California Community Stories
Talmadge is a compact, heavily populated urban canyon community located in San Diego, California. The canyon ridge is rimmed by 282 homes, and beyond the ridgeline there are 1,000 additional homes, 180 apartments, several large condominiums, multiple businesses, an elderly care facility, and a high school with 1,200 students and staff. The estimated residential population is 5,000.
Talmadge is part of an interconnecting canyon network situated on a 62-acre open space habitat, which is dense with overgrown vegetation. The danger of a wildfire in Talmadge canyon is high risk-the canyon consists of several fingers, and a number of chimneys, saddles, and ridgelines so that winds can be funneled into these areas and eddies created. In addition, heat can be trapped, intensifying combustible fuels, and could potentially cause ignition throughout the canyon, particularly under a Santa Ana wind condition. The exterior of the canyon has fast-burning grasses at the base adjacent to four major thoroughfares that border the canyon, with heavier chaparral towards the top. On the north and east facing slopes of the canyon, the chaparral is heavier and denser. It is composed primarily of lemonade berry, laurel sumac, scrub oak, sagebrush, and toyon. On the south and west facing slopes the chaparral is smaller and drier. It is composed of coastal sage, chamise, and buckwheat. There are also smatterings of eucalyptus, pine, and palm trees scattered throughout the canyon.
The community of Talmadge was awakened to the danger of a major wildfire after watching the effects of the Cedar Fire of 2003, which burned a path through open space natural habitat corridors starting from the Cleveland National Forest 21 miles away. Some residents could see the fire burn up and over the canyon rim in the open space habitat nearest us, the Mission Trails Regional Park. Because of the density, topography, and compactness of Talmadge, we recognized that a wildfire that would be considered a small acreage fire in a rural setting has the potential to represent a major loss of life and property, in Talmadge and immediately adjoining canyon communities.
Shortly after the Cedar Fire, Talmadge residents began meeting to discuss ways to mitigate the risk of wildfire. The discussions led to the establishment of the Talmadge Fire Safe Council (TFSC) in the summer of 2004. The TFSC works with agencies outside the community on prevention strategies, provides a quarterly newsletter, organizes workshops, writes grant applications, and recruits neighborhood coordinators to work with community members and contractors on implementing defensible space, home retrofits, and firewise landscaping.
The following describes the activities of the TFSC to date:
• Conducted meetings and community forums to educate Talmadge residents on fire risk and prevention
• Developed a web page on the community site, http://talmadge.org,
which states the TFSC mission and goals, and provides firewise and fire
safety information
• Developed a Community Wildfire Protection Plan
• Established a Firewise Board as a part of the TFSC. Developed a Firewise Plan, which was incorporated into the Community Wildfire Protection Plan
• Conducted a Firewise Assessment and met the additional requirements of Firewise Communities/USA. Achieved recognition as a Firewise Community in March 2006
• Neighborhood coordinators completed a project with 22 homeowners who self-funded the creation of defensible space around their canyon ridgeline homes, using landscape contractors. The project was modeled on a pilot done by another community member in 2000, who organized 12 neighbors in a similar fashion, to thin and prune the vegetation around their canyon lots in order to create contiguous defensible space.
• Wrote a grant request and received award. The money will be used to create defensible space around the top of the canyon ridge, starting with 50 homes in designated high risk/high priority areas
• Worked with the city of San Diego to obtain brush management services along the main thoroughfares leading into Talmadge
• Began an educational program with homeowners with wood shake roofs to facilitate conversion to Class A fire-rated roof systems
The TFSC could not have accomplished all this without the assistance and support provided by our fire prevention partners, whom we thank and recognize:
• San Diego County Fire Safe Council
• California Fire Safe Council
• The City of San Diego, including the Fire-Rescue Department, Parks and Recreation Open Space Division, Developmental Services Division and City Council District 3 Representative
• California Fire Alliance
• San Diego Unit of the California Department of Forestry
• The U.S. Forest Service from Cleveland National Forest
Talmadge as a new Firewise Community has just begun to implement its priority fuel reduction and structure retrofit goals identified in its integrated Firewise/Community Wildfire Protection Plan. We are on the right path and know what we need to do to accomplish our firewise goals. We will continue to work with our partners and put to use the considerable resources they have made available to us.
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