The City of San Rafael will plan and implement Vegetation Management Projects within city owned open space parcels. Projects will be identified and prioritized based on proximity to open space interfacing assets at risk, vegetation composition and condition, slope and aspect, historical wildfires in the area, ignition potential, and spatial risk data provided by the county level and parcel level fire hazard assessments. These proposed sites include smaller open space parcels such as Silveria Parkway, Hartzell, Hillside and Oakwood. Treatment within non-native annual grassland communities will be limited to goat grazing and/or manual removal of dead woody vegetation, and removal of low lying shrubs and common coyote brush to reduce fuels that could increase fire risk. Treatment within oak woodland communities of the site will be limited to manual thinning using a hand crew. Fuel reduction work within oak woodland treatment zones will include pruning tree branches 8 to 10 feet above ground, not to exceed 1/3 of the tree’s total height (i.e., crown raising on living trees), removal of dead/downed branches and dead standing trees, removal of small diameter (less than 4 inches DBH) live trees to increase space between trees, and understory ladder fuels removal, including non-native, invasive Scotch broom and French broom, coyote brush shrubs, and shrub-like understory tree saplings. Treatment will not include the removal of healthy, mature, scenic trees.
