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Response to UC Hill Campus Vegetation Management Plan by the Claremont Canyon Conservancy

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The New Reality

The increased number and severity of wildfires in California over the past three years illustrates that we are in a new reality. Hotter summers combined with drought, longer, warmer falls and more prolonged Diablo winds, and now lightning, all brought about in large part by climate change, have altered our environment and increased the likelihood and danger of wildfires. (See notes A-D) Firefighters and government officials are telling us that once a wildfire gets started, our only recourse is evacuation. (See note E) The UC Hill Campus Vegetation Management Plan acknowledges this reality by making evacuation routes safer, removing highly flammable vegetation within 100 feet along Centennial Drive, Claremont Avenue and the Jordan Fire Trail. So far, so good.

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Comments from Jerry Kent regarding UC's Draft Plan and EIR

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The following comments are submitted by Jerry Kent on behalf of the Claremont Canyon Conservancy in response to the draft UC HILL WILDLAND VEGETATIVE FUEL MANAGEMENT PLAN/EIR (WVFMP/EIR). The Conservancy has been a strong supporter of University efforts to mitigate fire hazards on the Hill Campus since the 1991 fire. Including the significant fire hazard reduction improvements that were achieved by removing eucalyptus, pine, acacia, and other flammable planted and invasive vegetation between 2000 and 2007 in Claremont Canyon, at Chaparral Hill, and along the partial and incompleted joint EBRPD and UC Grizzly Peak Boulevard Ridgetop Fuelbreak.

A list of organizations endorsing a joint powers agency can be found here

  • Claremont Canyon Conservancy

  • Friends of the Montclair RR Trail

  • Garber Park Stewards

  • Kensington Neighbors for Wildfire Safety

  • Kensington Public Safety Council

  • Make El Cerrito Fire Safe

  • Montclair Neighborhood Council

  • North Hills Community Association

  • Oakland Firesafe Council

  • Oakland Landscape Committee

  • Piedmont Pines Neighborhood Assn

  • Regional Parks Association

  • South Hills Beat 35Y.

Update on UC’s Plan and EIR by Jon Kaufman

The Conservancy continues to follow vegetation management work by the major landowners in Claremont Canyon as the threat of wildfire continues. This work is even more important now since the pandemic has strapped the financial resources of public agencies and potentially weakened their ability to both prevent and fight future wildfires. The University has begun developing a plan to manage vegetation on its upper, less developed campus. This affects those of us who live in and below the Canyon. At an earlier public meeting the University announced that its plan would be released for public comment before the Environmental Impact Report on it was prepared. We have now learned that the plan and the draft EIR will be made public together later this summer with public comment to follow. While this may appear to make the process more efficient, it runs the risk of making it harder for the University and the community to reach agreement on what vegetation management the eventual project will include. The Conservancy fears that the plan and the project will not be adequate and that significant fire-prone vegetation will not be removed from the hills on UC land. We are following this matter closely and will be prepared to step in as appropriate. Forestry Professor Emeritus Joe McBride prepared a proposal for wildfire mitigation last year which we believe offers the University the best way to prevent wildfire in both Strawberry and Claremont Canyons and we again urge the University to adopt it.

Sudden oak death, local SOD blitz, by Matteo Garbelotto, Ph.D.

In spite of the ongoing health scare and of the statewide “Shelter in Place” ordinance, we have been able to redesign the 2020 SOD Blitzes to make them 100% safe and legal, an effective activity that allows you to exercise, and—of course—a powerful Citizen Science program that will help all of us protecting our forests. The program has received full approval by U.C. Berkeley and it will go on as long as we all follow the simple guidelines posted at www.sodblitz.org.

Monkey flower gene discovered

Sticky monkey flower in north coastal scrub, south-facing slope of Claremont Canyon.

Sticky monkey flower in north coastal scrub, south-facing slope of Claremont Canyon.

Monkey flower is about to bloom in coastal scrub areas all over the Claremont Canyon. In the next couple of months, when you're out walking on the trail, look for a low-lying bush with an abundance of small gold-orange, horn-shaped flowers and reflect upon a neat synergy with our native bees. In a related story, Berkeley News reports on UC Assistant Professor Benjamin Blackman's recent publication regarding two forms of monkey flower found in California, Mimulus guttatus and Mimulus lewisii (note, other names also apply). Blackman identified a gene that allows pigmented spots to "act as 'bee landing pads' attracting nearby pollinators." Our local sticky monkey flower, Mimulus aurantiacus, which is more common in Claremont Canyon, is less likely to display spots but nevertheless is well-known to attract bees and hummingbirds for pollination. Read more here.

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Fuel management proposal for UC Hill Campus by Joe R. McBride

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The purpose of this paper is to present a fuel management plan for University of California property located in Strawberry and Claremont canyons. The plan will identify site-specific fuel reduction treatments to reduce the fire hazard present in naturally occurring vegetation types and to convert highly hazardous plantations of eucalyptus and conifer species to less hazardous naturally occurring vegetation types.

Click here for Professor McBride’s full proposal.

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Comments regarding the NOP and IS from Stuart Flashman and Michael Graf

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These comment are submitted by myself and Mr. Michael Graf, Esq. on behalf of the Claremont Canyon Conservancy (“Conservancy”), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit membership organization, in response to the University of California Regents’ Notice of Preparation (“NOP”) and Initial Study (“IS”) for the above-referenced plan. We appreciate the opportunity to submit these comments, which enlarge upon comments made by the two of us at the public scoping meeting held on December 2, 2019.

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