In 2018, California experienced its worst fire season ever. Over 8,500 fires burned nearly 1.9 million acres of land and killed 103 people, according to Cal Fire. Of the 58 most destructive and devastating fires in the state, over 20 percent occurred in counties within 100 miles of Stanislaus County.
But out of the ashes rose renewed efforts for safer neighborhoods, smarter communities and economic resilience.
The need for drastic change has become obvious as the shadow of climate change hangs over the heads of officials working to fight these fires and the economic challenges that come with them.
“There is no such thing as a fire season in California anymore,” said Diana Fredlund, the public affairs officer for the Stanislaus National Forest. “Now it is called a fire year.”
Greater community engagement
“We’ve had fire occurrences in these communities for years and years,” said Jeff Sanders, the Cal Fire Tuolumne-Calavares division fire chief. “I think there’s more public awareness now based on some of the larger, damaging fires not just in our region — but all across the state. There’s just renewed interest and people are really engaged right now.”
Earlier this year, Sanders and others from Cal Fire spoke to more than 1,800 students across Tuolumne County, hoping to send home a strong message of fire safety to their parents. They also teamed up with the county’s government officials and held seven community meetings. Total attendance at the meetings easily rose to more than 900 people.
“For us in our little community, we were pretty proud of that,” said Liz Petersen, the county’s office of emergency services coordinator. “It’s a significant topic and people are concerned.”
One of the largest concerns for those in fire-risk areas is keeping their homes safe.
California law requires those living in areas surrounded by flammable material or in areas susceptible to fire to maintain a space of 100 feet around their property with significant fuel reduction.
“You wouldn’t drive your car until there was no oil in it, you get an oil change,” said Emily Kilgore, fire prevention specialist and public information officer with Cal Fire. “It’s the same kind of thing for your property. You want to go out on a regular basis and maintain your property so that you’re providing basically insurance for your home.”
Cal Fire has inspected more than 9,000 homes and businesses in Tuolumne and Calaveras counties to ensure their defensible space is adequate. If by the third inspection the property is not up to par, the owner may be cited and asked to appear in court, Kilgore said.
Cal Fire also has received grants to provide aid for the elderly, people with disabilities and those who are unable to properly maintain their property to comply with the law.
Recently, the first Tuolumne County Firewise USA site was established near Sonora. The community of about 110 homes joins more than 222 communities in California and over 1,500 nationwide.
As a Firewise USA site, the community now has the ability to request special grants for better fire-prevention maintenance and has access to more educational materials and even discounts on some homeowner insurance plans.
To keep their status, the community must put in a total of one hour of fire prevention work per resident, per year.
“We have a large segment of our population who moved here to live in the woods,” said Tuolumne County Supervisor Karl Rodefer. “But these people don’t want to die in the woods, so they’re becoming responsible for their own property now.”
The county has at least six other communities applying to become Firewise USA sites.
“I think what we were seeing (during the Camp Fire) was ... a lot of fear,” Petersen said. “It appeared as if there was no control; like people didn’t have any personal control over the situation. So our message is: Here’s how you can empower yourself and take some of that control for yourself.”
Beyond the neighborhood
Cal Fire’s Chief Sanders has a book larger than some textbooks filled with fuel reduction projects in Tuolumne and Calaveras counties that have been in the works for years.
“There’s a phenomenal amount of work we do,” he said.
In the last two years, the agency has completed 55 acres of fuel reduction near Cedar Ridge and an additional 40 acres around Groveland — areas assessed to have an increased fire risk. The fuel reduction efforts create sections of forests with less fuel to burn and an open space to drop fire retardant if necessary.
Oftentimes, the fuel breaks are made on mountain or hill ridges, as fires tend to move uphill more quickly than downhill.
Cal Fire partners with surrounding agencies to increase their effectiveness and area of fuel reduction projects.
“We do fuel reduction work on a very large scale and sometimes we partner with other big agencies like (the Bureau of Land Management) and the National Forest Service,” Kilgore said.
Tuolumne County has a master stewardship agreement with the National Forest Service that gives them the authority to do work in the forest, Petersen said. The agreement is the first of its kind in California and will help aid the county in fighting fires more effectively and efficiently across jurisdictions.
