County, Laguna Mayor Clash Over Reseeding : Recovery: Supervisors say ‘extremist’ plan by Lenney, Greenbelt Authority to await regrowth risks new flooding.

SANTA ANA —  County supervisors blasted Laguna Beach Mayor Lida Lenney and the Coastal Greenbelt Authority on Tuesday for supporting a plan to allow natural regrowth on burned-out hillsides of the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park rather than proposals for reseeding damaged areas.

“I think it’s an extremist position to take, especially in light of the damage that the rains caused there last week,” Board of Supervisors Chairman Harriett M. Wieder said, referring to recent storms that caused fire-ravaged hillsides to slip into residential communities. “I think they are creating a further hazard for themselves.”

Supervisor Roger R. Stanton said Lenney’s position as head of the Greenbelt Authority was especially disconcerting given the potential for greater flood damage in the coming months.

“I am very surprised at this,” Stanton said, “very surprised.”

Board members learned of Lenney’s position this week in a memo stating the authority’s opposition to reseeding, which is set to begin today in the damaged wilderness park and other areas.

The park is a 3,200-acre wilderness area along coastal south Orange County that was severely damaged in last month’s fires. The park was opened in April.

The authority acts in an advisory capacity to the Board of Supervisors on issues related to management of the wilderness area.

“Let nature come back on its own in Laguna Coast Wilderness Park and utilize physical measures to halt or retard water runoff rather than seeding,” Lenney wrote in the memo.

On Tuesday, the mayor attributed the board’s strong reaction to a “breakdown in communication” between the authority and supervisors.

“We have every intention of acting in the best interests of the safety of the community,” Lenney said, adding that the authority’s recommendation was based on the “best scientific information available.”

She said that information she has collected from scientific journals suggests that new seeding would compete with the sensitive root structure of existing plant life that should be allowed to regenerate on its own. She said she opposes reseeding, except in those areas that were bulldozed or damaged in ways other than fire.

“I think what happened is that (the supervisors) got hit with a letter from us and no background,” Lenney said.

Denton Turner, design manager for the county’s harbors, beaches and parks department, said Tuesday that the authority’s recommendation was taken into consideration by county officials and the groups’s concerns would be incorporated into the overall strategy to re-establish the hillsides.

As early as today, California Department of Forestry workers--who have taken the lead in restoring the damaged areas--are expected to begin seeding operations intended to sprout a mixture of native vegetation on the ashen landscape.

Authorities hope some plant life could take hold there before winter rainstorms turn silt and topsoil into damaging mudslides, such as those that punished Laguna Beach last week.

“We are very cognizant of the concerns that (Lenney) has expressed,” Turner said. “We have a responsibility to maintain the sensitive wilderness area, but we also have responsibility for those who have property in areas with potential for erosion.”

Turner said seeding operations will take place on steeply angled property with the greatest potential for erosion. But Turner said some damaged areas, out of the erosion danger zones, would not be seeded to allow for natural regrowth in keeping with the authority’s concerns.

Almost since the fires were extinguished, environmentalists and others representing various interests have differed over how government should proceed in restoring damaged wilderness areas.

Some environmentalists in recent days had circulated statements objecting to reseeding as ineffective and potentially damaging to the local ecology. They contend that in years past damaged areas have always recovered spontaneously.

The timing of Lenney’s memo stating the authority’s recommendation, however, particularly startled Stanton and Wieder who repeatedly pointed to last week’s rainstorm as the overriding concern in re-establishing the hillsides.

“This just shows the folly of their ways, especially in the event of a crisis,” Wieder said. “The authority is not looking at the bigger picture here. I think if they would have asked people living in the mudslide areas they would have come up with a much different recommendation.”

The supervisors’ criticisms came after voting to extend for a second time a countywide emergency declaration. The declaration is needed to help the county recoup cleanup and overtime costs from state or federal authorities providing assistance following the fires, in which more than 300 homes were destroyed in the South County area.

In a report of county cleanup activities, officials said county crews would continue to remove debris from damaged homes, demolish chimneys and drain swimming pools to clear potential safety hazards.

County Budget Director Ronald S. Rubino said total cleanup, overtime and response costs by county departments have not yet been tallied.

Also circulated among supervisors Tuesday was a letter from UC Irvine Chancellor Laurel L. Wilkening calling for a better system for providing the public with current information during emergencies about the potential threat to government institutions and area businesses.

Wilkening’s letter stated that mistaken reports broadcast on Los Angeles-based television stations during the firestorm caused “near panic” among students and their parents by wrongly implying that fire was threatening the school.