The only reason the extreme option—of conducting controlled burns in the Parkway to reduce overgrowth—is even being considered is due to a lack of effective management of the Parkway.
Overgrowth issues in an urban/suburban park are ideally handled by a regular maintenance program that keeps the situation in check so that extreme measures with a very dangerous potential downside (like controlled burns accidently igniting fires on the many wood-shingled roofs of homes lining the Parkway) do not have to be resorted to; and the illegal camping by the homeless, from which several fires have reportedly begun, has to be reduced substantially.
However, the Parkway has been running a maintenance deficit every year for several years and overgrowth control has not been done (let alone substantially reducing illegal camping) creating the dangerous situation we now have, of tinderbox vegetation and the consideration of potentially dangerous alternatives.
The Bee reports on the discussion.
An excerpt.
“A spate of recent fires in the American River Parkway, including one near Cal Expo on Monday that climbed dangerously into the trees and even jumped the river, has prompted some officials to wonder: Is it time to renew talk about prescribed burns?
“The fires this summer have left patches of charred fields and singed trees in 10 or more places along the 23-mile parkway. This summer has been especially serious because the drought has left vegetation the driest on record, officials say.
“Prescribed burns have long been controversial in the heavily used parkway, home to abundant wildlife and used by a million people annually. But proponents maintain that if fire experts don't do the burning under controlled situations, arsonists will have their way and cause untold damage.
“The fire that began Monday, for instance, required 150 firefighters to control amid treacherous 30 mph winds. The blaze burned 16 acres of a grass field north of the river adjacent to Cal Expo.
“Ember showers carried by the winds caused the fire to jump the river and burn 16 acres at Sutter's Landing Regional Park, the nature area that was once the city dump. It also jumped the Capital City Freeway and burned 6 to 7 acres in an orchard, according to Lloyd Ogan, a deputy chief with the Sacramento Fire Department.”
