Tam Valley Lands Federal Fire Safety Funds

A too-close-for-comfort, 12-acre brush fire in May 2004 turned Tamalpais Valley Jim Kasper into a tireless fire safety advocate. His fellow Tam Valley residents are the beneficiaries, to the tune of a nearly $170,000 federal grant to bolster programs to combat wildfires in the area.

Kasper, a resident of Erica Road for more than three decades, wrote a successful grant application to garner funding for the Tamalpais Community Services District through a collective of public and private organizations known as the California Fire Safe Council. The funding will be available Oct. 1 and will help identify public land rife with dangerous fire fuel vegetation including eucalyptus trees and brush. The money will also allow for a boost in programs to educate and engage homeowners.

The district intends to use the funding to build upon existing neighborhood fire safety programs.

"Many neighborhoods have taken their own fire safe actions and our role historically has been as manager of collection and disposal of cut materials," said district general manager Jon Elam. "This will allow us to go through all neighborhoods and district lands and clean up sites that really need cleaning up and to put systems in place."

The Tamalpais Valley encompasses about 2,500 households. Elam said neighborhood work parties clearing brush in high-risk areas have been successful community get-togethers. The district will seek to expand on that "sense of neighborhoods."

The district's grant was one of 72 projects funded through the statewide Fire Safe program. In addition to the federal funding, the grant requires a matching contribution expected to reach about $269,000 in district staff time, volunteer hours and contributions from local entities. Once areas for vegetation clearing are selected, contractors will be brought in for removal projects expected to run through 2011.

The Southern Marin Fire Protection District will assist in identifying problematic public lands. Kent Julin, a forester with the Marin County Fire Department, will serve as project manager as a stipulation of the grant, according to Kasper.