Few issues have dominated local conversation in recent years than the threat of wildfire in Mill Valley and the multi-faceted approach being taken by the City of Mill Valley and the Southern Marin Fire District.
In its continuing efforts to reduce the possibility of a major wildfire, particularly in and around Mill Valley’s vast wildland urban interface, which includes roughly 75 percent of all MV homes, district officials, with support from California Assemblymember Marc Levine, the district, in partnership with the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority, garnered a $1 million-dollar grant to focus on the critical need for evacuation route clearing on California State Route 1 from Northern Ave in Tam Valley to Panoramic Highway.
Objectives for the funding include:
- Reduce fuel load, including invasive species such as French Broom and other fire hazardous plantings.
- Maintain native plantings by limbing up trees and reducing fuel laddering potential.
- Selective removal of Eucalyptus identified as a threat to the roadway evacuation efforts or otherwise hazardous.
- Manage the understory of dense vegetation to create biodiversity for native plants and maintain critical habitats to promote an overall healthier forest.
The project seeks to reduce risks (through vegetation management processes) and facilitate evacuation from a historically fire-prone and densely populated area of Marin. In addition, the grant enhances other funds allocated through Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority-Measure C (passed March 2020) and Southern Marin Fire Protection District-Measure U (passed November 2018) to facilitate current and anticipated fuel management projects in this specific area.