Who will take responsibility?

Barbara Diamond

It takes only a puff of smoke in the canyon to set nerves on edge in

Laguna. Especially when its bone dry. Like now.

Folks in town know all too well that fire does not respect city

limits. The 1993 Firestorm that destroyed hundreds of homes in Laguna

Beach and Emerald Bay was officially a county fire. It started

outside the city limits, at first heading toward Emerald Bay, then

backtracking to the canyon, jumping the road and rampaging through

Canyon Acres and up through Mystic Hills.

The city has taken steps to prevent another holocaust, but it has

no power over the land outside of the city limits.

“We can ask the property owners to cooperate, but we really have

no ability to enforce our requests,” said Laguna Beach Fire chief Ken

McLeod.

Laguna Beach can’t compel property owners, managers or

conservators of land beyond its boundaries to abide by city standards

or methods of defense against another firestorm. Just identifying who

is responsible for what is difficult.

“It’s a hodge podge,” McLeod said. “My intent is to map the

interface and identify who the responsible parties are.”

Known stakeholders include the state, the county, private

individuals, the Laguna Beach County Water District, the Nature

Conservancy, the Nature Reserve of Orange County, Orange County

Transportation Authority, Transportation Corridors Agency and

Caltrans, according to McLeod. The Orange County Fire Authority has

the task of protecting much of the area.

The City Council at its Sept. 2 meeting asked to have invitations

extended to representatives of the Nature Reserve and the fire

authority for a city fire department presentation scheduled for the

Oct. 21 meeting.

No mention was made of inviting the Nature Conservancy to the

meeting, although it oversees a goodly chunk of land close to Laguna.

The conservancy is responsible for Parcel 5 of the stillborn Laguna

Laurel development in Laguna Canyon and Parcel B, 50 acres that abuts

North Laguna.

North Laguna resident Don Knapp doesn’t think the council would

get much from the conservancy anyway.

“I am exasperated with them,” Knapp said. “They were very short

when I called them. They said they had done everything they are going

to in Laguna Beach and that’s it. Bang, they hung up.”

“Basically, they told me to get lost, that hand crews cost too

much money and they don’t like goats.”

Conservancy spokeswoman Trish Smith said the conservancy wants to

work with the city to resolve outstanding issues.

“We have a good working relationship with the city’s fire

department,” Smith said. “It is an open dialogue.”

The $40,000 earmarked for the land in the Bren gift was not so

much for management, but for monitoring or at the discretion of the

conservancy the eradication of exotics or fuel modification,

according to Smith.

“We did fuel modification in late June,” said Smith. “We did not

use goats.”

Laguna Beach has used a herd of goats to munch a fuel break around

Laguna Beach, a defensible space between the wildlands and structures

since 1993, annually since 1994.

“The goats are a very effective way to clear a 100-yard area that

protects the perimeter of the city,” said retired police Sgt. Ray

Lardie, who supervises the year-round program. “The goats go from

North Laguna to South Laguna, except for a few pockets.”

Private property outside the city limits is off-limits to the

goats without permission of the owners, Chief McLeod said, no matter

how fuel-laden the property.

In fire-speak, fuel is anything that burns. Dry brush comes high

on the list.

“Boat Canyon is loaded with fuel,” said resident Knapp, who served

for eight years on the Emerald Bay Fire Department as captain and

chief. “It’s pretty heavy from the water tank above the Festival of

Arts over to Boat Canyon. And just look up Nyes Place and the hills

above South Laguna.

“Something has to be done to prevent a disaster from happening or

it’s not if, it’s when.”

South Laguna resident and former Mayor Ann Christoph said

residents in her end of town naturally are concerned about the dry

terrain, but some of them are conflicted.

“Our area hasn’t burned since 1925 or something,” Christoph said.

“But it is southern maritime chaparral that is globally endangered

habitat.”

The late Fred Lang, a landscape architect revered in some circles,

theorized that South Laguna hillsides were less vulnerable to fire

because the hills are closer to the ocean and get more moisture.

Christoph said a controlled burn is impossible and she and others

are not overly enthused about the goats.

“We expressed concern about the goats eating too much and going

into areas of sensitive habitat,” Christoph said. “We would have

preferred hand-cutting the brush and leaving it as mulch, which

wouldn’t allow exotics [non-native plants] to take root.”

The goats are due to arrive in South Laguna in about a month on

their annual trek.

At the other end of town, the Nature Reserve of Orange is charged

with the oversight of the state’s Natural Communities Conservation

Program. Locally, that includes Aliso Woods Canyons Park, Laguna

Coast Wilderness Park and Crystal Cove State Park. The reserve is a

nonprofit organization, not to be confused with the Nature

Conservancy.

“We have no control over the area under the control,” Chief McLeod

said.

That includes the sere easement under and alongside the toll road

where it crosses over El Toro Road. It is enough to give edgy

Lagunans the willies. A traffic accident could set the area aflame,

threatening Aliso Viejo, Aliso Woods Canyons Park, as well as Laguna

Beach and possibly Laguna Woods.

Clearing the easement is the responsibility of Caltrans, according

to TCA spokeswoman Clare Climaco.

Caltrans, which has the responsibility for the roadsides, began

this week to clear brush along Laguna Canyon Road.

A 10-foot-wide strip has been mowed on the south side of road from

El Toro Road to the San Diego Freeway. The return trip, which will

clear a strip on the north side of the road to the Festival of Arts

Grounds, is expected to take about a week.

“It’s not a fuel break per se,” said McLeod. “It’s mostly to catch

live cigarette butts tossed out of car windows or sparks from

catalytic converters. A good example would be the fire started last

year when a tractor was disking soil and hit a rock that sparked a

fire.

“But even a 100-foot fuel break wouldn’t stop a roaring wildland

fire,” McLeod said.

Councilman Wayne Baglin was not impressed with the 10-foot margin

or with county programs to protect open space.

“I am frightened beyond belief by the threat from Aliso Wood

Canyon,” Baglin said. “There are decades of old underbrush right

below our eastern border [Top of the World and Arch Beach Heights]

and a lot of people have access to it. We can’t do a controlled burn

-- it’s too steep. We have to have signage and ranger patrols and I

am not certain I see that.

“With the heat we’re having, we are lucky not to have the winds,”

he said.

“I don’t think the county is being sensitive to how critical the

situation is and how devastating it could be to us. That’s why they

have been invited to attend the council meeting.”

Santa Ana winds are not invited.