Fire safety, forest preservation, environmental protection
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Photo by Ken Cheetham
Trees of all species coexist, naturally, including Coast live oak, Monterey Pine, Monterey Cypress, bay laurel and eucalyptus.
Photo by Ken Cheetham
Photo by Ken Cheetham
• REDUCED WILDFIRE DANGER IN THE EAST BAY HILLS with our ongoing community educational outreach, and legal efforts.
• PROTECTED YOUR MAGNIFICENT, WILD NEIGHBORHOOD FORESTS from being cut down in massive, publicly funded needless “management” and “restoration” projects using chainsaws and heavy equipment like bulldozers that would have destroyed tens of thousands of healthy trees — without reducing overall wildfire danger.
• FUNDED 3 SUCCESSFUL LAWSUITS TO PREVENT DEFORESTATION and currently involved in a fourth. Collectively, these legal victories have made our hills safer in the event of a wildfire by keeping them forested, which keeps them cooler and wetter, which wildfire risk. READ MORE. Legal expenses are HCN’s greatest expense. Operational costs are minimal. All board members are unpaid.
• INFLUENCED CRUCIAL WILDFIRE AND LAND MANAGEMENT POLICIES via negotiations, discussions, and mediation with numerous public agencies managing our wildlands, including East Bay Regional Parks (EBRPD), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), California Governor's Office of Emergency Services (CalOES), The City of Oakland, PG&E, East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD), including:
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Initiated multi-agency and interagency East Bay hills neighborhood disaster preparedness plan for fires, earthquakes, etc.
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Ongoing work with EBMUD (East Bay Municipal Water District) on water supply issues for wildfire preparedness
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Worked with PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric) on protocols for handling large scale fires
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Worked with the City of Oakland on radio communications and 911 response (calamitously inadequate in the 1991 Hills fire)
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Instigated the landmark 1992 Oakland/Berkeley Mayor’s Task Force Report and Grand Jury inquiry into The 1991 Hills Fire. READ THE REPORT.
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Designed an an Oakland hills Citizens' Emergency Communications System
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Successfully lobbied to have roadside safety barriers installed in the Oakland hills
• REDUCED TOXIC PESTICIDE USE & EXPOSURE, to public lands, wildlife, pets, kids, and people. We oppose the ongoing applications of these poisonous and unnecessary chemicals, and educate the public about their harm, and advocate they be banned, as they have in nearby Marin County, CA.
• EDUCATING AND INFORMING THE COMMUNITY, ongoing, on all these myriad issues related to fire safety, wildlife protection, forest preservation and human health.
• MAINTAINING HOMEOWNER PROPERTY VALUES by protecting houses from wildfire while preserving forests and wildlands in our backyards. Our prized and cherished undeveloped lands are why so many of us moved here in the first place, and love living here. We’re privileged and grateful to call this beautiful, unique place home, and this motivates us to dig deep and do the work necessary to protect and preserve it. CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT HCN's VITAL WORK.
• KEEPING "HANDS-OFF" OUR FRAGILE NATURE keeps it both wildfire-resistant and healthy, teeming with a rich, natural diversity of tree, plant and animal communities. Wild places are too often overly "managed" with what amount to massive gardening projects involving chainsaws and toxic herbicides. Our precious wildlife preserves, open spaces and non-urban parks, left undisturbed by human interference, is almost always healthier for its wild flora and fauna — and safer for us humans to visit. Thus everyone in our human community of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, benefits physically, emotionally and spiritually.