Following a statewide emergency declaration, projects are underway to expand local fire roads.

In March, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a statewide wildfire emergency, citing “extreme peril” to life and property. Now fire officials are working with public and private landowners to clear forested areas around Palo Corona Regional Park, Palo Colorado Canyon and Cachagua ahead of the upcoming fire season.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection identified these three areas among 35 fuel-reduction priority projects in February. The governor’s declaration allows state fire officials to bypass certain environmental rules and contracting requirements in order to expedite the maintenance and expansion of fire roads.

Jonathan Pangburn, a forester and spokesman for Cal Fire’s San Benito-Monterey Unit, says the local work will be limited to “fuel breaks that have been used throughout the recorded history of Monterey County.”

The Palo Corona project is designed to protect 59,585 nearby residents, according to a Cal Fire report. The report also lists affected populations of 9,556 and 5,933 for Palo Colorado andCachagua, respectively.

To perform the brush clearance and tree pruning, Cal Fire’s fuel reduction and prescribed burn units will be joined by National Guard troops as well as fire crew inmates from Gabilan Conservation Camp. The state has also budgeted about $1.8 million to spend on private contractors on projects located in Monterey County, Pangburn says.

“It’s an everyone-on-board concept at this point,” he says, also calling on residents to clear a defensible space around their homes. “There’s a lot of work to be done.”