Hikers may have noticed a few changes at the Ellwood Mesa during the last 18 months as crews have been clearing trees and brush for fire prevention.
The work isn’t done yet. On March 4, the Goleta City Council approved a $1,006,332 contract with Santa Barbara County Fire to clear fire hazards at the Ellwood Mesa.
“This next year will be the most productive in terms of the amount of fire risk reduction that Ellwood is going to experience,” said George Thompson, Goleta’s parks and open space manager.
He explained that the city will use the money for crews clearing hazardous debris within 100 feet of private residences, and areas within the butterfly grove that are full of dead trees.
The city got a $1.7 million grant from Cal Fire in October 2022 to reduce dead and hazardous eucalyptus trees and woody vegetation on approximately 90 acres of eucalyptus
forests and forest perimeter at Ellwood Mesa.
Since then, city staff have conducted technical studies and mapping, permit applications, biological monitoring of fuel reduction work performed by the California Conservation Corps, monarch butterfly habitat impact assessments, hosted a Firewise Community meeting, and prepared outreach materials.
Thompson said they removed more than 500 dead trees and brush from 20 acres in the grove.
The city also has been doing restoration work in the butterfly grove and used a $3.9 million grant from the California State Coastal Conservancy to remove dead trees and vegetation in areas where it’s planting new trees.
Fred Tan, the county fire marshal, said fuel reduction crews will be heavily involved in Ellwood during the next year.
“There’s not a lot of fire history in this area, but it just takes one careless action and a windy environment to potentially start a bigger fire,” Tan said.
He added that the work will make the community as a whole more resilient against wildfires.
He urged local residents to take action by creating defensible spaces around their homes and to explore the wildfire home hardening guide on the Santa Barbara County Fire Safe Council website.
“Create defensible space, start taking action to harden your home, because the county is kind of rich with fire history so those things are going to keep fire out of Goleta,” Tan said.
Thompson said the city plans to start the clearing work on the Ellwood Mesa during the last week of March, focusing on public land near of residential homes. Specifically, he said, crews will start working around the Bluffs neighborhood and the Santa Barbara Shores neighborhood.
“Starting at the end of the month, we anticipate that we’re going to have anywhere from 18 to 30 boots on the ground and heavy equipment mixed in there as well,” Thompson said. “It’s going to be rapid progress for the next 12 months on this project and a big visual change and obviously a big improvement in public safety.”
Along with fire prevention, the city and volunteers have been working to restore the monarch butterfly habitat at Ellwood by planting new trees.
Volunteers of all ages meet nearly every Saturday at the Ellwood Mesa. Click here to sign up to volunteer with the Bucket Brigade.
Click here to learn more about work happening at the Ellwood Mesa.