Community-Based Wildfire Prevention Grants Program

2002 Request for Proposal

Section A: Organizational Information

(Please do not retype the proposal form.� Responses should be typed on this document.)

Organization Name:

Half Moon Bay Coastside Foundation aka Coastside� Fire Safe Council

Project Name:

Strategic Regional EIR Template for San Mateo County Wildland Coastal Zone

Contact Person/Title:

Oscar Braun, Executive Director

Organization Address:

1589 Higgins Canyon Road

City, State, Zip:

Half Moon Bay, CA 94019

County:

San Mateo

Phone:

(650) 726-3307

Fax:

(650) 726-2799

Email:

oscar@saveourbay.org

Latitude of project location:

41.1

Longitude of project location:

131.9

Grant Amount Requested:

$240,000.

Have you previously applied for a Community-Based Wildfire Prevention Grant?

�Yes�� �No

Have you previously received a Community-Based Wildfire Prevention Grant?

�Yes�� �No

Are you submitting multiple proposals for consideration?

� Yes�� �No

If yes, how many?

Two 2

If yes, rank this proposal in order of importance to your organization (i.e. 1^st of 5 proposals):

#1 one

Describe the community in which the project will be implemented: It is no secret that the San Mateo County (SMC) Rural Coastal Zone (RCZ) stores� the Bay Areas most valuable resources.� The SMC RCZ wildland watershed is a State Responsibility Area (SRA) which includes the coastal unincorporated Rural Lands communities with approximately 6,161 residents and is also haven for a variety of habitats which supports the highest concentration of rare, threatened, and endangered species in the Bay Area. The San Andreas, the Lower & Upper Crystal Springs and the Pilarcitos Reservoirs, nestled between the Santa Cruz Mountains and Hwy 280 , are said to contain some of the purest drinking water in the United States. What is not well known is that the spectacular and beautiful surrounding rural landscape harbors a serious threat to this prized commodity. Long years without a major wildfire have allowed a serious buildup of biomass that could, according to� the California State Auditor�s SFPUC February 2000 Report, fuel a catastrophic firestorm in a region that lacks a rapid fire response capability enjoyed by most inner-city fire departments. A major wildfire driven by blazing hot Santa Ana winds could explode over and beyond the eastern facing slopes above the reservoirs only to be stopped at our coastal waters edge after stripping the groundcover of its ability to hold back soil and long hidden pollutants when the heavy rains come. The last major wildfire in this SMC RCZ watershed occurred in 1946� which resulted in reduced capacity of the reservoirs because of the vast sedimentation that followed the fires. The GGNRA Fire Management Plan records describe the damaging 1946 wildland fire as having lasted for six weeks, completely burning down the small coastal community of Montara.� The Half Moon Bay Fire Protection District alerted SMC RCZ coastal communities in 2001 that all the conditions that caused the disastrous 1946 wildfires currently exist in our coastal watershed.� Unfettered public access, high temperatures, blazing hot winds, steep hills, excessive wildland vegetation, drought affected plants, narrow roads, slow wildland fire detection and densely populated wildland /urban interface (WUI) area neighborhoods all contribute to firestorms.�

Section B: Project Summary Purpose & Need: This Fire Safe Council Coordinate Resource Management Plan (CRMP) grant� purpose is to streamline EIR approval and funding� processes of� public and private sector watershed projects, to be implemented in a strategic framework in which sustainable landscapes that compose entire natural watershed� systems can be conserved, while economic and natural values important to the community they serve are maintained or enhanced in perpetuity. The Coastside Fire Safe Council proposes crafting a Regional EIR Template for the San Mateo County Rural Coastal Zone WUI and SRA areas. This template will streamline/harmonize the NEPA/CEQA/Coastal Act environmental review/approval process by� adopting the certified (January 11, 2001) SFPUC Peninsula Watershed Management Plan and Final Environmental Impact Report for utilization� as a strategic Regional EIR Template for the� entire wildlands/coastal zone areas of San Mateo County for �Fire Mitigation� purposes. The Coastside Fire Safe Council further recommends that the California Coastal Zone boundaries be revised westerly to replicate the same� easterly boundaries of the U.S. Federal Coastal Zone. The primary streamlining benefit of this strategic EIR Regional Template is that all public and private sector Stakeholders can participate in the timely permitting processing and implementation of the California Fire Plan and National Fire Plan programs. This EIR Regional Template streamlining proposals will provide maximum environmental protection while eliminating needless and expensive duplication of EIR� NEPA/CEQA/CCC processing . The Coastside Fire Safe Council EIR Regional Template and Coastal Zone boundary harmonizing will save the Federal, State, County agencies and local coastal communities tens of millions of dollars annually in EIR processing and years of unnecessary California Coastal Commission�s EIR mitigation project review delays.� The Regional EIR Template will expand the capacity of all California Fire Safe Council Stakeholders to aggressively move forward with their WUI protection projects as provided for by the California and National Fire Plans.

