THE PROBLEM: The largest and most catastrophic wildfires in Southern California strike during Santa Ana winds, when extremely dry conditions combine with high winds and ignitions along roadways and powerlines. Climate change has made these conditions more extreme and more likely, and the recent Los Angeles fires are among the most damaging natural disasters in the state’s history.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA IS UNIQUE: Southern California’s chaparral landscapes require carefully tailored management approaches for wildfire resilience. Unlike much of California’s forests (including Southern California’s higher elevation forests), Southern California’s chaparral-dominated ecosystems suffer from too much fire. Therefore, fuel treatments such as prescribed fire are generally not appropriate as a landscape-level tool to reduce wildfire risks as more frequent fires lead to the conversion of chaparral into more flammable non-native grasses, which creates even greater fire risk. Accordingly, primary wildfire resilience tools in Southern California communities near chaparral are preventing ignitions; hardening structures and communities; and strategic fuel breaks.
PROGRESS MADE: The State and its partners have completed more than 500 targeted wildfire resilience projects between 2021 and 2023, including 129 in Los Angeles County. These include fuel breaks, roadway ignition reduction projects, and a broad range of community wildfire resilience programs and projects.
Irvine Ranch Conservancy President & CEO, Michael O’Connell, shares the unique obstacles and solutions to wildfire risk in Southern California during a panel on the Los Angeles fires featured through the California Natural Resources Agency’s Secretary Speaker Series.
What Works
1.
IGNITION REDUCTION:
Ignition reduction work focuses on reducing the potential sources of ignition and removing fuels in areas where ignitions are more common. Undergrounding of utility lines and restricting access to unauthorized trails are examples of reducing potential ignition sources. Where ignitions are more common, such as along roadsides, removing easily ignitable fuels, such as non-native grasses, can reduce the likelihood of an ignition becoming a wildfire. Individuals can take steps to prevent human ignitions through actions such as mowing dry grass before 10 a.m., ensuring debris burns and campfires are completely extinguished, and ensuring vehicles are properly maintained.
WHAT WE'RE DOING:
- The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) - along with Caltrans, CAL FIRE, DOC, and non-profit partners – created the Southern California Ignition Reduction Program to coordinate and ramp up regionally-tailored ignition reduction efforts.
- CAL FIRE and its contract counties completed over 29,800 acres of fuels reduction work across 391 projects in the 2023/24 fiscal year.
- Caltrans treated over 134,000 acres along roadsides between 2021 and 2023 in Southern California.
- The California Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety ensures electrical corporations are constructing, maintaining, and operating electrical lines and equipment to minimize wildfire risk through review of Wildfire Mitigation Plans.
2.
STRUCTURE HARDENING:
Once a fire starts, pre-fire work to create defensible space and harden structures, especially removing flammable materials from Zone Zero (within 5 feet of structures) and installing low-cost protections like ember-resistant vents, offers the best chance to reduce risk to homes near the flame front.
WHAT WE'RE DOING:
- Governor Newsom signed Executive Order N-18-25 which directs the State Board of Forestry to accelerate its work to adopt Zone Zero regulations.
- CAL FIRE inspected over 216,000 homes in Southern California in the 2023/24 fiscal year.
- CAL FIRE and Cal OES partnered through the California Wildfire Mitigation Program to develop a home hardening initiative to retrofit, harden, and create defensible space for homes at high risk to wildfires, focusing on high socially-vulnerable communities.
– Steve Hawks, Senior Director for Wildfire at the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety
3.
STRATEGIC FUEL BREAKS:
When placed strategically and properly maintained, fuel breaks can reduce fire risk and enable firefighters to protect communities safely and effectively. Three key factors – fire weather, strategic placement, and continued maintenance – determine fuel break effectiveness.
WHAT WE'RE DOING:
- CAL FIRE Provides funding through competitive grants to communities across the state to create and maintain fuel breaks and conduct other mitigation and efforts.
- CAL FIRE continues to evaluate the effectiveness of fuel treatments (viewable in an interactive dashboard) that have been impacted by wildfire to ensure projects are achieving intended objectives and to inform management decisions. A selection of Fuels Treatment Effectiveness Reports from 2024 are viewable here.
- USFS has treated more than 50,000 acres for hazardous fuels in Southern California since 2023. This includes fuel breaks that enabled firefighters to protect the communities of Lake Elsinore from the 2024 Airport Fire and Angelus Oaks from the 2024 Line Fire.
- The Bureau of Land Management is utilizing cross-boundary strategic fuel breaks to protect vulnerable communities from wildfire. This includes fuel breaks that helped firefighters contain the 2024 Grove 2 Fire in San Diego County.
“Fuel breaks are somewhat controversial, because there is a net ecological loss when you create them, but they are beneficial when they are strategically placed. “
– Megan Jennings, Research Ecologist at San Diego State University
What Doesn't Work
1.
WIDESPREAD BRUSH CLEARING:
In the absence of extreme wind, strategically-based fuel breaks can be highly effective at reducing fire risk, but more widespread chaparral clearing can also cause damage by completely removing native vegetation, impacting habitat and increasing the risk of spreading more flammable non-native species, which can also indirectly increase fire risk.
– Max Moritz, Wildfire Specialist at UC Santa Barbara
– Patrick T. Brown, The Breakthrough Institute
2.
FUEL BREAKS UNDER EXTREME WEATHER CONDITIONS:
Under extreme fire weather conditions, such as the recent Santa Ana winds during the Los Angeles fires, fuel breaks, and other fuel reduction projects, play a smaller role in reducing fire spread as wind carries embers well in front of the active flame front.
– Chief Brian Fennessy, Orange County Fire Authority
– Alexandra Syphard, Senior Research Ecologist with The Conservation Biology Institute
3.
UNMAINTAINED FUEL BREAKS:
Unmaintained fuel breaks and disused roads create places for flammable non-native grasses to thrive, which increases ignition risks. One-time treatments and unmaintained fuel breaks can have the unintended effect of actually increasing fire risk.
“Unmaintained fuel breaks can slow fire suppression response and put firefighters at risk, therefore there should be a commitment and plan to maintain a strategic fuel break network across Southern California.”
– Nicole Molinari, Southern California Province Ecologist, U.S. Forest Service
4.
PRESCRIBED FIRE IN CHAPARRAL LANDSCAPES:
Unlike many other parts of California, prescribed and managed wildfire in Southern California chaparral is not a widespread solution because fires are occurring MORE frequently than they did historically. Too much fire is leading to conversion of native vegetation to more flammable non-native grasses, resulting in even greater fire risk. However, prescribed fire can be an effective tool in Southern California’s montane forests and in other targeted applications in the region.
“In our shrublands we have too much fire, and we want to have less. Too much fire means shrublands turn to grasslands.”
– Megan Jennings, Research Ecologist at San Diego State University
Resources:
*Information included in this document was sourced from the California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force’s Southern California Regional Profile.
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