Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma

FPUD expected to participate in future vegetation management programs

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors meeting May 14 included direction to the county’s Chief Administrative Officer to bring back a vegetation management plan for county-owned open space which would include prescribed burning.

The hearing included the presentation of maps, one of which indicated that the area around the Santa Margarita River watershed was one of the region’s three top risks for a future fire.

Much of the area surrounding the Santa Margarita River is owned by the Fallbrook Public Utility District rather than by the county, but FPUD general manager Keith Lewinger expects cooperation with the county or with appropriate fire agencies.

“I have no reason to believe that the board wouldn’t cooperate in the future,” Lewinger said. “We will look at it on a case-by-case basis, but we have cooperated in the past and I don’t envision any reason why we wouldn’t cooperate in the future.”

FPUD’s board of directors rather than Lewinger have the authority to authorize a cooperative agreement with the county, the North County Fire Protection District, or other agencies, but action taken at FPUD’s August 2007 meeting indicates that cooperation is likely.

In August 2007 the board voted 4-0, with director Milt Davies absent, to accept a request from the North County Fire Protection District to use grant money from the Fallbrook Fire Safe Council to perform vegetation abatement on FPUD-owned land along North Stage Coach Lane.

The Fallbrook Fire Safe Council had received a $75,000 grant from the US Bureau of Land Management and had identified worst-case properties meriting vegetation abatement.

Approximately 177 acres of FPUD-owned property were identified as being an immediate fire threat.

The approval triggered planning to remove the vegetation, but before the fire hazard could be removed by human-induced means the Rice Fire burned the vegetation.

Phase I of the plan consisted of abatement within 150 feet of homeowner property lines where existing structures surrounded the FPUD property and clearing 30 feet of the Stage Coach Road easement immediately.

Phase II, which would have been based on California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection schedules, would have had CDF conduct controlled burns and hand-clearing along trails on the remaining FPUD property to mitigate the fire threat from century-old brush.

FPUD’s board also approved a motion to set up a special board workshop for the issue, although the fire has prevented that workshop from being scheduled.

FPUD owns approximately 1,400 acres along the Santa Margarita River. The land was obtained several decades ago as part of plans to build a dam along the river. FPUD currently plans to use the land as mitigation property for its planned conjunctive use project.

See related story beginning on page A-1 of this issue.

 

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