Project Type (please refer to Background and Program Information for more details):			��Hazardous Fuel Reduction
			��Information and Education
			��Risk reduction planning for communities
Provide a brief description of the fire safety hazards within the community:
� The focus of this proposal is the wildland/urban interface of Half Moon Bay Coastside and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area/San Francisco Peninsula Watershed. The absence of a major wildfire over the last 100-years in this area has produced a dangerous buildup of biomass fuel, and typical fuel management practices have only been partially effective due to the 1999 mitigation prohibition ruling under the Coastal Act, lack of revenues and WUI communities support. As a result, the lives and property of the inhabitants of Half Moon Bay & Coastside communities as well as the Hetch Hetchy supplied drinking water of the entire Bay Area could be threatened within minutes of a wildfire ignition.
Have these hazards been identified in a local, state, or federal fire agency plan?�� �Yes�� �No
Name of agency:	CDF & HMB Fire District	Contact Person/Phone:		CDP Unit Chief Steve Wert 831-335-8700, HMBFPD Chief Steve Ashe 650-726-5213
Does your project serve �at risk� communities as identified by the California Fire Alliance?�� �Yes�� �No



Describe how a Community-Based Wildfire Prevention Grant would be used for this project: See above under Purpose and Need.

Briefly describe the population, including the number of people and homes, that will benefit from your project:
The Half Moon Bay Coastside WUI communities consists of approximately 28,000 residents in approximately 7,000 dwellings.� The Benefit to the FireALERT sentinel system is that the coastal WUI communities would have a state of the art 21^st Century early warning fire alert system not currently deployed in the Coastal Zone WUI watershed area.� Early Detection Is The Best DEFENSE Against a Catastrophic Wildfire.

List all private, local, tribal, state, and federal organizations involved in this project (If any federal, state or local government agencies are participating, please attach a letter of commitment to this project, which outlines their involvement and in-kind services they are contributing):

Half Moon Bay Coastside Foundation aka Coastside Fire Safe Council

Ambient Control Systems

CDF

Half Moon Bay Fire Protection District

Local Fire Agency?

Does this project affect lands or communities near or adjacent to federal lands?� �Yes�� No� (If yes, describe the land and ownership of the land (i.e. BLM, USFS, BIA, etc.)

The Golden Gate National Recreation Area is federal land administered by the National Park Service.

Section C: Project Implementation and Evaluation

Describe how your organization will implement and complete the project (please include a brief timeline for project

implementation): The Half Moon Bay Coastside Foundation will implement the grant project by drafting a Regional EIR Template document for presentation to the California Fire Safe Council by January 1, 2003 for their review and approval.

Section D: Budget Information

Project Revenue
	Grants		Donations		In-kind		Other		Total
Homeowners	$
Tribes	$
County grants/contracts	$
State grants/contracts	$
Federal grants/contracts	$
Foundation grants	$
Special events	$
Other	$
TOTAL REVENUE	$

Project Expenses - List expenditures in left column (i.e. chipper rental, hand crew labor, inspectors, project managers, dozers, etc.)
		Amount		In-kind		Other		Total
Salaries & wages		$240,000.		120,000.
Employee benefits		$
Supplies		$
Equipment & maintenance		$
Contractual/consulting fees		$
Other Management Fees		$
Other		$
Other		$
Other		$
Other		$
Other		$
TOTAL EXPENSES		$240,000.		$120,000

Has this project been submitted or will it be submitted to any other funding sources?� �Yes�� �No If yes, provide description, including name of funding source, below:

Please submit six (6) copies of your proposal to:

Sacramento Regional Foundation

ATTN: Community-Based Wildfire Prevention Grants Program

555 Capitol Mall, Suite 550

Sacramento, CA� 95814

All proposals must be received by 5:00pm on March 29, 2002