Chaparral

About a thousand firefighters are battling a blaze that has consumed more than 20,000 acres in a sparsely populated area 26 miles east of Santa Maria. The cause of the LaBrea fire, which started Saturday, is unknown. Santa Barbara County officials Tuesday ordered the evacuation of 14 farms and ranches in the area. Fire had not swept through the area's dense chaparral in 87 years. The blaze was about 10% contained, officials said. -- Steve Chawkins

Rick Halsey is in search of senile shrubs. He rolls up California 79 in his Chevy pickup across the high tablelands of eastern San Diego County. Past a little adobe chapel from the Mexican era, he turns onto an unpaved road. He bumps along in low gear as the road rises into the granite mountains as a brilliant sliver of scarified earth, passing through gnarled stands of manzanita, red shank and chamise. In a shallow basin called Indian Flats, he comes to an abrupt stop.

How many times have taxpayers been down this road, with wildfires burning homes in the foothills and mountains? Why do county governments continue to issue permits to developers to build homes in high-risk areas? Why are there not more-stringent building codes for those areas? Californians are now faced with increased costs and very likely an increase in our insurance policies. Why is there no special annual assessment on each home built in the foothills and mountain communities to help offset the firefighting costs?

As they have many times in the past, this year's most destructive wildfires are burning primarily in chaparral, the brush lands that are the perennial stepchild of wildfire funding and management. It is the forests of pines that get the attention. When President Bush announced his Healthy Forests Initiative to combat Western wildfires, it was in Oregon timber country.

Let's learn from the recent fires. As a member of Supervisor Tom Wilson's South County Outreach and Review Effort, I have been involved for over a year in a study of the Rancho Mission Viejo Development Plan. I spoke out strongly against development in the San Mateo watershed and Verdugo Canyon. Homes in Southern California chaparral areas are prone to destruction by fire. The Rancho Mission Viejo Development Plan proposes to disperse about 100 expensive home sites through the upper San Mateo watershed and Verdugo Canyon in these chaparral and grassland areas.

Regarding Carl Olson's letter ("Conservancy," July 11): In his letter Olson claims brush clearance is nearly "nonexistent," but nothing is further from the truth. As a volunteer, I have participated with the "nonexistent" brush clearance crews in their work, which is occurring daily. Olson claims it is too bad the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy wants to "protect the wildlife and plant life but keeps vast expanses of explosive brush lands." That "explosive" chaparral is the native environment to our Mediterranean ecosystem and is the home to thousands of birds, insects, reptiles and countless other forms of life.