Research and Analysis

The Cachuma Resource Conservation District (CRCD) plays a critical role in our community as a partner to and bridge between farmers, ranchers and other landowners and conservation groups and agencies focused on the health of our land, water, soil, wildlife, agriculture and food systems.

This project opportunity matrix and the RPP site valuable community assets, but the information herein represents a snapshot of needs at this point in time. Building wildfire resilience in Santa Barbara County needs to be an ongoing proactive process.

Throughout California and the western United States, we are experiencing intense wildfires at previously unthinkable scales and with unprecedented loss of homes and communities.

Our current fire resilience infrastructure and strategies are built on a series of assumptions that may no longer hold true. We have interior fire sprinklers designed to suppress single home fires with a deluge of water…

Home hardening increases the likelihood that a home survives a wildfire, but hardened homes do not provide a safe place of refuge in the event that a fast moving wildfire cuts off evacuation routes and forces residents to shelter in place.

During the RPP teams outreach efforts we shared a worldwide literature search produced by partners for the community of Paradise after the devastating Camp fire. Local fire personnel suggested a collaborative effort among fire agencies, community based groups ….

Santa Barbara County Fire Department (SBCFD) serves as Santa Barbara County's Cal Fire Unit and regularly produces an Annual Strategic Unit Plan as mandated by Cal Fire that inventories the fire prevention projects SBCFD has in various stages of its planning and implementation processes.

While several areas of Santa Barbara County benefit from the preparation of Community Wildfire Protection Plans, there are several areas of the County that do not currently have a plan that covers them.

Roadside vegetation management is a high impact fire risk reduction activity and is needed in high fire risk areas throughout the county. The RPP team recommends engaging local fire …

A key SBC Fire Department leader shared that Santa Barbara County needs to increase the pace and scale of fine scale mapping of built and natural resources to facilitate effective planning and avoid unnecessary conflicts.

Much like roadsides, vegetation along railroad corridors creates risk of fire ignition and spread. With the increasing prevalence of homeless encampments along road and railroad corridors, particularly in and near urban areas…