Recently awarded a $10K grant from the California Fire Safe Council, the Oakland Fire Safe Council has been busy at work promoting fire safe practices in their community.
With the grant, they organized the thinning of more than 200 young Monterey pine trees, other brush, and deadwood crowding one of their project areas. The area cleaned was within a mile of an Oakland residential area, adjacent to the popular Chabot Space and Science Center, and in the middle of several heavily used wooded parks. The debris was chipped and the chips used as mulch to hold down weeds.
According to the Oakland Fire Safe Council, the area that was thinned is within a wildland-urban interface that is dangerously overgrown. Considering its proximity to homes, this area posed an ever-larger threat. The City of Oakland no longer had the budget to maintain its overgrown open spaces, so any work volunteers, like the Oakland Fire Safe Council, can do with grant money to make this area more fire safe for the residents of the area.
The clearing done by the Oakland Fire Safe Council received a large amount of media attention, furthering their reach within the community. Now, they are working hard to continue their education efforts across the Bay Area. California Fire Safe Council is proud of the work Oakland is doing in their community!
