HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-132Resolution
WHEREAS, catastrophic wildfires continue to threaten lives, property and the natural
resources of the State of California; and
WHEREAS, Butte County experienced devastating fires during June and July 200$,
some of which began on federal lands and threatened communities and residents of Butte
County; and
WHEREAS, the resources to suppress the fires in Butte County of June and July
200$ cast the taxpayers over $100 million dollars; and
WHEREAS, over 110,000 acres of Iand in Butte County were charred by the 2008
fres, of which approximately 18% were federal Iands; and
WHEREAS, other areas in California experienced devastating wildfires during
and prior to the 2008 fire season; and
WHEREAS, during the 2008 fire season to-date approximately 1.2 million
acres of land have been burned statewide at a suppression cost exceeding $270
million; and
WHEREAS, the insurance losses for the 2007 Fire Season in Southern
California were $ i .6 billion, the Angora Fire in the Tahoe basin was more than $150
rnillian alone, and insurers have provided in excess of $$ billion to thousands of
policy holders from the top ten California wildfires since 1970; and
WHEREAS, the estimated loss of employment from the 2007 Southern California
fires was in excess of $600 million; and
WHEREAS, the U.S. Forest Service and Department of Interior have spent
over $1 billion on fire suppression every year since 2000 with these costs now
consuming over 50% an the total wild land fire budget, as compared to 13% of the
total fire budget in 1991, leaving few resources for critically needed preventative
maintenance of our national forests in the west and throughout the country; and
RESOLUTION OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
OF THE COUNTY OF BUTTE REGARDING WILDFIRES
AND THE THREAT TO THE HEALTH
AND SAFETY OF THE CITIZENS OF CALIFORNIA
WHEREAS, the resources to manage the federal lands and to reduce fire risk
would be a small investment relative to the skyrocketing costs of fire suppression; and
WHEREAS, California has over 43 million acres of federal Iand, much of
which has not been adequately managed to mitigate the risk of catastrophic wildfire;
and
WHEREAS, two of the three largest wildfires in California in the last 104
years began on federal land; and
WHEREAS, the State of California has made significant strides towards
reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfire on state and private lands such as developing
emergency legislative procedures under the Forest Practice Act far reduction of hazardous fuels
on private property, ranking lands as to the level of fire hazard, requiring 100 feet of defensible
space around homes, requiring use ofignition-resistant materials on all construction in any
Fire Hazard Severity Zone in State Responsibility areas or any designated Wildland-Urban
Interface Fire Area, and many other strategies that address preservation of life and property as
well as the environmental risks of large scale wildfires; and
WHEREAS, catastrophic wildfires result in harmful environmental effects, including
diminished air and water quality, increased erasion, degradation of sensitive wildlife
species habitat as well as qualitative effects such as viewshed impairment; and
WHEREAS, approximately eighty percent of the State's developed surface water
supply originates on watershed lands within its rural counties upon which Californians depend
for domestic commercial, agricultural, industrial recreational and other beneficial uses including
critical habitat for hundreds of species of fish and wildlife; and
WHEREAS, the mitigation of wildfire emissions is vital to reach the goals stated in the
California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 {AB 32); and
WHEREAS, the Draft AB 32 Scoping Plan, released in June 2008, fails to adequately
address the need to mitigate wildfires and the importance of quantifying and modeling
wildfire emissions on private, state, and federal lands; and
WHEREAS, the carbon emissions from these fires are far in excess of the contribution
Butte County can make in helping California meet the goals sought in AB 32: and
WHEREAS, signif cant air quality impairment in Butte County and surrounding
counties is concurrent with catastrophic wildfires; and
WHEREAS, the Air Quality Index in areas within Butte County during the 49-day fire
siege in 2008 exceeded 200 (Very Unhealthy) for many consecutive days during the 2008 fres
and 300 {Hazardous) on some days; and
WHEREAS, there continues to be a widely recognized extremely high risk of
catastrophic wildf re in Butte County due to unnaturally heavy fuel loads and the early drying of
wild Iand vegetation; and
WHEREAS, the 2008 fire season is not over.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE ~T RESOLVED, that the Butte County Board of
Supervisors declares there is an ongoing emergency due to the threat of wildfire in California,
that state and the local governments have taken many steps to resolve this issue, and that we
now request that the Governor take an active role at the federal level to demand that the United
States Forest Service take action in California's federal wild and forest lands to do the
prevention and maintenance work required to mitigate the risk of catastrophic wildfires.
Passed and adopted by the Board of Supervisors of the County of Butte, State of California, on
the 7th day of October 2008 by the following votes:
AYES: Supervisors Connelly, Yamaguchi, Dolan, Kirk, and Chair ,Tosiassen
NOES: None
ABSENT: None
NOT VOTING: None
urt J' siassen, Chairman
Butte County Board of Supervisors
ATTESTED:
C. Brian Haddix
Chief A 'str ve 1c
and the e oar
By: Q ,/i