On May 12 2025, the CA Board of Forestry met to discuss final Zone 0 regulations.
The most important aspect we learned is that the latest version of the state’s Zone 0 proposal is almost exactly the same as BFD’s:
- the proposed rule as of May 12:
ForestryMay12-zone-0-proposal2025-05-12.pdf (138.1 KB) - the proposed changes (written by staff):
ForestryMay12overview-of-proposed-rule-changes2025-05-12.pdf (611.9 KB)
A large number of speakers spoke, and the workshop lasted about 5.5 hours… I attended about 5 hours of it. There was unanimity among both wildfire scientists and firefighters to support a strict version of zone 0: speaker after speaker spoke in support of it. Of what I heard (which I think is all the opponents) the only professionals who spoke against a strict version of zone 0 (there were also several individual homeowners) were three landscape architects, and Travis Longcore, the main author of the Longcore-Ossola letter, who was in attendance.
A few interesting points:
- a landscape architect in Auburn presented an attractive zone 0/ zone 1 landscape project.
- The retired assistant fire Marshal of Ventura County, which is probably the most advanced fire district in the US in wildfire mitigation and planning, defended a hardening of the proposal, in particular right outside of zone 0, where Ventura County considers that fences and hedges constitute an unacceptable danger for another several feet. We will write an article on their views soon.
There will be one more session before finalization.