Santa Cruz County launches new website for the public to see its prescribed burn schedule
SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, Calif. (KION-TV) -- Santa Cruz County Office of Response, Recovery and Resilience (OR3) announced Thursday that it's launching a prescribed burn website called CruzAware to alert people of beneficial burns.
They say that beneficial fires can help keep landscapes healthy as well as prevent the spread of larger wildfires. OR3 is also aware that these intentional fires sometimes cause concern among residents who do not realize that a prescribed burn is taking place.
Prescribed burns are a part of land management practices, according to OR3, and have been used historically by indigenous caretakers of the land to help renew natural resources, cultivate habitat and protect against larger fires.
OR3 encourages the Santa Cruz community to visit their website to learn more about the science, timing and location of local prescribed burns, and says that the goal of such burns is to "reduce catastrophic wildfire potential by reducing hazardous ladder fuels from the forest understory, restoring natural ecosystems, clearing downed or dead trees and debris, and diversifying wildlife habitats."
OR3 also announced that it had added the ability for people to receive prescribed burn notifications to the county's CruzAware alert and warning system. They encourage people who haven't signed up yet, to do so by visiting https://cruzaware.org.
