The Los Padres National Forest has proposed the development of an innovative “FireScapes” approach to wildfire management for the Monterey Ranger District. FireScapes provides a planning framework that includes considering the effects of wildfire at a landscape level. This also includes impacts on lands surrounding the National Forest.
FireScapes will provide a means of implementing pre-suppression vegetation treatments and managing both planned and unplanned fire. FireScapes will implement its projects using science-based methods and also provide for their timely implementation.
An important element of FireScapes is that it is a public process, subject to the National Environmental Policy Act or, as it’s often termed, “NEPA”. Developing fire planning with NEPA gives the public and local communities opportunities throughout the process to submit their views concerning the goals and implementation of FireScapes.
Also in this section: a letter outlining the position of the Ventana Wilderness Alliance and several of its partners regarding the FireScapes proposal. Following that letter are two short literary pieces by local authors that describe personal experiences with wildfire in the Ventana Region and its aftermath: "The Fire Scar" by Colin Fletcher and "Molera Fire" by Jack Curtis
