An insider's guide to the Bay Area's best parks, recreation and wilderness areas, from San Francisco Chronicle outdoors columnist Tom Stienstra. He’s hiked, camped, boated, fished and cycled across the region to bring you this insider's guide to popular and little-known spots.
One year after fires, parks in Santa Cruz Mountains reopen and show off redwoods sfchronicle.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sfchronicle.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Since the CZU fires, Cal Fire s San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties division, Cal Fire CZU, as well as other county groups have been working on various projects to protect against wildfires. Woodside and Portola Valley have both stepped up their fuel reduction efforts, said Denise Enea, former Woodside Fire Protection District fire marshal and president of Fire Safe San Mateo County, the organization dedicated to protecting property and the environment for county residents in the wildland/urban interface.
“It s not just going to be more engines, it’s not just going to be more hand crews, it’s not going to just be more vegetation management, it’s not just going to be prescribed burning, it’s going to be more of everything,” explained Jonathan Cox, deputy chief of Cal Fire CZU, during the April Cal Fire talk, speaking about how the county can prevent a catastrophic wildfire.
Fire experts are predicting another hot, dry year in California, increasing the risk of wildfires a year after an especially bad season in 2020. The surge in fires has led some to consider the methods in which they are fought.
At the San Mateo County Parks Commissionâs April 1 meeting, commissioners discussed the use of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Conservation Camp Program, which employs inmates to help fight active fires and do mitigation work.
The program is voluntary, and not all inmates are eligible. Those with a history of sexual offenses, arson or escape canât join the program. But some civil rights groups say the work is akin to slavery, disproportionally calls on minorities and that state inmates have no practical option to refuse to work.