As California enters prime fire season, the U.S. Forest Service has proposed a plan to help reduce the risk of wildfires in Los Padres National Forest. But at least one local environmental nonprofit opposes it.
U.S. Forest Service Forest Planner Kyle Kinports said the Wildlife Risk Reduction Project, formerly known as the Ecological Restoration Project of 2022, is intended to improve wildfire containment in Los Padres by enhancing the area’s health and resiliency through vegetation clearing and prescribed burning.
“We don’t want to see our communities and the forest destroyed by wildfire and post-fire floods,” Kinports said via email. “Addressing the threat of wildfire and hazardous fuels that surround communities both within and outside the forest boundary is a priority for both the U.S. Forest Service as well as our state and county cooperators.”
According to the project summary, the Wildlife Risk Reduction Project would work to clear trees and shrubs from national forest land ranging from Ventura to Big Sur, covering areas of Santa Barbara, Ventura, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Kern, and Los Angeles counties.
Kinports said the project has “undergone three years of environmental analysis and revision using the best available science and includes important safeguards for wildlife, water quality, cultural sites, and other resources.”
Los Padres ForestWatch Executive Director Jeff Kuyper said he isn’t convinced.
“There’s a lot of concerns that we in the conservation community and Central Coast residents have about the project in terms of its impact on endangered species habitat,” Kuyper said. “It’s going to damage Native American sacred sites, and it’s really going to fundamentally change the look and feel of the forest for decades to come. I mean, we’re talking about 90,000 acres of fuel breaks and larger cleared areas across the whole forest. They’re going to be visible for miles.”
New Times contacted the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians for comment but didn’t hear back before publication.
Kuyper said that ForestWatch, which aims to protect public lands along the Central Coast, proposed an alternative plan to the Forest Service, which Kuyper said has 83 percent less impact than the current Wildlife Risk Reduction Project and introduces a newer way of thinking about fire prevention and community safety.
“Time and again, evidence shows that the most effective way to protect communities from wildfire is to focus on where people live, and that means focusing on structures in particular, making sure that they are retrofitted and can withstand fire and embers,” he said. “Making sure that there’s defensible space around structures and working on emergency planning so the communities are prepared when the next wildfire hits.”
U.S. Forest Planner Kinports said via email that the service has discussed these project changes with ForestWatch and is evaluating potential changes in its plan.
A decision regarding the project is anticipated by the end of the year, Kinports said. ∆
This article appears in Winning Images 2025.
