Three Peninsula cities are preparing a single plan to reduce future wildfire risk.

During the three wildfires that hit Monterey County in the summer of 2020 – resulting in evacuations in Carmel Valley, along Highway 68 and communities along River Road south of Salinas – there was little risk to the Peninsula forest shared by the cities of Monterey, Pacific Grove and Carmel. Nevertheless, the fire departments that protect those cities, plus neighboring Pebble Beach, got together to ask themselves a question. “If we become at risk, how will this work?” Monterey Fire Chief Gaudenz Panholzer remembers thinking.

In the back of everyone’s minds was the Morse Fire that struck Pebble Beach in May 1987, when drought, weather conditions and a forest overburdened with fuel combined to create prime conditions for a 160-acre fire that consumed 31 structures, causing approximately $18 million in damage.

In 2020, fire officials worked from a document, the Monterey County Community Wildfire Protection Plan, that had been undergoing an update prior to the pandemic. Work had stopped on the plan but it was complete enough to be “test driven” during 2020, Panholzer says.

In November 2022, Monterey, P.G. and Carmel – the latter two cities contract their fire services with Monterey – joined together to start work on their own community wildfire protection plan. Having such a plan will make the cities eligible for grants to pay for fuel reduction, helping homeowners with making their properties safer, public outreach and more. “There’s a lot of money out there for wildfire protection,” Panholzer says.

The community plan will focus on preparedness planning, staffing and resources, evacuation plans and where the risks of ignition are greatest. Fuel mitigation could include pulling out dead trees from the forest. Any work would be preceded by going through the California Environmental Quality Act process, Panholzer says.

Nature’s way of reducing fuel – fire – is obviously not available in neighborhoods, so there has to be human intervention in a balanced way.

“Cutting down trees is not the solution,” Panholzer says. “What we need to do is manage the forest. A managed forest is a healthy forest.” Besides forest management, enacting the plan could include services like free wood-chipping for residents clearing their yards or subsidies to replace wood-shingled roofs.

There is a survey (online at bit.ly/monterey-pg-carmel-wildfire-survey) seeking public input that asks residents questions about their greatest worries about a potential wildfire in their community, including evacuation routes and concerns about protecting the environment versus removing trees and other sources of fuel.

A California-based consulting firm, Dudek, is working on the plan at a cost of approximately $60,000, shared among the three cities. After community meetings this spring, all the cities and agencies involved will gather in June, before the plan is finalized in July.

Although Pebble Beach is not officially included in the planning since it is in unincorporated county land not covered by Monterey Fire, officials from there “are 100-percent involved,” Panholzer adds. He says the Pebble Beach Company has already done a good job of clearing problem areas in Del Monte Forest.