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UC Berkeley, backed by local fire agencies, is set to begin a $400,000 fire abatement program Sept. 5 that will thin trees and remove overgrown brush in lands owned by the university in the Panoramic Hill area in hopes of avoiding a repeat of the devastating 1991 Oakland Hills fire that destroyed more than 3,200 homes and caused 25 deaths.  

Tuesday morning, high in the Berkeley Hills on the dusty Jordan Trail, officials from the five agency Vegetation Management Consortium, and others in support, introduced the project funded by UC Berkeley, the state Office of Emergency Services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. 

Jim Hoerner, UC Berkeley project manager and campus landscape architect said the consortium– made up of UC Berkeley, the Berkeley Fire Department, East Bay Regional Parks District, the California Department of Forestry and the Oakland Fire Department– has been looking at fire management on a regional level since the 1991 fire. 

Hoerner said the crews will create a buffer zone between area homes and the woods by taking out 840 of the approximately 2,400 trees in a 30 acre tract and remove much of the overgrown brush. 

“This is an area of high priority,” he said. “This land is an interface between homes and the wildlands. All of this will contribute to a more defensible area.” 

Steve Woodill of the Santa Clara CDF said that the fire breaks are a “very effective” way of dealing with an area like Panoramic Hill. 

“Besides being a preventative measure, it also greatly enables the utilization of aircraft,” he said. “By breaking the canopy, it allows fire retardant and water to get on the ground and cool the fire.” 

Hoerner said that it will make the area “immediately safer,” as they plan to put down a bed of wood chips – recycled from the cut logs – and a bed of herbaceous grasses to prevent erosion. 

The project, which Hoerner said “will still provide an aesthetically appealing area,” is broken into three phases. The first phase, beginning on Sept. 5 and ending in October, will remove 540 trees in a little more than 10 acres East of Panoramic Way around the lower Jordan Trail.  

The later phases will clear the area between the upper Jordan Trail and the Ridgetop Fire Trail, which are farther east. These phases are set to begin in the spring or summer and be completed by fall 2001. 

As project consultant, Hoerner said that he will work with Pacific Meridian Resources, a resource management company specializing in mapping, to put together a logging plan and to consult foresters. 

Besides being chipped and scattered on the hillside, some of the cut timber will be milled for reuse. The rest will be trucked out of town and donated to Protect All Life, a non-profit agency in Half Moon Bay that recycles lumber for artistic projects, Hoerner said. 

“There will be no burning,” he said. 

Hoerner said that many of the trees in the area are not native, and were planted by forestry classes at the university in the 1920s. 

“If you were here 100 years ago you would have seen a grassy hillside,” he said. 

Carol Williams, a UC Berkeley adjunct professor of forestry, said eucalyptus trees and Monterey pines – one of the dominant species in the area – allowed burning embers to jump from treetop to homes during the 1991 fire. 

“The lifespan for Monterey pines is 60 to 80 years,” Williams said. “Many of the Monterey pines in the Panoramic Hill area have reached their lifespan. They’re now in the process of falling apart. With these elderly trees, the area is a fairly high hazard area.” 

Hoener said wind and geographic conditions, combined with the dead or dying trees, makes the area apt for wildfire. 

“When the Diablo winds blow, the people (of Panoramic Hill) become quite alert,” said resident and Panoramic Hill Association member Ann Slaby. 

Richard White of the Panoramic Hill Association was also on hand. 

“I watched from my home during the ’91 fire,” said White, who has lived on Panoramic Hill since 1970. “This buffer zone is needed. I’m happy to see cooperation between the university and the neighbors.” 

White said that after the 1991 fire, about 120 neighbors practiced evacuations by walking off the hill instead of driving.  

Slaby said that she was concerned about dust and noise from the heavy equipment and said she hopes there are no landslides. 

“What they have planned addresses landslides,” Woodill said. “You’re not going to see grass being taken down all the way. It will actually stabilize the soil.” 

Christine Shaff, Communications Manager of Capitol Projects for UC Berkeley, said workers will be watering down the dirt trails to mitigate dust. 

But, she said, “there will be some noise and there will be some dust, as with anything like this.”