Burlingame Fire Hazard Reduction Projects

In 2013, CAL FIRE hand crews created a shaded fuel break along the boundaries of Mills Canyon Park in Burlingame, placing a reduced-fuel buffer between the canyon's vegetation and the homes at its rim.

The Project Area

Mills Canyon is a steep, wooded canyon within Burlingame's city limits, with the north side in the city and the south side in unincorporated San Mateo County, and a mix of public and private ownership. Slopes range from near level to over 50 percent. The vegetation is classic Peninsula woodland: coast live oak, California bay laurel, tanoak, madrone, buckeye, and redwood, over shrubs including toyon, coastal sage scrub, ceanothus, scrub oak, and coyote brush, with non-native acacia, ivy, and French broom in the mix. Homes line the canyon rim, many with direct fuel continuity from the canyon floor to their parcels.

The Work

Hand crews created a shaded fuel break of at least 30 feet extending roughly two miles around the canyon, treating between 10 and 18 acres. The objectives: disrupt the horizontal continuity of surface fuels, break the vertical continuity of ladder fuels, and increase spacing between shrubs and understory crowns. Woodland was treated with a thin-from-below approach, pruning retained trees to 6 to 8 feet and removing no trees over 6 inches diameter except for access or safety. Cut material was chipped and spread on site, except invasive species carrying mature seed, which were hauled off or lopped low within existing infestations to avoid spreading them.

For properties at the park's boundary, the fuel break supplies the outer portion of their defensible space, protection most rim parcels could not achieve alone because the fuels sit below them on public and neighboring land.

Maintenance

Recurring hand crew maintenance was planned from the start; shaded fuel breaks regrow their hazard within a few years without it. See how shaded fuel breaks work and our other completed projects.