Oakland Hills: Reducing Eucalyptus Tree Fire Dangers

OAKLAND, Calif., Jun. 21, 2007 (KGO) (KGO) -- Oakland firefighters dodged a bullet yesterday with the two-alarm fire in the Oakland hills. They kept that fire confined to about an acre near Broadway Terrace and Grizzly Peak Boulevard, but a dense cluster of eucalyptus trees posed a particular problem. There are now efforts to eliminate or at least reduce that threat.

Capt. Cedric Price, Oakland Fire Department: "If the conditions had been different yesterday, we really could have had a large fire."

Humidity was high. There wasn't much wind -- that helped. What didn't help was the dense growth of eucalyptus trees.

Capt. Cedric Price: "Yesterday, because of the location and the density of them, made it very difficult for us to access the fire, and again they really contribute to the spread of fire."

The city has a vegetation management program, but there are some who resist getting rid of eucalyptus trees even though they're a hazard.

Capt. Cedric Price: "Really, it's almost like an area of matchsticks, basically, because they're a highly flammable vegetation. They have a lot of oil on the leaves, and really they contribute to a very explosive fire."

Since the 1991 firestorm, groups of property owners have banded together to reduce the fire hazard. Regional parks have cut fire breaks through the forests, and large landowners like the University of California at Berkeley are systematically weeding out non-native species that burn easily.

Thomas Klatt, UCB Office of Emergency Preparedness: "Our process is to selectively remove the invasive exotic eucalyptus and accacia trees, and allow the native landscape to recover. We have a wonderful understory of bay oak, and redwood, big leaf maple, buckeye, that come in as long as we can suppress the eucalyptus trees."

The goal is to remove volatile eucalyptus trees and retain the natural vegetation like redwood trees that don't have quite the same fuel load and don't burn as easily.

Thomas Klatt: "We'll never remove eucalyptus altogether, but we're selectively looking for those areas where we can make the biggest impact to prevent wildfire, as well as restore the best native values."

Capt. Cedric Price: "If it were up to us, we probably wouldn't want to have any of them here."

Cutting is expected to resume shortly, and continue for years to come.

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