Editor,
On Oct. 28, Cal Fire attempted to burn native Chaparral habitat on SFPUC land above State Route 92 near Ralston Avenue in Belmont. The burn was curtailed when Cal Fire could not get the shrub to ignite. This would not surprise the justices of California’s Fourth Appellate Court who recently ruled against Cal Fire’s statewide “prescribed” burn program for native Chaparral habitat.
In their May 30, 2025 ruling (D083484) the court found that Cal Fire’s statewide prescribed burn program failed to consider the adverse environmental effects of “type-conversion” — converting healthy brush to non-native, weedy landscapes that are inherently more flammable.
The court ruled that the findings underlying the statewide Cal Fire burn policy are not supported by substantial evidence. That policy relies upon studies of forests; chaparral is not “forest” of that type. California’s chaparral biome is one of the state’s most imperiled native ecosystems, and is the foundation of our local biodiversity. The area slated for this burn is a knoll of mixed chaparral habitat with a few oaks, and is a good example of a naturally resilient chaparral ecosystem absent human interference. It does not need human “management”.
Locally, the daily fog pattern over the Santa Cruz Mountains is nothing like the dry Santa-Ana windswept hills. Cal Fire never analyzed the propensity of this local chaparral habitat to burn, never established that a wildfire risk exists and failed to consider the risk that type-conversion will increase flammability. SFPUC should ask Cal Fire to re-examine its policy of burning our local native chaparral, before increasing wildfire risk for local homes.
Kristin Mercer
Belmont
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(1) comment
Thanks, Kristin! That's good information I didn't learn from the article about the burn. They should have interviewed you for the article.
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