Laguna Beach begins work on Bluebird Canyon fuel modification zone

Laguna Beach has begun work on a new fuel modification zone in the Bluebird Canyon neighborhood, city officials announced this week.

Local fire officials noted that two zones have recently been approved in the area.

“Bluebird Canyon is one of those neighborhoods in Laguna Beach that is situated in a box canyon,” Fire Chief Niko King said. “It’s with one road in and one road out, so getting this fuel modification done is important to help protect egress in the case of an evacuation.”

Hand crews began working Wednesday on a zone that covers approximately 8.7 acres along the lower end of Bluebird Canyon — between Bluebird Canyon Drive and Rancho Laguna Road to the north and Van Dyke Drive, Summit Way and Summit Drive to the south.

Fuel modification zones provide a defensible space for first responders by reducing vegetation within 100 feet of habitable structures.

Properties along Bluebird Canyon Drive are part of a brush area that is part of a new fuel modification zone in Laguna Beach.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

While the city uses goat herds to handle several of its fuel modification zones, hand crews — using chainsaws and other power tools — are hired to manage areas with protected native species. The workers remove dead vegetation and up to half of the native species in the area.

Work on the project will take place Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. over the next year. The initial implementation is funded through a combination of grants and public funding, city officials said, although the city contracts out work to maintain existing zones up to three times a year.

There is no additional cost to impacted residents, unless they decline to have the work done on their property.

“We have to get trespass agreements so that we can enter onto their property,” King said. “A lot of people have landscaping that’s close to their house, and usually we work with the homeowners and don’t modify any of that, but we’re modifying the fuel within 100 feet of an inhabitable structure, so that extends from their home, to however big their parcel is — their backyard, into the open space to make sure that we have that 100-foot clearance.

“If people decide that they don’t want us on their property, they’ll be responsible for modifying their own vegetation around their house.”

Vegetation along a new fuel modification zone in the Bluebird Canyon neighborhood of Laguna Beach.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

Fire Marshal Robert Montaghami said that each zone can aid in the protection of hundreds of habitable structures from wildfire.

“We have a strict protocol we have to adhere to due to our Coastal Commission permit, and with that in mind, we have to preserve our native vegetation, which really works for us in case of negating a wildfire,” Montaghami said. “It acts as a filter to catch a lot of those embers that are about to intrude into a property, so [the native plants] have an important role that they play, not only as to the ecosystem itself, but also during the wildfire season, it catches some of those embers and acts as a filter.”

Montaghami said that there is lemonadeberry shrub and coastal sage scrub in the recently permitted Zone 17 (North Bluebird), where there is also a high potential for sightings of the coastal California gnatcatcher songbird.

Vegetation along a new fuel modification zone in the Bluebird Canyon neighborhood on Laguna Beach.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

In Zone 18 (South Bluebird), the native vegetation includes lemonadeberry shrub and Fish’s milkwort, which Montaghami said is a rare plant.

“We try to strike a balance between serenity and safety,” Montaghami added. “That’s what we try to accomplish through our brush clearance, or vegetation management program.”