Photograph by Carlos Porrata
Understanding the complex ecological services that wildfire provides and how to cope with negative consequences of catastrophic wildfire on human communities and wildlife habitat has been part of EAC’s work since the the 1995 Vision Fire ignited along Inverness Ridge. In 1996, EAC’s Phoenix Team, published the Phoenix Report on the Vision Fire, that provided a framework for habitat and human community restoration, public safety, and stewardship for the communities impacted by the Vision Fire.
Now, 24 years later and after two-years of disastrous fires in Santa Rosa, Sonoma, Napa, Paradise, and Healdsburg; Marin County is facing the hard truth that our communities are at increased risk of catastrophic wildfire due to the changing climate conditions and decades of fire suppression.
In response, Marin County has proposed a plan to enact a coordinated preparedness and response plan to update procedures, practices, and management strategies, improve public safety and alert systems, provide public education, and to manage vegetation on public and private lands to reduce overall wildfire risk. This effort seeks to provide public resources for coordinated preparation and response to the threat of wildfire that will improve overall community resiliency.
A catastrophic wildfire event in Marin County would have damaging consequences for wildlife habitat, contaminate our fresh water reservoirs, and create decades long disturbances for biodiversity.
Marin County Fire has worked over the last year with environmental organizations to better understand their concerns and seek a balanced approach for implementation by establishing the working group Ecologically Sound Practices Partnership. This partnership consists of environmental and conservation organizations who will meet to discuss programmatic implementation of the Marin Wildfire Prevention Measure if it is approved by the voters on March 3rd.
EAC encourages a YES vote on Measure C to:
protect wildlife habitat and fresh water reservoirs,
allow for healthy fire and forest management practices,
improve disaster preparedness and public alerts, and
allows for environmental community engagement to ensure the implementation of a vegetation management plan that balances the needs for public safety with ecosystem services that include providing habitat for wildlife, improving water quality, and sequestering carbon.
