On January 23, 2018 HCN was advised that Federal Magistrate Laurel Beeler sided with HCN in denying the Claremont Canyon Conservancy’s (CCC) request to intervene in the UC Berkeley versus FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) lawsuit currently before the court. The CCC had argued that they were preeminent experts on fire risk mitigation in the East Bay and had standing because of their association with Norman LaForce (and the Sierra Club lawsuit against FEMA). But Judge

The EBRPD Board will meet this Tuesday the 16th to (among other things) review their plan to put in place a new ballot measure that would reauthorize the Measure CC assessment for another 20 years. This is a hot issue with EBRPD having received extreme pressure (some would say threats) from the Sierra Club to move away from their somewhat moderate vegetation management efforts in favor of radical landscape transformation. This radical landscape transformation would involve la

Wanted to update you on the latest developments in the UC versus FEMA lawsuit, where UC is attempting to undo the settlement agreement reached between FEMA and HCN a little while back. As you may know, the Claremont Canyon Conservancy, a local homeowner group whose primary reason for being appears to be to destroy trees in the east bay hills, has petitioned the court to be allowed in to this case as an intervener. If this were allowed it would likely derail any prospect of se

Here's the official announcement. Please attend if you can. The Oakland City Council Public Safety Committee is meeting next Tuesday, January 9, 2018 at 6:00pm in Oakland. The meeting will address the Oakland Fire Department’s status report regarding staffing of the Fire Prevention Bureau’s Vegetation Management Unit and vegetation clearance of City-owned parcels. Meeting details and agenda can be accessed here. https://oakland.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=583449&GUID=8

Since the last update there have been several significant developments in this case. First, the Claremont Canyon Conservancy has finally acknowledged their role in working with Norman LaForce and Jerry Kent of the Bay Chapter of the Sierra Club and has petitioned the court for admission to this case as an intervener. We suspect that as in the past, their intention is to disrupt any attempt to settle the case during the Alternate Dispute Resolution phase that begins in Februar