“These relationships we’ve built through disasters have always strengthened our resolve for what we’re doing now,” Sanders said. “We are being proactive as opposed to being reactive.”
Utility companies like PG&E are also working with Cal Fire to reduce fuel near their power lines.
“In response to the growing wildfire threat, we have also implemented an Enhanced Vegetation Management (EVM) program that includes addressing vegetation that poses a higher potential for wildfire risk in high fire-threat areas,” PG&E’s Denny Boyles said in an email. “While our EVM program is focused on the roughly 25,200 miles of overhead distribution lines in high fire-threat areas, we are also inspecting all electric transmission lines for overhanging branches and limbs as part of our routine inspections in 2019.”
Tuolumne County hired defensible space inspectors specifically focused on power-line inspection, Petersen said. They will ensure the utility companies are in compliance with their clearance and maintenance on their equipment.
The only way to protect the forest is by a combined effort between every entity that resides in the forest, Sanders said.
“No one agency can do it alone,” he said.
The tourist trap
Tourism is Tuolumne County’s largest industry with Yosemite National Park, the High Sierra region and Gold Country providing more than 2,400 jobs and flooding over $264 million into the economy, according to Visit California. But the large industry can create a dangerous situation.
“Where we start to have some of the tourism issues is people with their barbecues and their campfires and just not understanding the fire risk because they’re not from the area,” Kilgore said.
In an effort to protect those traveling into fire-risk areas who may be unfamiliar with the danger, Cal Fire uses Everbridge, an emergency communication service, Kilgore said. The service allows officials to send out alerts, similar to an Amber alert, to every person connected to a certain cell tower in a specific area when danger is present.
“But there are so many areas that you will just not have cell service,” Stanislaus National Forest’s Diana Fredlund said. “The forest is a wild place, we want people to be aware of the temperatures, the weather conditions and everything before they go out hiking, biking or camping.
“If you see smoke, don’t wait until it gets closer.”
Tourists are also encouraged to read up before their visit. Visit Tuolumne County and Cal Fire provide online resources for those wanting to travel into the area safely.
“We are trying to get information into those summer rentals so the same information that a local person would have gotten this winter is still available to tourists,” Sanders said.
The rapidly-approaching Independence Day holiday also brings a reason for concern.
“Fireworks are illegal in Tuolumne County,” Fredlund said. “They’re just not allowed. We are winding up our resources in regards to 4th of July celebrations because they could cause a disaster if people aren’t careful.”
A resilience
The 2018 Ferguson Fire in the Sierra National Forest burned from July 13 to late August with nearly 100,000 acres of forest nearly reduced to ashes. The fire produced significant smoke that resulted in the temporary closure of Yosemite National Park.
“Most fires follow a certain path or flow, and this one just did not,” said Teri Marshall, the director of marketing for the Evergreen Lodge near Yosemite. “The winds kept changing directions and pushing the fire and smoke in different directions. It was particularly chaotic.”
The fire impacted the lodge’s business. From canceling reservations to simply being scared off, many guests avoided the area until the fire was out — causing a loss in valuable revenue.
“The fires have definitely had a negative impact on the tourism business here,” said Lisa Mayo, president and CEO of Visit Tuolumne County. “We really work to assess when we should stop marketing for people to come to certain areas and then when we need to step it back up again,” she said.
Mayo said, however, that she has seen resilience in the tourism industry in Tuolumne County, even though destructive fires seem to come almost every year to the area.
“When the smoke starts clearing, that’s when we start ramping things back up,” she said. “I haven’t seen people be scared off from the large fires; luckily this is an area people love to come.”
Because of efforts by the several agencies working together to protect the forests around treasured natural wonders like Yosemite Valley, visitors have been able to return year after year, Mayo said.
The tourism industry saw a 5.6 percent rise in tourism spending in 2018 from 2017. Though that is down from an 11 percent rise from 2016 to 2017, the continued interest in Tuolumne County’s natural wonders shows how efforts from all fronts are paying off.
“We are dedicated to safety stewardship,” Mayo said. “We have worked with Cal Fire, BLM and the Forest Service to give people a safe place and a fun place to come to and enjoy.”