Oaks to Replace Brush in Test of Fire-Control in Santa Clarita

Los Angeles County Fire Department crews will begin clearing heavy brush from a Santa Clarita hillside next week as the first step in testing a wildfire-prevention technique that includes re-establishing a woodland of native oaks.

Instead of burning off the highly combustible hillside, firefighters will remove dead brush and chaparral, replacing it with oaks grown at the department’s nursery in Bouquet Canyon.

In the past, controlled burns have been one of the department’s chief weapons in preventing disastrous brush fires.

“This is a demonstration project that, to my knowledge, no government agency has ever done before,” said Capt. Scott Franklin, the Fire Department’s vegetation-management coordinator. “If we’re successful, and we’ll know that within two years, we’ll expand this project all over the county.”

The technique will not work everywhere, however. It must be undertaken in an area originally populated with oaks and other compatible plants, Franklin said.

‘Trying to Cooperate’

“We’re trying to cooperate with Mother Nature a little bit,” he said, adding that the department will still do controlled burns for fire prevention in other types of areas.

The demonstration project will be on 3 acres in Hidden Valley, a recently built community of expensive single-family homes. A brush fire in the area, as it now exists, would pose a serious danger to the residences, Franklin said.

“That particular area is long overdue for a high-intensity brush fire,” he said.

A fire fueled by dry brush that had been allowed to remain beneath the oaks burned many of them on the hillside in 1957, Franklin said. The very flammable brush then replaced the fire-resistant trees.

Mike Wilkinson, a county Fire Department deputy forester, and his crew will be selective next week when they remove vegetation on the site, near Creekside Drive and Clearbank Lane, officials said.

Healthy ceanothus plants and oaks will be left, Wilkinson said. Both are fire resistant because of the low oil content in their leaves, he said.

Fall Planting Planned

Under Wilkinson’s guidance, firefighters will plant oaks of various sizes on the site in the fall. “We’ll use two varieties--valley oak and live oak,” he said.

The oaks have been grown from acorns by Mike Rossberger, another department forester, at the Bouquet Canyon nursery.

“Four years ago, they told me to start growing oaks,” he said. “So I did.”

Rossberger said he had always heard that oaks grow slowly. “But I didn’t find that,” he said. “Here’s one that grew to a height of 12 feet in three years. To me, that’s not slow-growing.”

If Franklin’s theory proves true, Rossberger’s oaks, ceanothus and the older trees left on the hillside will form a canopy over the ground within two years. The canopy will not let enough sunlight through to allow the chaparral to grow back, Franklin said.

“We know it will work,” he said. “Oaks are highly fire-resistant. The only time they’ll burn is when they have fuel beneath them. There’s just something very substantial about oaks.”

Franklin said the site of the demonstration project was left open by the developer of the Hidden Valley tract. However, he said, homeowners have the responsibility of maintaining the site.

“They were happy to give their permission for our project,” Franklin said. The Fire Department also has the approval of the Santa Clarita City Council.

“If it works, we’ll try it in the Santa Monica Mountains next,” Franklin said.