Fire season is upon us, with 2016 predicted to be the hottest year on record, and residents need to be vigilant about fire preparedness.
Residents of Topanga, where the massively destructive Old Topanga Fire of 1993 originated, are working hard to prevent similar blazes.
Beth Burnam, co-president of North Topanga Canyon Fire Safe Council, and her husband, Monte Tomerlin, hosted the first eco-salon in the area organized by local nonprofit TreePeople to learn about the impact of wildfires on the environment and what we can do to help prevent them.
TreePeople is an organization that supports and encourages the people of Los Angeles to come together to plant and care for trees, collect rain and renew depleted landscapes.
President and founder Andy Lipkis told eco-salon attendees that since 2010, at least 66 million trees have been destroyed in the Sierra Nevada, with that already staggering number expected to increase considerably throughout this year. Just over the past eight months, 26 million trees in the Sierra Nevada have succumbed to a deadly combination of drought, fire and bark beetle. Property and lives are at serious risk.
Despite fueling fire, trees are vital to the planet’s survival.
“Trees are the ‘tent pole’ of our whole ecosystem. They capture, slow, clean and store water, slowly feeding it to both aquifers and rivers. Without trees, water runs off as a flood, taking soil, nutrients and everything with them, devastating agriculture, homes and communities downstream,” Lipkis said. “They are habitat and food for our life systems, from birds and pollinators to most other species. To lose the trees literally means triggering a collapse of our life support system.”
Carl Randall, chair of Malibu’s Parks and Recreation Commission and a candidate for Malibu City Council, was at the event. “As a lifelong Malibu resident, fire and fire safety is always of serious concern,” he said. “I already knew the explosiveness of our mountains was extreme, but it was sobering to learn that it’s even worse than any of us could have imagined.”
One of the speakers, John Melvin, oversees the Urban and Community Forestry and Vegetation Management at Cal Fire. He emphasized that owners need to take responsibility for the fire safety of their homes and property.
“They also need to work with their neighbors to educate them and help them take responsibility as well,” Melvin said. “If the whole neighborhood does not ‘buy in,’ then the effort is far less likely to be successful. It starts with the home itself — working outward with hardening the home and modifying the quantity and arrangement of fuel for potential fires in a responsible way. Just clearing the property is not responsible and creates big problems when we have significant rain events.”
Home hardening involves reducing the likelihood of embers landing in a place that may ignite the home. Home hardening could include enclosing decks and eaves, installing screens over any openings or vents, and installing nonflammable roofing.
Fuel modification is key — that’s selectively removing flammable vegetation to eliminate vertical and horizontal continuity of the vegetation that fuels fires, Melvin said.
For host Beth Burnam, the message from the eco-salon was holistic. “We are an integrated part of an eco-system and we need to be responsible community members rather than impose ourselves on the land,” she said.
The event served as a reminder that the whole community should be prepared to evacuate at a moment’s notice. Have important documents and a bag packed, and heed warnings from emergency services to evacuate. Any hesitation puts residents in danger — and firefighters, if they have to perform rescues.
For more information, visit www.treepeople.org. To apply to host an eco-salon in Malibu, contact events coordinator Anne Landsberger: alandsberger@treepeople.org.
