Santa Cruz Grand Jury Revised response to the 2021-2022 Grand Jury Report "Reducing Our Community's Risk From Wildfire"

Vegetation reduction must become a major priority for the County to adequately protect communities, critical infrastructures, and ingress/egress routes from increasing wildfire risk. _ _ AGREE _X_ PARTIALLY DISAGREE __ DISAGREE Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): The County does not carry the sole responsibility for vegetation reduction. It must share this responsibility with private landowners, other governmental entities, and non-profits that the County has no authority over. The County’s purview is limited to County rights-of-way, education, and coordination management with partners on private property. The County applied for two grants to build capacity for hazardous fuel reduction along County maintained roads for improved evacuation safety. To bolster partner agency coordination efforts, the County hired a Wildfire Resilience Manager. The County also strengthened local education efforts by devoting scarce discretionary dollars to the Fire Safe Council to help education private landowners on wildfire preparation.

Currently, there is not a countywide strategy for prioritizing vegetation- reduction projects. __ AGREE _X_ PARTIALLY DISAGREE __ DISAGREE Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): Santa Cruz County and San Mateo have a joint Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) that prioritizes and maps priority areas for vegetation reduction projects. The Santa Cruz Mountains Stewardship Network (a County partner) is in the process of building more specific maps that prioritize vegetation reduction projects based on the life safety, property, and environment. Prioritization of hazardous fuel reduction may vary depending upon the partner agency, the County will work to support the development of robust project evaluation criteria for project prioritization.

County residents are not sufficiently informed of vegetation-management strategy, planning, and implementation. __ AGREE _X_ PARTIALLY DISAGREE __ DISAGREE Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): There has been a significant expansion of FireWise communities in Santa Cruz County. FireWise communities are volunteer neighborhood groups who reside in the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) that work together to reduce wildfire risk through education and collaboration using a national framework. In 2019, there were five Firewise communities, and now there are 31 Firewise communities. The County has made financial contributions to the FireSafe Council that facilitates the forming of these neighborhood groups.

No single agency guides the County vegetation-reduction programs and projects, a situation that contributes to the observed lack of strategic planning. __ AGREE _X_ PARTIALLY DISAGREE __ DISAGREE Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): CalFIRE CZU Resource Management personnel, who cover both San Mateo County and Santa Cruz County, partner with all fire safety-related agencies. Combined, these agencies are currently managing $14.4 million in vegetation-reduction grants within Santa Cruz County. Additionally, the County was awarded an 18-month $175,000 grant from the California FireSafe Council to begin strategic planning and coordination for several fire safety and wildfire resilience activities. This grant will continue the County’s strong partner network coordination with the help of the new Wildfire Resilience Manager position in the Office of Response, Recovery, and Resilience.

The grants process is competitive, fragmented, and opaque, and lacks the published priorities and governance to ensure the money is well spent. __ AGREE _X_ PARTIALLY DISAGREE __ DISAGREE Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): Each grant has published priorities and established governance to ensure the efficiency of the funding. Santa Cruz County and its partners have been generally very successful in obtaining grant funding. However, the County is collaborating with its partners to deliberately reduce competition among Santa Cruz County groups to avoid duplication of efforts.

Santa Cruz County is obtaining significant vegetation reduction funding through the grants process but not sufficient to complete high-priority vegetation reduction areas in a reasonable time. _X_ AGREE __ PARTIALLY DISAGREE __ DISAGREE Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): Funding is only one part of the solution to successful hazardous fuel reduction projects. Several factors outside of the County’s control inhibit the expediency of projects such as environmental reviews, overlapping authorities (including the significant WUI area located in the Coastal zone), resisting private property owners, and workforce capacity issues. There is a clear need for more funding, and the County and partner agencies will continue to seek fuel reduction funding.

County residents do not have easy access to grant prioritization and project selection criteria. _X_ AGREE __ PARTIALLY DISAGREE __ DISAGREE Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): Federal, State, and Non-profit granting agencies are responsible for grant prioritization, project selection criteria, and ensuring efficiency. The County has no control over granting agencies. However, the FireSafe Council of Santa Cruz County holds public meetings where the public may submit comment and requests. Some community groups are working directly with partner agencies, the Resource Conservation District as an example, to accomplish specific priority projects.

Neither County Fire nor the Office of Response, Recovery & Resilience have staff or funding that are charged with creating, managing, and reporting on vegetation-reduction strategy, planning, and execution for the benefit of County residents. __ AGREE __ PARTIALLY DISAGREE _X_ DISAGREE Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): As previously mentioned in this response, the Office of Response, Recovery & Resilience hired a Wildfire Resilience Manager who is coordinating vegetation- reduction efforts among other fire safety duties.

The County Fire/CAL FIRE Chief reporting to General Services does not give vegetation reduction sufficient priority and visibility. __ AGREE _X_ PARTIALLY DISAGREE __ DISAGREE Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): Like other fire districts in the County, vegetation reduction is not part of the primary mission of County Fire. The mission of County Fire is to protect the life, property and natural resources of its citizens and visitors through effective emergency response, preparedness, education and prevention. Although specific project-based vegetation reduction is not the primary mission, Chief Armstrong reported on several vegetation reduction efforts conducted by County Fire at the annual update to the Board of Supervisors on June 28th, 2022.

The Office of Response, Recovery & Resilience reporting to the County Administrative Officer does not give vegetation reduction sufficient priority and visibility. __ AGREE __ PARTIALLY DISAGREE _X_ DISAGREE Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): The Office of Response, Recovery & Resilience (OR3) hired a Wildfire Resilience Manager to address vegetation reduction among other fire safety priorities. Many efforts need to be simultaneously worked to address fire safety. Vegetation management is only one part of the package that creates safe environments and is also the most expensive. The OR3 office applied for over $1.5 million in grant funding to address wildfire risk reduction through hazardous fuel reduction. They are waiting on final award determination of these grants.