CalFire keeps staffing at peak levels, plans defensible space inspections

Lynette Short, CalFire Unit Forester, briefed on fuels reduction. CalFire’s main local effort this year will be the Redhill Vegetation Management Project. It is a 300-foot-wide shaded fuel break, starting in Pine Cove around the northwest, west and southwest sides. CalFire will treat dispersed plots extending down to the Nature Center. Over previous years, nearly 90% has been treated, leaving a small section to finish near Idyllwild Park and the Bear Trap fuel break. The vegetation will be cut and chipped or masticated. When chipping is not possible piles may sit for a year, drying out before being burned. There are 100-150 piles, some of which, near the Nature Center, are slated for burning this year.

When the weather allows, work will begin on the Point of Rocks project, north and northeast of Pine Cove. Covering “very rugged” terrain, it has not been worked since 2019. Totaling around 350 acres, it is wider than the Redhill project and abuts the State Park. CalFire is applying for additional funds for the staffing to keep this project going through the next year-and-a-half. On this project, they intend to masticate or chip the vegetation instead of burning it because of the difficult terrain.

CalFire will continue treating regrowth on the 85-acre Astro Camp project, which treats a deep canyon that can funnel fire up into the Saunders Meadow area, and was burned by the Mountain Fire. This includes multiple landowners on both sides of the highway, and is crucial in keeping our main evacuation route open.

Defensible Space Inspections (DSI) in State Responsibility Areas will be starting up for the first time since 2022. Riverside County Fire is responsible for defensible space inspections, including unimproved lots where they encroach on roadways and neighboring structures. “The County Fire Marshall office is developing a program and they should, maybe in the next six months to year, have an idea of when they are going to be able to get up to the mountain communities and start doing those inspections.”

Asked whether Governor Newsom’s Executive Order waiving environmental review of fire management projects would affect local projects, Short answered that “we’re hopeful that it will change things for the better. We are still waiting for word from our director and our Sacramento Environmental Compliance Department to give local units in the region direction on how to proceed… So far, we are unsure whether any changes are going to affect current open, standing projects, where CEQA process has already been implemented. This would be future projects that are still in the development stages…Hopefully the next meeting in June I will have an update on that.”

In response to a question about Idyllwild Fire Protection District’s recently awarded Wildfire Prevention grant, Short said that this may be the type of upcoming project that the Governor’s order may speed up, although its CEQA process should be minor. That grant will be active until 2029.

Dan Olson, CalFire’s Bautista Division Chief, provided an update on the “fire side of the house.” He reported that CalFire answered 1,950 calls during 2024 in the mountain communities: Pine Cove, Pinyon, Anza, Garner Valley, Lake Riverside and the Cahuilla area.

After the January fires in LA County, the Governor has directed increased CalFire staffing, essentially keeping staff at peak levels during the periods that have, historically, been the slow season. They have restaffed the Type 3 wildland engines in Pine Cove and Garner Valley, so that both stations have two engines. These staff will also be available for vegetation management projects. CalFire Riverside Division Chief Bill Weiser has directed that all hands not on incidents will assist with this work. Pinyon Pines transfer station has been processing green waste from these projects into wood chips, now available for those who use them in landscaping.