SIMI VALLEY : Volunteers Sought for Fire Restoration

Ventura County Supervisor Vicky Howard is signing up volunteers interested in helping restore areas burned by brush fires that swept through the county.

The volunteers will be matched with projects to be scheduled by the National Park Service, which owns 5,400 acres of land scorched by the Green Meadow fire in Thousand Oaks, and the state Parks Department, which had 13,000 acres burned.

About 25 volunteers attended a meeting last week to sign up for projects, but few workdays have been scheduled. Officials said they expect to use volunteers for everything from trail clearing to seed collecting and tree planting.

“I’m so pleased and so proud there are so many people who want to volunteer to get out there and do the things that are necessary,” Howard told those at the evening meeting at the East County Courthouse in Simi Valley.

National Park Service officials have identified a number of restoration projects for the Rancho Sierra Vista and Circle X properties in the Santa Monica Mountains. Officials hope to sign up volunteers for work Dec. 4 or 11, said Tedra Fox, a park service planner.

State parks officials are still developing a list of projects, said Frank Padilla, rehabilitation coordinator. The first priority will be sandbagging, clearing culverts and constructing silt-diversion devices to protect against mudflows, he said.

Major trail work probably will wait until spring because erosion during the rainy season could erase any progress made now, Padilla said.

Tonja Cole of Simi Valley said she already belongs to Trail Blazers, a volunteer group dedicated to trail maintenance in the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District. In addition, as an American Red Cross volunteer, Cole took food and water to firefighters battling the blazes.

“I could see so much of what has to be done,” Cole said of her motivation to help rehabilitate the fire areas.

To volunteer, call Howard’s office at 582-8010.