Calif. Chief in Soup For Ordering 'Devastating' Fire Break

March 10--Mill Valley fire officials ordered the "devastating" clearing of a swath of county Open Space District land flanking a Blithedale Ridge fire road for a quarter mile, whacking vegetation including native madrone and manzanita even though the county did not authorize a fuel break there, top parks officials asserted.

Although both city and county officials expressed an eagerness to cooperate, the ridge incident scarred a relationship between two agencies that have worked together for years. City fire and county parks staff last year won praise for an unusual collaboration involving cutting fuel breaks elsewhere in the region.

Mill Valley Fire Chief Jeff Davidson blamed a contractor, calling the controversy a puzzling flap that resulted from "miscommunication." But a no-nonsense email sent to him by county parks chief Linda Dahl on Feb. 11 paints a different picture.

"The cut ordered by you was extreme, environmentally devastating, and not necessary to make the fuel break effective," Dahl wrote. "There was no cooperative agreement with Marin County Open Space to do the recent work, in fact the county was not aware of that work until it was discovered by my staff. ... You contracted for work on land on which you have no authority to cut vegetation."

What's more, Dahl continued, county parks staffers who met with Davidson about the matter emerged "threatened and intimidated," and reported that he "threatened to take further actions to cut more vegetation the way you think it should be cut." In addition, "they also told me you threatened to take further action against me by rallying other Marin fire chiefs to undermine and challenge my authority," Dahl said, noting the matter was "most unfortunate" in light of "all your department has accomplished with mine in the past."

Dahl indicated she intended to prepare an "official response" to the incident "which will include the laws of the state of California that your actions violated." Federal and state laws may be at issue if protected species were involved.

For the time being, she concluded, "please be advised that you do not have any permissions, rights or authorities to manage vegetation on any Marin County Open Space lands" and that county staffers would coordinate work by the department in the area.

Davidson, a veteran city firefighter who took over as chief in 2011, said he found the tone and the assertions in Dahl's email both frustrating and perplexing. He attributed the situation to a "miscommunication between staff and the contractor," in this case the Marin Conservation Corps North Bay. The corps "had a scope of work, and additional cutting was done outside the scope" in January under a

$6,800 contract, the chief said.

Max Korten, natural resources director of the conservation corps, noting "we pride ourselves on the high quality of work we do," said that "clearly there was some miscommunication" about the Blithedale Ridge project. But Korten declined to say whether a corps crew failed to follow fire department directions -- or followed them to the letter. "It's really tough," he said, struggling for words as he noted both the county and the city are longtime corps clients. "I really can't respond to that specific question."

Korten, saying he discussed the issue with city and county officials and "thought the matter was resolved," added a crew worked for three days on the project removing "mostly broom," leaving many mature madrones in place. No chainsaws were used, he said.

"The world of natural resources management is complicated," Korten observed, a view embraced by Chief Davidson, who pledged cooperation and collaboration even though he said fire and parks staffers "have philosophic and mission differences" that must be balanced.

As far as intimidating parks staffers or challenging Dahl's authority, Davidson added, "I'm a little perplexed by that. I felt we had a positive meeting with the open space staff."

Marin County Fire Chief Jason Weber, whose department was not involved in the affair, noted conflicts involving agencies with different missions involving the same turf, such as the fire department's interest in combatting fire and county parks' interest in environmental stewardship, should come as no surprise.

"All of us are very passionate about what we do," Weber said.

"This is a very unfortunate incident," said Supervisor Kate Sears. "I toured the site with our county open space folks and the Mill Valley mayor and city manager," she added, saying that "everyone is working together to try to ensure this kind of miscommunication does not occur in the future."

Mill Valley Mayor Andrew Berman said the city has "always maintained a fire break on the ridge," but declined to characterize the project completed this year. He noted the situation provides an "educational opportunity" for officials to share ideas.

"We have to work on a more formal understanding but I am confident we can work out our differences and come to a conclusion that balances public safety and land stewardship," County Administrator Matthew Hymel said.

Dahl, whose email to Davidson was released by County Counsel Steve Woodside after a public information request by the Independent Journal, was out of the office last week. But her assistant, deputy parks chief Ron Miska, said the incident on the fire road straddling the Blithedale Summit, Baltimore Canyon and Kings Mountain open space preserves was a travesty. "What occurred was indiscriminate cutting of vegetation, including native madrone and manzanita, for roughly 60 feet on each side of a quarter-mile section of the Blithedale Ridge Fire Protection Road, without staff's knowledge or consent," he said.

"Indiscriminate cutting, especially in areas where a broom infestation already exists, enables broom to expand its range -- because it thrives in disturbed areas and out-competes native vegetation," Miska explained. "The consequences are increased fire risk and loss of native habitat. By doing so one has also committed an agency's staff and budget to mowing the broom on a periodic basis, essentially forever, to keep it under control."

Adding insult to injury, the county never envisioned a fuel break there. "The area was to remain for ingress-egress only (for) the passage of fire suppression and maintenance vehicles," Miska said. "To maintain ingress and egress, it was necessary to cut the broom or other vegetation only a short distance from the edge of the road, from 2 to 20 feet along this road segment, as was done periodically for many years." Beyond this distance "was intact native chaparral -- a mix of madrone, manzanita and other native plants," a slow-growing landscape with some branches taking 50 years to reach an inch in diameter. "We don't know for sure how old they were," Miska noted. "Some plants and branches were several inches in diameter."

Tempers boiled at Civic Center when a stunned senior staffer returned with remnant "rounds" of manzanita and madrone indicating the native vegetation had flourished for many decades.

Miska, noting all sides in the affair tell differing stories, concluded that in any case, "what happened shouldn't have happened, and I think all parties want to re-establish a collaborative approach to fire risk reduction in the area."

Last October, county supervisors joined Miska in lauding a program involving a unique collaboration in which the Mill Valley Fire Department picked up almost half of a $116,000 tab under a four-year program to cut 34 acres of brush and related fire fuel in the county's Camino Alto and Alto Bowl open space preserves.

Contact Nels Johnson via email at [email protected]. Follow him at twitter.com/nelsjohnsonnews

Copyright 2013 - The Marin Independent Journal, Novato, Calif.