The council unanimously approved adding more staff to help with preventative brush thinning. In its recommended budget to the mayor, it proposed an additional four employees for the Parks and Rec department to oversee brush thinning, plus two additional code compliance officers in the Fire-Rescue department to inspect homeowner's property.
Council member Donna Frye says this will allow the city to cover an additional 140 acres of canyon rims vulnerable to wildfire.
Frye : To do everything we can possibly do to prevent tragedy from occurring in anyone's community. We've all seen what happened with the Cedar Fire, we all went through that. We saw the tragedy of people losing their home and efforts to rebuild. Those are lessons. Those are sad memories that no one should forget, ever.
As long as the mayor doesn't veto this item, it will be approved in the fiscal year 2008 budget. But there's another issue: how do we manage brush without destroying the native landscape?
San Diego County is one of only five Mediterranean environments in the world. Improperly clearing out native chaparral causes erosion and the growth of invasive plants. Land managers say that actually increases fire danger in the long run, and causes a host of environmental problems.
Guest
- Christopher Blaylock , project manager, Wildfire Education, San Diego Natural History Museum.
