Grizzly Peak Vegetation Management Project

We are removing: 

• Bamboo, juniper, Cypress, pampas grass, rosemary, and other highly combustible vegetation including grasses and weeds within 10 feet of roadways.

• Dead or dying trees, shrubs, palm fronds, and other dead vegetation.

• Scattered twigs, branches, leaf litter, logs, and other debris.

We are reducing live vegetation by:

• Pruning tree and shrub limbs around utility lines and power drop lines.

• Pruning trees and shrubs to provide at least 13’ 6” of vertical clearance above roads or walkways.

• Pruning ground vegetation from under trees to provide a vertical separation of 3 times the height of the understory.

• Pruning trees from the ground to 1/3 of their height or 8 feet.

• Pruning trees and shrubs to provide a horizontal separation in between them.

Great question! You may have heard that Berkeley residents in Fire Zones 2 and 3 are required to maintain 100 feet of defensible space from any structure to help keep their properties safe and prevent wildfires from spreading. If you’re not in Fire Zone 2 or 3, there’s still a lot you can and should do to help make your property safer. Check out our resources on home hardening, defensible space, and what you can do to help protect yourself and your neighbors in the City of Berkeley.

All participating agencies jointly applied for grant funding and the City of Berkeley was awarded $448,000 total for our scope of work. We have also jointly applied for and hope to receive an additional $300,000 in funding for COB via the California ICARP grant program.

Grants have not been awarded yet.

We have conducted a CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) review and received an exemption for this work. Biological reporting begins two weeks before vegetation reduction starts -- depending on the season.

The East Bay Regional Park District's fuels management project aims to significantly reduce wildfire risk and enhance emergency access and evacuation capabilities by connecting to and filling in the gaps between existing fuels reduction projects in the area of Grizzly Peak Boulevard. Six units in Tilden and Sibley Regional Parks will be targeted to protect the communities of Berkeley, Oakland, and Orinda.

Hazardous wildland fuels will be treated in a manner consistent with our Wildfire Hazard and Resource Management Plan and the East Bay Hills CalVTP, resulting in reduced wildfire risk and increased resilience to future threats of wildfire. This will be achieved by reducing brush and ladder fuels, thinning dense stands of trees, promoting fire-resilient species and biodiversity, and preventing the colonization and establishment of invasive weeds.

Click here for further information about our Fuels Management.

East Bay Municipal Utility District’s fuel modification project includes 10.69 acres along 2.66 miles of roadway. Designed to protect residents in the communities of Berkeley, Oakland, and Orinda by modifying wildfire fuels in a strategic manner designed to minimize watershed impacts and protect habitat values.

Fuel modification includes thinning the brush and trees within 100 feet of the edge of the roadway to reduce the spread of wildfire from a roadside ignition, while leaving sufficient cover to suppress invasive plant colonization.  

Questions: Call EBMUD Watershed Headquarters, 510.287.0459

UC Berkeley’s portion of the proposed project will include grass/shrub mitigation, limbing of trees, as well as removal of potential hazardous trees and debris that could obstruct the roadway. The work will provide improved emergency ingress and egress and remove hazardous vegetation within 100 feet of roadway. Work will be performed on University land along Grizzly Peak Blvd. from Marlborough Terrace to the intersection of Grizzly Peak Blvd. and Centennial Dr. The project will increase the protection of some of the campus’ most prominent and public sites, including Lawrence Hall of Science, UC Botanical Garden, Station of Behavioral Research, and the various Ecological Study Areas adjacent to the roadway.

In evacuation support treatment areas, UC Berkeley removes lower branches of all trees to a minimum height of 8 feet, and understory vegetation. Shrubs are removed or thinned to a minimum spacing of 6 feet. Surface vegetative fuels may include short shrubs with little dead material, leaf litter, annual and perennial grass. Taller shrubs may be present well away from a tree canopy. Grass has been and will be cut every fire season within 100 feet of the pavement edge of Grizzly Peak Blvd. Branches hanging over roadbeds or fire trails are trimmed to a height of 15 feet above ground. Trees that may obstruct the roadway will be removed. Dead surface fuels smaller than six inches in diameter are removed. Leaf litter of less than six inches in depth is typically left and dead trees are removed. Chips will cover most surfaces within the area upon completion of the treatment; in this treatment area chip depth can be as deep as six inches.

Maintenance of these areas will be incorporated into UC Berkeley’s Annual Defensible Space and Roadside Treatment Plans. The maintenance work will be performed primarily with hand-held equipment with the option of grazing herds being utilized on some of the most difficult terrain. This portion of the project, together with other grant participants, will establish and maintain a five mile plus continuous fuel break.

The City of Berkeley fuel modification project includes 110.331 acres along 40.44 miles of roadway.

To complement the work project partners are doing along Grizzly Peak Blvd, the City of Berkeley is also reducing vegetation and debris that obstructs potential access, egress, and evacuation routes into and out of the City.

Work in Berkeley includes treatments along the roadways that serve as emergency access/egress to the upper parts of Grizzly Peak Blvd during a fire and provide multiple options for evacuation routes. It will remove combustible/hazardous vegetation in the public right of way within 10 feet of roadways.