Environment

County To Spend $7 Million To Remove Dead Trees

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published February 29, 2012 at 1:33 PM PST

This story was published more than 12 years ago.

San Diego County will spend a federal grant to clear dead and dying trees around Julian. The strategy was challenged in court.

San Diego County will spend $7 million on clearing dead and dying trees on private land in the rural back country to reduce the threat of wildfires.

“The money specifically will be used throughout the greater Julian area, ” said Supervisor Dianne Jacob, “to remove dead, dying and diseased trees within 500 feet of evacuation corridors and habitable structures.”

Jacob said at the county supervisors’ meeting that the county has already spent $47 million on fuel reduction activities to reduce the threat of wildfires, like the ones that began in the back country in 2003 and 2007.

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Jacob said the $7 million is a federal grant obtained in 2009. A court challenge delayed the tree removal program

Rick Halsey of the Chaparral Institute said eradicating trees encourages growth of flammable grasses. He said clearing a distance of 100 feet from roads and structures would be less destructive to natural habitat than clearing 500 feet.

However the county said in an Environmental Impact Report that clearing 100 feet does not meet the goal of helping firefighters reduce the hazards of wildfires.

A court cleared the way for the tree clearing program to begin.

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Environment North County

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.