UPDATED 5/24/2016
Please join us in calling on the California Board of Forestry to revise its latest version of its proposed habitat clearance program that targets 1/4 of the state of California with herbicides, grinding machines, and unnatural fire.

We call on them instead to create a Comprehensive Fire Protection Program that:

- focuses on actual assets at risk rather than habitat clearance
- preserves the rights of citizens to object to destructive projects
- incorporates the most current science
- understands all native shrubland habitat, especially chaparral, is threatened by too much fire

Specific details about the Board's proposal

What: Latest Draft Programmatic EIR for the Vegetation Treatment Program
Deadline for comments: May 31, 2016
More info: http://www.californiachaparral.org/helpcalfireeir.html

View latest Draft Program EIR here.

Summary of what's wrong:

Extensive scientific research clearly indicates that the best way to protect lives, property, and the natural environment from wildfire is through a comprehensive approach that focuses on community and regional planning, reducing ignitability of structures, and modifying vegetation within and directly around communities at risk. By focusing exclusively on clearing habitat, the Board is NOT addressing the main causes for loss of life and property from wildland fire.

The Board's proposal will target about 22 million acres (1/3 of the entire state) for "masticating," spraying with herbicides, burning, or grazing. This would increase its existing habitat clearance program five times over current levels. If certified, the programmatic EIR will exempt individual habitat clearance projects from public oversight required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Everything from state parks to private lands could be stripped bare without local notice or a chance to appeal.

Every decade we increase funding for habitat clearance operations and fire suppression activities, followed by a decade of even worse fire impacts. The Board's proposal perpetuates and expands this same approach, one that has failed to reduce cumulative wildfire damage and firefighting expenditures over the past century. As a consequence, the proposal is a waste of tax payer money, will cause significant damage to the environment, and will fail to effectively protect Californians from wildland fire.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Please go to our website to learn more about this destructive proposal, and write an informed email to the Board by 5:00 PM, May 31, 2016.

Who to send your email to:
Board of Forestry and Fire Protection
Attn: Edith Hannigan, Board Analyst
VegetationTreatment@BOF.ca.gov

Thank you!