Davey Resource Group

City of Brisbane, California: Forest Management Plan and Fuel Load Survey

Davey Resource Group (DRG) completed an urban forest management and wildfire risk reduction plan for the City of Brisbane. The purpose of the plan was to promote the long-term health of the urban forest ecosystem while reducing the community's exposure to catastrophic wildfires.

Elements of the plan included an inventory of street trees, identification of high risk areas, and recommendations to the city. A project manager, an inventory arborist, a fuel load specialist, and the project developer worked on this project from spring through the summer 2007.

The city sought a document that supported the need to remove heavy fuels for fire safety. DRG provided this, as well as an updated tree inventory and report about the city's urban forest. We also provided a plan for educating citizens about wildfire safety and creating fire safe properties, and we shared information about grants that could fund fuels reduction throughout the city.

Brisbane, located on the peninsula in the San Francisco Bay, is more than 20 square miles in size. However, 17 square miles is water while the rest of the city sits at the base of the San Bruno Mountain. Brisbane sits across the bay from Oakland and Berkeley, where the East Bay Hills Fire destroyed 2,900 structures in 1991.