OAKLAND (KRON) — Wednesday morning, the Oakland City Council voted unanimously to accept a grant to thin out the trees in the Oakland Hills.
With the $4 million federal grant, the city hopes to reduce fire danger in the Oakland hills.
In 1991, a massive fire killed 25 people and destroyed more than 3,000 houses in the hills.
Along with the grant, the city is also designating $900,000 of its own money to cut down trees to reduce fire danger, according to Oakland vegetation management supervisor Vincent Crudele.
The council’s decision is opposed by the Sierra Club and also the Hills Conservation Network. The Hills Conservation Network is a group of homeowners who live in the Oakland Hills area.
The two groups have filed lawsuits that try to stop the tree-cutting play, saying that the plans environmental impact statement is flawed.
According to Crudele, the grant money will be used to thin out eucalyptus trees along Grizzley Peak Boulevard and also in a 53-acrea area west of the Caldecott Tunnel. That area is near the origin of the 1991 fire.
The City Council and federal regulators have already the plan, it must still pass California’s Environmental Quality Act guidelines.
That process could take anywhere from six months to a year. Crudele said that the city hopes it will be able to start cutting down the eucalyptus trees in the fall of 2016, replacing them with native trees like oak and bay trees.
Dan Grassetti is a board member for the Hills Conservation Network. He says that he and other members object to the tree-cutting plan because of
concerns about herbicides potentially contaminating groundwater, the increased risk of landslides and the potential threat to raptors’ habitats.
Grassetti went on to say that he thinks the plan to remove eucalyptus and pine trees will lead to a rapid increase in invasive brush species such as broom trees, thistle, hemlock and poison oak, which he said pose a greater fire threat.