Rancho Santa Fe Association aims to become a Firewise Community

The Rancho Santa Fe Association has officially submitted an application to be designated as a Firewise Community by the National Fire Protection Association and CalFire. The listed benefits of being recognized as Firewise include improved access to grant funding for fuel mitigation, insurance discounts, as well as the “peace of mind” that comes from a community getting organized and taking action to be more wildfire-prepared.

The Association’s Trails and Recreation Committee, chaired by Len Gregory, took the lead on the application efforts. He provided an update on the process at the Association board’s Oct. 2 meeting.  As part of the requirements of the application, Gregory said they put together a committee of “ engaged and enthusiastic” residents and local wildfire experts, completed a community wildfire risk assessment, and developed a three-year action plan.

Gregory said a lot of information needed to submit the application was readily available, thanks to work from the Association’s past Forest Health Study and its partnership with FireWatch, the service that provides all Covenant residents with aerial mapping of the flammable vegetative fuels surrounding their homes. He credited Melanie Ponce, the Association’s environmental and open space coordinator, for doing the “heavy lifting.”

The action plan focuses on outreach efforts, including annual educational events for residents to learn about defensible space, the latest technologies to protect dwellings, and inviting representatives from the state insurance commission “to talk about homeowners’ insurance and the things needed to be done to improve insurability and hopefully reduce costs,” Gregory said.

To become a Firewise Community, each site is required to invest the equivalent of one volunteer hour per dwelling unit in wildfire risk reduction actions every year. For communities with more than 100 homes, the investment can be tallied by hours or the monetary equivalent. With the Covenant’s 2,036 dwelling units, the monetary investment required would be about $68,000.

“I can assure you that we’re spending far more than that in the Ewing Preserve and the Arroyo, so we can easily meet the requirements,” Gregory said of the two large Association-owned open space properties.

Earlier this year, the board approved a new vegetation management plan for the Ewing, the 24.7-acre parcel of eucalyptus forest, limestone and rare plants in the southeast portion of the Covenant, stretching between Linea Del Cielo and Via De Alba. The approval included a $52,651 expenditure for fire risk mitigation, including the removal of invasive species and the thinning of brush and trees near residences, creating defensible space.

Last year the Association and the San Dieguito River Valley Conservancy began work on a $1.5 million grant-funded fuel reduction and habitat restoration project on the 68-acre Arroyo Preserve on El Vuelo. The three-year project aims to reduce wildfire risk by removing 12.5 acres of invasive species and replacing them with fire-resistant native plants.

With the application submitted, Gregory said they expect a response within a month, hoping to become a Firewise Community alongside their neighbors Fairbanks Ranch and the Cielo Homeowners Association, who already hold the designation.

At the meeting, Association Chief Administrative Officer Dominique Albrecht thanked Gregory and his committee for bringing it forward and for the time spent on the application process.

“It’s going to be really exciting, we’ve talked many, many years about becoming a Firewise Community,” Albrecht said. “We’re looking forward to sharing more information with the community and to continue our efforts to be fire safe.”