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Santa Rosa rolls out vegetation‑management inspections in wildland‑urban interface
Summary
Fire chief said the city's vegetation management ordinance is in effect and staff will prioritize about 9,000 parcels in WUI areas for defensible‑space inspection, aiming to complete roughly 3,000 inspections a year using grant funding.
Santa Rosa's fire chief told a virtual town‑hall that the city's vegetation management ordinance is in effect and the fire department is implementing a defensible‑space inspection program aimed at properties in the wildland‑urban interface (WUI).
Fire Chief Scott Westrope said the ordinance — passed late last year — applies to WUI neighborhoods including Bennett Valley, Fountain Grove, Oakmont and Skyhawk. He told residents the program will prioritize based on burn scars and rebuild areas and that staff plan to perform about 3,000 inspections annually out of roughly 9,000 WUI parcels.
Chief Westrope said the city has leveraged settlement funds and grants to expand resources for vegetation management. "Vegetation management's one of those strange areas of the world where unless you have a vegetation management ordinance, you cannot get grant money," he explained, adding that the city combined settlement funds with grants to stand up the program.
The fire department is planning an enforcement and education rollout and will work on defensible‑space inspection cycles because vegetation regrowth takes longer than annual weed abatement. Residents were urged to address problematic species such as Scotch broom and French broom in the landscape and to watch for further communications about inspection timing.
Community members with properties in the named WUI areas should expect outreach from the fire department as inspections begin.
