Fire safe council receives Cal Fire grant
Cal Fire has awarded a $64,799 grant to the Ramona West End Fire Safe Council to remove dead and dying hazardous trees, the state fire agency announced last week.
West End Fire Safe Council president Kristi Mansolf, who applied for the grant, said the funds will be used throughout the Ramona community planning area on privately-owned properties within the State Responsibility Area.
“Property owners with dead and dying trees within 100 feet of their homes and/or within 30 feet of their access road will be eligible to apply to have the trees removed,” said Mansolf. “They will pay a small percentage of the total cost of the tree removal.”
According to Mansolf, licensed and insured contractors will be doing the work and will be selected through a competitive bid process. A registered professional forester will oversee the project.
Mansolf said Cal Fire will send her an agreement to sign before awarding the funds.
The grant is one of 63 awarded this year throughout the state by Cal Fire for fire prevention projects aimed at reducing the elevated wildfire threat due to the ongoing drought and significant tree mortality, the agency said in a news release. The $5 million in grant money comes from the State Responsibility Area Fire Prevention Fund, which is funded by the state’s annual $150 fire fee charged to residents who live in SRAs.
“This grant funding will help communities prepare for what is likely to be another challenging fire season,” Chief Ken Pimlott, Cal Fire director and California’s state forester, said in a press release. “These grants will help complete vital fire prevention projects to help mitigate some of the impacts created by four years of drought and hazardous fuel build-up.”
Mansolf said there has been a spike in dying and diseased trees in Ramona in the past several years. Last year 151 trees that fell prey to the goldspotted oak borer were removed from Dos Picos County Park. The beetle, discovered in Ramona in 2010, has spread to Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties, said Mansolf.
The beetle is believed to have entered the state through the transport of firewood. Mansolf said the insect is in Arizona and parts of Mexico where it has natural predators, but nothing in nature controls it in California.