CalVTP in Practice: Lompoc Valley Fuels Reduction Project-Purisima Ridge Fuel Break
Thursday, November 3, 2022 10:00am - 12:00pm
This webinar was an opportunity to learn about how the California Vegetation Treatment Programmatic EIR (CalVTP) can help increase the pace and scale of vegetation management and fuels treatments in California. The Lompoc Valley Fuels Reduction Project-Purisima Ridge Fuel Break was highlighted as an example project. The team responsible for implementing this project helped participants improve their knowledge about the CalVTP in this hyper-local case study.
Santa Barbara County Fire Department Fire Marshal Rob Hazard and Wildland Fuels Project Coordinator Ann Marx discussed the utilization of the CalVTP to accomplish the Lompoc Valley Fuel Reduction Project-Purisima Ridge Fuel Break. The environmental consulting firm Dudek was contracted to complete the Project Specific Analysis (PSA). Dudek's Urban Forestry and Wildlife Planner, Dana Link-Herrera, presented on the process of creating the PSA, including when to bring in additional expertise, while Dudek’s Senior Biologist, Dave Compton, presented on how to approach a very successful agency consultation.
Lompoc Valley Fuels Reduction Project from Cal Poly IGEE on Vimeo.
| Time | Item |
|---|---|
| 10:00am | Webinar begins, presenter introductions |
| Rob Hazard: Santa Barbara County Fire Vegetation Management Program | |
| Ann Marx: Deciding to Use the CalVTP PEIR | |
| Dana Link-Herrera: Developing the Project Specific Analysis | |
| David Compton: Agency Coordination for Biological Resources | |
| Audience Q&A | |
| 12:00pm | Webinar close |
Trainers:
Rob Hazard, Division Chief/Fire Marshall, Santa Barbara County Fire Department
Chief Hazard began his fire service career in 1988 with the U.S. Forest Service working on the Los Padres Hot Shot Crew. Chief Hazard was hired as a firefighter with the Santa Barbara County Fire Department in 1998, promoting to Engineer/Inspector in 2002, Fire Captain in 2006 and Battalion Chief/Deputy Fire Marshal in 2016. Chief Hazard was a lead academy instructor for Wildland Firefighting and a member of the SBCFD Wildland Steering Committee. Chief Hazard has represented SBCFD on multiple teams and committees including the USFS Region 5 California Incident Management Team 7 and is currently a member of the local Type 3 Incident Management Team (XSB IMT3). Chief Hazard sits on the Santa Barbara Fire Safe Council as a Board Member and the FIRESCOPE Predictive Services Specialist Group. Chief Hazard is a 5th generation Santa Barbara native.
Chief Hazard currently holds the rank of Division Chief and is assigned as the County Fire Marshal.
Ann Marx, Wildland Fuel Project Coordinator, Santa Barbara County Fire Department
Ann Marx has worked with Santa Barbara County Fire for the past 3 years focused on planning and implementing vegetation management projects to mitigate wildland fire.
Ann worked for 21 years as the Wildland Fire Specialist with the City of Santa Barbara Fire Department and with the US Forest Service as a Fuels Management Specialist and Firefighter for 18 years.
Ann’s experience has made her highly knowledgeable and successful in developing and implementing wildland fire programs; including planning, administration, organization, implementation, monitoring, funding, field implementation, resource protection, environmental compliance, coordination, training, and Federal, State and Local regulation compliance.
Her career has included working with local communities, Fire Prevention, Biologists, Fire Operations, local Boards and Commissions and local, state and federal cooperating agencies to mitigate the impact of wildfire in the Wildland Urban Interface.
She holds a graduate level certificate in Forestry from California Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo, CA.
Dana Link-Herrera, Urban Forestry and Wildfire Planner, Dudek
Dana Link-Herrera is an urban forestry and wildfire planner with a strong foundation in environmental and urban/regional planning. She has broad experience with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and specializes in wildfire impact analyses and preparation of environmental review documents for vegetation management and wildfire risk reduction projects. She works collaboratively with Dudek’s certified arborists, licensed foresters, and wildfire planners, to prepare urban forest management plans, community wildfire protection plans, environmental documentation, and technical wildfire analyses. She has experience working on a variety of project types in fire hazard areas and wildland-urban interface (WUI) areas. She has diverse experience in natural resource management, environmental analysis, permitting support, and community outreach, and provides a comprehensive approach to environmental planning and wildfire analysis.
She served as project manager on the Dudek team to prepare the Project Specific Analysis (PSA) under the California Vegetation Treatment Program (CalVTP) for the Lompoc Valley Fuels Reduction Project – Purisima Ridge Fuel Break.
Dave Compton, Senior Biologist, Dudek
Dave Compton has worked in environmental consulting for 14 years, and has spent the past 11 years working as a biologist with Dudek. He is principally a wildlife biologist and has provided biological resources planning expertise relating to a variety of federally and state-listed species. In addition to coordination with state and federal agencies as part of endangered species permitting, he has worked with agencies and other government entities in waters permitting, Coastal Development permitting, and land use development permitting. Projects in which he has played key roles have included assisting the Metropolitan Water District in receiving the first California Fish and Game Code Section 2081 permit for incidental take of the fully protected unarmored threespine stickleback, so that Met could conduct inspection and repairs to a key water pipeline, and assisting the Montecito Water District in emergency permitting to repair infrastructure following the mudslide. He has also worked as the biological resources lead on several other vegetation treatment projects, in addition to the Purisima Ridge Project.
