California Vegetation Treatment Program (CalVTP) Update

The purpose of the proposed project is to create and maintain a continuous fuel reduction and forest health restoration zone around the City of Mill Valley to reduce wildfire risk including wildfire intensity and rate of spread, and to provide strategic locations for firefighters and emergency personnel to fight a wildfire in the event of ignition. The proposed project would conduct vegetation management activities to create an approximately 23-mile-long continuous shaded fuel break within a 345-acre project area in the greater Mill Valley area and a WUI fuels reduction area up to 328 acres adjacent to the fuel break. The proposed project would reduce excess and ladder fuels within a fuel break 200-foot wide and adjacent wildland areas to restore ecological health to resemble pre-fire suppression conditions by enhancing native, fire-resilient plant communities, primarily through invasive species removal, removing lower tree limbs, thinning small trees and understory species, and removal of dead and down woody debris. Treatment methods range include manual, ground-based mechanical treatment, prescribed herbivory, and the use of herbicides. Treatment methods and prescriptions would vary by cover type in the project site. The condition of the treatment areas after treatment would be monitored annually or as appropriate depending upon the vegetation types and presence of broom, and maintenance treatments would be performed as needed. Project implementation would begin in Fall 2025. Manual and ground-based mechanical treatments would continue through 2030. Prescribed herbivory, herbicide application, and pile burning would occur as needed. The proposed project includes the following two primary components: 1. Initial vegetation treatment and maintenance of a 23-mile-long continuous shaded fuel break within a 345-acre analysis area around structures in the WUI, at the periphery of communities adjacent undeveloped open spaces; and 2. Initial vegetation treatment and maintenance within several extended areas of vegetated open space between the fuel break and structures or in areas with structures intermixed in heavily vegetated areas within the 328-acre Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) fuels reduction analysis area.