Highlands Community Wildfire Risk Reduction Project

Highlands Community Wildfire Risk Reduction Project

The project takes place on undeveloped wildland that completely surrounds the Highlands community of San Mateo County; this property is owned and managed as open space by the Highlands Recreation District (HRD). The Highlands is a community of over 800 hours and approximately 2500 residents in unincorporated San Mateo County. The high population in the area combined with an adjacent freeway and arterial roads present ample opportunity for ignitions, and as a result, significant wildfire risk. One of the goals of the proposed project is to mitigate the threat of wildfire to habitable structures by utilizing Cal Fire hand crews to create an approximate 100' shaded fuel break and reduced fuel buffer zone between HRD managed open space and a residential community with very high historical and assessed value. HRD owned open space totals 40 acres directly contiguous to 120 residential properties, and adjacent to nearly 700 additional properties within the district boundaries. The proposed shaded fuel break would provide vegetation treatment and wildfire fuel reduction on approximately 22 acres of oak woodland, chaparral, and grasslands. The treatment will utilize hand crews to remove small diameter, suppressed trees, 50-70% of the brush species and dead/downed woody debris. Cut material will be chipped on-site and/or lopped-and-scattered. Riparian areas and wet areas associated with seeps and springs will be excluded from project activities.

San Mateo