Tahoe-USFS fuel reduction plan

Unedited 08-07 Tahoe Mt. News story

By Kathryn Reed

An ambitious plan to rid the Lake Tahoe Basin of hazardous fire fuels was outlined at an Aug. 2 meeting attended by about 50 people – a mix of residents and officials related to the process.
“I don’t think it’s a pipe dream,” El Dorado County Supervisor Norma Santiago told the Tahoe Mountain News after the meeting. “It will depend on two things. No. 1 is how much pressure is put on the congressional delegation of both states to fully fund the project. No. 2 is to work in partnership with different agencies and meet timelines.”
The nearly two-hour PowerPoint presentation by U.S. Forest Service environmental coordinator Chris French outlined the draft of the Lake Tahoe Basin Multi-Jurisdictional Duel Reduction and Wildfire Prevention Strategy 10 Year Plan. A similar meeting was conducted the day before in Kings Beach.
Before hundreds of homes disintegrated here, congressional delegates asked the Forest Service to spearhead a study to see what needs to be done to rid the forest of fire hazards and how much it will cost to do so.
The land in the Lake Tahoe Basin needing to be treated include: 56,000 Forest Service acres, 6,200 California Tahoe Conservancy, 3,300 private-local government, 1,700 California State Parks, and 902 Nevada State Parks.
Some alarming statistics were thrown out that evening at Lake Tahoe Community College – 60 percent of the forest in the basin is subject to a crown fire, 70 percent of the homes butting up to the forest (known as the urban interface) support a crown fire and 70 percent of the basin’s houses lack defensible space.
Maps depict which areas in the next 10 years are to be treated first, though French repeatedly said the document is merely a guideline. Nonetheless, he said the urban-interface must be treated first.
The Angora homes would have fit that description.
Challenges to accomplishing the goal, as outlined by French, are inadequate staffing levels, regulations in the basin and multiple owners of overlying areas.
French admits the design and environmental process could end up coming with a price tag more than the actual implementation.
Afterward, Rick Robinson, CTC program manager, said the total bill could come to $217 million over 10 years for fuel reduction – and that’s in today’s dollars.
The problem is the money has not been secured. Nearly 20 agencies have applied for a handful of grants that will be awarded soon through the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act. The local Forest Service office and Nevada Fire Safe Council which represents the whole basin believe they are in contention for the bucks.
Lack of funding could relegate this document to the classification of door stop or dust collector.
But French doubts that will happen because he believes the climate is ripe for Congress to pony up the necessary greenbacks to make this region safe. This is because of the attention the fire received as well as the timeliness of the annual environmental summit on Aug. 17 hosted by Sen. Harry Reid which ex-President Bill Clinton will attend.
City Manager Dave Jinkens stood up at the meeting imploring residents to lobby Congress to allocate money for fuel reduction in Tahoe.
“We believe we don’t have 10 years to make our community safe. We have an emergency and the emergency is fire,” he said. “If we knew today that he next fire would be in early 2008, what would we do?”
On June 27 he said in reference to the then estimated property damage, “It would be nice to spend $140 million on fuel reduction.”
Now that that number is closer to $200 million and suppression costs were $14 million, Jinkens points out the better investment would be prevention instead of rebuilding a community.
French made an even more poignant comment when he said it costs about $2,000 to treat an acre for fuel reduction and for the Angora Fire it cost about $3,800 an acre to fight – and that doesn’t include property damage and personal loss.
The final fuel reduction document is expected this fall.