Project Purpose
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The Los Altos Hills County Fire District (LAHCFD) is designing this Hazardous Fuels Reduction project along 6 miles of Interstate I-280 within the District’s jurisdiction, located in Santa Clara County, CA. The primary objective is to increase wildfire safety in the District and the surrounding region. This region includes Stanford University lands, Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, PG&E infrastructure, culturally significant resources and several creeks in the watershed. The purposes of the project are to reduce wildfire threat to life and property, to reduce loss of life and damages in case of a wildfire, and to increase resiliency of the community and residents after a wildfire.
Further objectives of the project are to improve the safety of I-280 and abutting neighborhood streets as evacuation routes as well as transportation routes or potential staging areas for emergency personnel and equipment in a wildfire disaster. This project will add to Santa Clara County’s developing network of hardened roadways and evacuation routes as well as shaded fuel breaks which provides increased probability of wildfire control and reduced costs for suppression, while providing opportunities to protect life, property and the environment from future wildfires.
Mitigation of wildfire threat to life and property will be accomplished by removing hazard trees, reducing ladder fuels, dead, dying, and diseased fuels, brush, and exposed (refuse) trash in the project areas, and will help protect life and property adjacent to the highway, as well as the surrounding communities. Finally, it will create a healthier and more vigorous ecosystem of the riparian and other natural habitat areas which are adjacent to I-280. By the significant reduction of hazardous fuels, the I-280 corridor could serve as a shaded fuel break to protect lives and property associated with the surrounding homes, establishments, and utilities, and mitigate the impact of wildfire on the local economy.
