Wildfire season is no stranger to my home of Paradise. Most will remember the Camp Fire, the deadly fire that destroyed our town in 2018: the most destructive and deadliest wildfire in California’s history. Over the past five years, Paradise’s local government and community came together, with help from state and federal partners, to rebuild our town’s land, infrastructure, and community. However, there is much more work to be done.
As we head into the 2024 wildfire season, we need to think holistically about wildfire prevention and mitigation tactics. One way to do this is to introduce more strategically placed fuel breaks into our forests. A fuel break is the strategic clearing and reduction of vegetation, starving wildfires of dense vegetation in an effort to slow down the fire.
It is critical that the Paradise community, as well as other communities across Northern California, are prepared if disaster strikes again. Effective suppression capabilities, like fuel breaks, are crucial for protecting our forests when a wildfire cannot be prevented.
I have seen first-hand the value of fuel breaks. Fuel breaks put in place by the Butte Fire Safe Council, U.S. Forest Service, and a private forestland owner helped firefighters stop the growth of the Camp Fire, saving an elementary school, Stirling City, hundreds of homes, and unknown lives.
The placement of fuel breaks and tracking their implementation are crucial to their success. This means separating vegetation by using geo-strategic fuel breaks and working in tandem with our federal and state partners to ensure fire unit plans are up to date. Once implemented, we must dedicate proper investments into the maintenance of these fuel breaks in order for their continued efficacy.
Like many others, I am not only concerned about the strength of future wildfires but also about what they mean for our firefighters and first responders. The Bureau of Land Management’s 2015 report on fuel breaks focuses on this very point. The report states, “When you don’t have those fuel breaks, you’re still trying to hold the same roads, but it’s going to take a dozer, eight engines and a crew to pull this project off and in the end, they may or may not be successful, but … it puts firefighters in a greater exposure of risk.”
It’s critical that responsible agencies exercise every authority to quickly execute these fuel breaks projects. If agencies run into bureaucratic hurdles keeping them from implementation, it’s important they are raised to our lawmakers. It goes without saying for communities like ours, but there simply isn’t much time.
Fuel breaks alone are not the solution. They must be considered along with the broader suite of wildfire prevention strategies. However, fuel breaks are a critical part of significantly reducing the intensity of wildfires and slowing down their ability to spread. It allows first responders and firefighters to effectively use other tactics, such as fire retardants, as well as preemptive strategies like land management, public-private partnerships, and community preparedness.
As Supervisor of Butte County, I have seen my constituents’ — as well as my families’ — lives flipped upside down by catastrophic wildfires. However, I have also seen firsthand how successful public-private partnerships and the federal government can be to incentivize quicker fuel break development. When implementing fuel breaks on federal and private lands, which are often adjacent to each other, it can lead to a severe reduction in hazardous fuels and serve as a powerful mitigation tactic.
When the next disaster hits, fuel breaks will make a tangible difference in the strength and size of a wildfire, and they go a long way to protect our first responders, community members, and critical infrastructure. Communities across the country facing wildfire season should look at Paradise as a warning sign for disasters to come. I urge everyone to look deeply at your community’s toolkit for wildfire season and invest in strategies like fuel breaks to help us face what comes next.
Doug Teeter is the District 5 supervisor for Butte County.