to a 30-day public review before reaching the governors desks.
Among the recommendations in the plan, the document addresses a re-prioritization of forestry practices in the Lake Tahoe Basin and the means to pay for them.
Some 70-plus recommendations includes strong language in its adoption, including changes in several policies on the books when it comes to the management of dead and dying timber, the removal of trees, otherwise known as thinning, and how to attack a forest fire once it starts.
Streamline of policies
As witnessed by June's Angora fire, which burned 3,072 acres, destroyed 354 homes and cost $140 million in property damage, the commission states there is a clear and imminent threat of wildfire in the Lake Tahoe Basin, and with that there is an urgent need to streamline policies that often conflict with one another. "It's been hard thought and hard fought," Commissioner Patrick Wright told the panel as it wrestled with how and where to place policies and recommendations on the document.
Among Friday's accomplishments, the commission:
— Directs agencies and property owners to implement fuel reduction projects to minimize fire risk.
— Wants created a single information clearinghouse on fuel reductions.
— Recommends state and federal emergency declarations.
— Directs agencies to simplify permitting systems.
— Wants an update agency of MOUs and agreements.
— Directed agencies to agree on consistent defensible space regulations.
— Recommends uniform building standards throughout the basin.
— Embraces the 10-year fuels treatment plan.
— Supports biomass infrastructure development in the basin.
— Recommends policy that prioritizes life, property and the environment — in this order.
Perspective from Commission Member John Upton
The Commission's California Pulbic member John Upton expressed his appreciation for the quality and diversity of the Commssion's members, and that he was honored to have been selected to serve with them.
Upton lost rental home property in the fire. Upton, a past member of the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors and the South Lake Tahoe City Council, expressed appreciation for the work of Commission staff and of Basin agencies in responding to the extra workload in responding to the Commission's schedule. In speaking of the substance of the Commission's work, Upton quoted Ben Franklin:"The best public measures are seldom adopted from previsous wisdom, but forced by the occasion." Upton stated that the previous wisdom for the Basin appeared to have been a failure to sufficiently consider the risk of catastrophic fire on the basis that its size couldn't be accurately estimated. "This forced life, property, and the environment to live with what has been found to be the unnecessary tradeoff of accepting a large fire risk in order to avoid a minor ground disturbance. The result of that previous wisdom was not 'conservation', but conflagration," he said. Most of the work of this occasion has been to ratify common sense. The environmental consequences of catastrophic fire far exceed those of fuels management. Demanding zero ground disturbance is unrealistic, he said. Multiple pemitting layers add little value, but add large costs in money and time. BMP retrofit requirements and defensible space cannot be in conflict. Homeowners have a responsibility to maintain their property to protect it from fire risk. The Commission's recommendations address these, and many other, issues, he added. Upton attended a 3 day workshop on "Vegetation Management in Sensitive Areas of the Lake Tahoe Basin," and was pleased to find that the workshop's expert panel confirmed that the Commission was reaching the correct conclusions. One important scientific fact that emerged from the Commission's process is that the greenhouse gases contribution from decaying forest products, such as the remaining dead trees in the fire area, is three times that of the fire itself. This fact underlines the desirability of getting at the task of removing the Basin's dead vegetation, and not just from Angora. Upton closed by saying he believes that the work of this occasion has been to bring recommended changes that, if implemented, can save Basin lands from the fate of the Angora area. He said he sincerely hopes they will be implemented, and believes the public expects and deserves nothing less. |
