Supe calls for immediate action on Tahoe fire prevention

By: Jim Ruffalo

Searching the notebook while wondering when hide-and-go-seek became part of the Placer High curriculum. ...

Also waiting to be found are responses to several clarion calls recently issued by local folks, each of whom knows exactly of which he speaks.

The first of those was sounded by Fifth District Supervisor Bruce Kranz, who no doubt weary of watching the Lake Tahoe area get consumed by flames which clearly could have been avoided, decided to issue a challenge of what many feel is the source of the problem.

Just three days after the Washoe fire, Kranz braced the omnipotent Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA), telling it that it was not wise to wait for the March 21, 2008, so-called Blue Ribbon Report to do something to keep another Angora-type fire from wiping out the forest and destroying Lake Tahoe's clarity.

In insisting that action needs to be taken now, Kranz listed some specifics in his message to John Singlaub, TRPA's executive director.

Kranz called for authorization of "environmentally sensitive mechanical equipment" to help eradicate the forest-floor fuel pile, adding the obvious that should such fuel foolishly be allowed to remain untouched "there will be no habitat or watershed" to protect.

He also suggested that California Public Resource Code Section 4291 be fully enforced.

That statute requires a 30-foot mineral earth clearance, along with an additional 70-foot vegetation modification around existing structures. Currently, TRPA not only doesn't allow such clearances, but enforces rules which call for leaving fallen pine needles undisturbed.

Kranz then goes on to commit heresy by asking that homeowners be allowed - without permit - to remove dead trees, and suggests adhering to the Forest Fire Protection Act, which allows the cutting of clutter trees of up to 18 inches in circumference.

In closing, Kranz pointed out that forest-users no longer should have to "continue to rely upon good luck and skilled firefighters." ...

Jim Ruffalo appears Wednesdays and Sundays in the Journal. His e-mail address is jmruffalo@yahoo.com.