The Western Shasta RCD has been involved in fire hazard analysis and fuel reduction for several years for the purpose of protecting natural resources and improving watershed health.  Assisting local landowners in reducing fuel levels on their property directly benefits the entire watershed.  When wildfire comes, a property owner that has done proper fuels management can expect to see these benefits:

• Greater likelihood the fire will burn low on the ground and less intense than a fire burning in dense brush and in the crowns of trees.
• Greater likelihood firefighters will be able to contain the fire before structures are destroyed.
• Less soil erosion, since a cooler ground fire does not severely burn the soil, duff, and leaf litter, allowing seeds to survive and sprout after the next rain.
• Less bare dirt is exposed, so there is less sediment flowing into creeks during a heavy rain to bury salmon eggs and degrade water quality.
• Cooler ground fires leave some vegetation and cover for wildlife.
  

Wildfire occurs naturally in California due to the moist winters and hot, dry summers.  Historically fire has been an integral part of the ecological balance that maintained the health and biological diversity of many plant communities.  However, after decades of keeping fire out of the watersheds and vigilant fire suppression techniques, dense thickets of stagnant shrubs and trees now pose a huge risk of catastrophic fire.  As we experienced in the 1999 fire season, unnaturally high levels of vegetation around rural homes can be disastrous for the homeowner, but also for wildlife and fish.