Monterey Fire to unveil Community Wildfire Protection Plan
MONTEREY, Calif. (KION-TV)- Reducing wildfire risk is a top priority for the Monterey Fire Department.
For that reason, they created the community wildfire protection plan.
The plan would address wildfire risks in Monterey, Carmel, and Pacific Grove. They say this plan will also open doors to receive grants to help with wildfire prevention.
"We are being proactive in making sure that our city is safe by setting boundaries of, landscape mitigation on the boundaries of the high-hazard areas in our jurisdiction," said Captain J.D. Sheldon with the Monterey Fire Department.
Over the last century, there have been 15 wildfires in Monterey County.
The local microclimate, wind patterns, and vegetation types can increase wildfire risks.
The plan is intended to reduce that risk by informing the community, hardening infrastructure, and fire-adapted ecosystems, coordinating response to wildfires, funding, and fire partnerships.
"We have charted out what we call high-hazard areas," said Sheldon. "So that would be for the city of Monterey, the skyline forest area, the Jack's Peak area, the city of Pacific Grove has the George Washington Park, as well as the Del Monte Forest,"
An online survey was done to see the main concerns of people in Monterey, Pacific Grove, and Carmel.
People in all three cities listed structural loss as their main wildfire concern. Ken Crowther who lives in Pacific Grove said they want to see vegetation cleared on private and public property.
"There's so much debris and poison oak," said Crowther. "And, sometimes that's that the fallen trees aren't cleared. And so that. That would be a hazard. If there were a fire,"
Some fire mitigation efforts are underway with Monterey Fire saying there is one currently up the hill near the Del Monte Shopping Center.
"That's one project that's in process. We have numerous projects that will be done over the next year and the year after that," said Sheldon.
The community wildfire protection plan says eucalyptus trees present the greatest hazard so I asked if there are plans to cut them down
Sheldon says the foresters in the area will determine what trees will go down.
Monterey Fire is scheduled to give a full presentation on Tuesday night during the Monterey City Council meeting.
