Alter Cal Fire program, court says

The initiative risks worsening blazes by removing native plants, ruling states.

- NOAH HAGGERTY

FIRE officials say firebreaks, like this one in 2023 in Santa Clarita, give crews a strategic advantage.

In a case that calls into question plant clearing techniques that have become fundamental to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, the San Diego County Superior Court has ordered the agency to amend a program to reduce wildfire risk across the state because it could make things worse.

The years-long legal action, filed by the California Chaparral Institute and Endangered Habitats League against the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection within Cal Fire, highlights deep rifts between ecologists’ and firefighters’ approaches to solving California’s wildfire crisis.

Richard Halsey, director of the California Chaparral Institute, was elated. "Chaparral and sage scrub is more than 10% of the state," he said.

"Despite all the rhetoric about how we love biodiversity, you're going to wipe out where most of the biodiversity is in the state," and in the process make the landscape more flammable, Halsey said of the Cal Fire plan.

Cal Fire's Vegetation Treatment Program aims to use prescribed fire plus tree and brush cutting to reduce the risk of a wildfire igniting, exploding out of control and jeopardizing lives and property. In doing so, the agency also tries to nurture the biodiversity of native species and protect clean water and soil health.