The San Diego County Board of Supervisors authorized the implementation of a roadside vegetation management program intended to increase wildfire preparedness in unincorporated San Diego County.
The supervisors’ 5-0 vote April 26 authorized the San Diego County Fire Protection District to implement the Roadside Vegetation Management for Evacuation Preparedness Program. The action also authorized the director of the county’s Department of Purchasing and Contracting to enter into negotiations with Perimeter Solutions, LP, for fire retardant and found the roadside vegetation management program to be categorically exempt from California Environmental Quality Act review.
The county maintains nearly 2,000 miles of roadway, and nearly 80 percent of that roadway is in areas designated by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection as high or very high fire hazard severity zones. The San Diego County Fire Protection District works with the county’s Department of Public Works (DPW) to prioritize maintenance along county-maintained roadways which are considered critical evacuation corridors.
DPW undertook maintenance on approximately 500 lane miles of roadway in Fiscal Year 2020-21 and is targeting approximately 800 lane miles for Fiscal Year 2021-22. DPW performs vegetation management to a width of 20 feet from the roadway if that off-roadway area is part of the public right-of-way, and if the county has less than 20 feet of right-of-way DPW coordinates with property owners to pursue additional vegetation management.
In March 2021 the Board of Supervisors directed the county’s chief administrative officer to return to the board with an update on actions to increase vegetation management along county roads, to explore options to align sections of the county code to allow for 20 feet of clearance, to develop a program to expand vegetation management, to identify public roads which could benefit from additional vegetation management and provide a per-mile cost for that work, to determine the proposed frequency for vegetation management on specific road segments, and to return to the board with options to implement a new vegetation management program.
Three options were provided: to enhance the existing defensible space inspection program, to increase the focus on key evacuation corridors and on roads with single entry and exit points, and to provide a comprehensive countywide approach to roadside vegetation management. In July 2021 the supervisors chose the comprehensive countywide approach even though it had the highest estimated cost at $2,643,031.
The program will organize the county into north and south regions. The county fire department and DPW will collaborate with the California Department of Transportation (which is responsible for maintaining Interstate freeways and state highways), property owners, and independent fire protection districts. The program will focus on identifying and managing vegetation along evacuation corridors and communities with single entry and exit points. The San Diego County Fire Protection District will increase community engagement through direct mail and community-based workshops, the SDCFPD will collaborate with Caltrans to identify state roads which may benefit from additional vegetation management, and DPW will perform vegetation management on an additional 200 lane miles within the public right-of-way.
The Roadside Vegetation Management for Evacuation Preparedness Program will provide a new team which will visit each unincorporated community over a three-year cycle. The activities will include educating homeowners to help understand wildfire characteristics, ensuring defensible space, structure hardening, fuels treatment, and the protection of evacuation corridors. Defensible space inspections will be performed on each residential parcel over a three-year period.
Long-term fire retardant has retardant salts which alter how a fire burns and will thus decrease the intensity of a fire and slow its advance. Perimeter Solutions, LP, is the sole provider of Phos-Chek Fortify, which is the only fire retardant approved by the U.S. Forest Service for preventative application on Federal lands, so a sole-source contract rather than competitive bidding was warranted. Phos-Chek Fortify also has significant rain durability.
