Vanauken Creek Fuel Break Project CalVTP PEIR PSA & Addendum
The Vanauken Creek Fuel Break Project, when implemented, is intended to safeguard the rural community of Whitethorn from wind-driven wildfires by establishing ridgetop shaded fuel breaks to reduce the amount and continuity of hazardous fuels and facilitate the implementation of multi-phase prescribed fire treatment. The Vanauken Creek area has a wildfire hazard risk that is considered “high” by CAL FIRE (CAL FIRE 2024). Multiple factors contribute to wildfire hazard risk, including widespread invasive, noxious, fire-hazardous vegetation; decades of accumulating dead vegetation; over a century of fire suppression; and the increased risk of anthropogenic ignition associated with human development (CAL FIRE 2022).
The California Vegetation Treatment Program (CalVTP) Program Environmental Impact Report (PEIR) adopted by the California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection (Board) evaluates the potential environmental effects of implementing qualifying vegetation treatments that reduce the risk of wildfire throughout the State Responsibility Area and adjacent portions of the Local Responsibility Area in California. It was designed for use by many State, special district, and local agencies to accelerate vegetation treatment project approvals by finding them to be within the scope of the PEIR. This finding that the proposed treatments are within the scope of the PEIR must be supported by a Project Specific Analysis (PSA). An Addendum to the Program EIR is another tool designed to address those project components that are not within the scope of the Program EIR but have similar environmental effects.
The Vanauken Creek Fuel Break Resilience Project PSA/Addendum proposes up to 597 acres of vegetation treatments. The proposed treatment types and treatment activities are consistent with those analyzed in the certified California Vegetation Treatment Program (CalVTP) Program EIR. Treatment types that would be implemented in the project area are Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) and Shaded Fuel Break; the proposed treatment activities that would be used to implement these treatment types are mechanical treatment, manual treatment, and prescribed fire (pile burn, broadcast burn). Herbicide treatment is not anticipated at this time, but is included and analyzed in the PSA/Addendum.
HCRCD has completed environmental review of the proposal in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act and Guidelines (CEQA), and consistent with the CalVTP. At the Regular Board Meeting of February 12, 206, the HCRCD Board of Directors may act to certify that the PSA and Addendum to the California Vegetation Treatment Program Environmental Impact Report comply with CEQA and State CEQA Guidelines and adopt the CEQA Findings and Statement of Overriding Considerations for Project-Specific Analysis and Addendum for the Mail Ridge Forest Health and Wildfire Resilience Project.
Documents
Vanauken Creek Fuel Break Project CalVTP PEIR PSA & Addendum