San Antonio Creek Community Defensible Space Project

In June 2021, the Santa Barbara County Fire Department received funding from the State Coastal Conservancy to implement a community defensible space project in the San Antonio Creek area foothills of the Santa Ynez mountains in part of wildland-urban interface (WUI) of southern Santa Barbara County.

Southern Santa Barbara County sits on a coastal plain south of the Santa Ynez Mountain Range. Over the past 150 years, urban expansion from the lower elevations into the nearby foothill and mountainous wildland urban interface (WUI) areas has increased fire hazards that add to the complexity of the region’s wildfire management. These changes, in addition to the area’s arid Mediterranean climate, mountainous terrain, arid seasonal offshore “sundowner” winds that blow from inland deserts, and climate change, have resulted in larger, more intense wildfires that occur more frequently and pose a substantial threat to human life, improvements, and the area’s environment and local economies. The project area was identified as at high risk for wildland fire in the 2019 San Marcos Pass-Eastern Goleta Valley Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP).

The project will consist of 10 shaded fuel reduction treatments totaling 70 acres located in the San Antonio Creek area of San Marcos Pass community in the foothills between Santa Barbara and Goleta. These treatments will reduce the potential for loss of life, property loss, and environmental damage during a wildfire. The project will utilize hand crews to remove dead vegetation, reduce ladder fuels, and selectively thin standing vegetation. The existing fuel is predominately mature oak woodland with scattered chaparral. Crews will limb mature trees and prune dead branches. The cut material will be chipped and spread uniformly on site. The shrub-dominated areas will be treated with a residual mosaic approach, leaving scattered shrubs and islands of intact formation comprising approximately 50% of the original cover. No mature trees will be removed. No work will occur within 50 feet of a riparian corridor. The project will utilize the Santa Barbara County Fire Department Hand Crew to complete the fuel treatments.

Status: Funded

Cost: Medium

Funding Sources: 

Permitting: Permitting process is underway and/or may be complete.

To view the report written by Coastal Conservancy please click here to open the link in a new window.