El Dorado County Fire Safe Council
Coloma-Lotus Grant Documents
15-SRA-AEU-0025-Application-NOsig
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California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CALFIRE)
SRAFPF Grant Project Scope of Work
Funding Opportunity 15-SRA
Page 1 of 13
Project Name: Phase 1 Coloma-Lotus Fire Safe Council Project, CL-1
Project tracking number: 15-SRA-AEU-0025 Example: 15-SRA-UUU-XXXX
Project Description Summary: Please provide a paragraph summarizing proposed project.
This Fuel Reduction Project will create 36.48-acres of shaded fuel break along 4
critical access corridors in the Coloma-Lotus Fire Safe Council (CL FSC) area of El
Dorado County. More than 740 habitable structures, numerous accessory structures
and public facilities including two schools, lie within the approximately 13,000 acre
CL FSC area and depend upon the four selected rural arterials for ingress-egress.
The Project will clear 7 linear miles of access corridor, to provide an enlarged fuel
reduction zone for firefighting operations as well as promote safe evacuation of the
estimated 2,000 community residents. See attached Project area maps and Table 1, below.
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Table 1. Project Location, Size and Dimensions
Project Roads – Length – Width – Area – Starting Point – Ending Point
(feet) (feet) (acres) (Intersection)
State Hwy 49 1,320 43 1.30 49/Cold Springs 0.25 mile north
State Hwy 49 1,320 43 1.30 49/Lotus Road 0.25 mile south
Cold Springs 9,504 43 9.38 49/Cold Springs 1.8 mile, to Gold Trail School
Lotus Road 10,032 43 9.90 49/Lotus Road 1.9 mile, to bottom of hill
Marshall Road 14,784 43 14.59 49/Marshall Rd 2.8 mile, top of hill
Total 36,960 36.47
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Our Project is the first phase of a valley-wide effort to establish and maintain a Fire
Safe Community. Once complete, the 36,960 (7.0 miles) of proposed fuel breaks will
leverage the effectiveness of adjacent defensible space created by Coloma-Lotus
residents and businesses, as well as fire safe actions by BLM, State Parks, County
Parks and private landowners to strategically broaden the size of the Project shaded
fuel breaks. The Marshall Road portion of the Project, located in a High Fire Hazard
Severity Zone, will strategically reduce the potential for a wildland fire traveling uphill
into the nearby Garden Valley community. The Lotus Road and Cold Springs Road
corridor clearings will minimize the potential for a CL FSC area fire spreading south
and west into the more populated Placerville area.
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CALFIRE)
SRAFPF Grant Project Scope of Work
Funding Opportunity 15-SRA
Page 2 of 13
A. Benefit to Habitable Structures in the State Responsibility Area
(SRA)
This item is broken into project specific criteria depending on the type of project being
proposed: planning, education and training or hazardous fuel reduction. Please only
answer the one set of questions in this section that pertain to your project.
Fuel Reduction Projects
1. Describe the geographic scope of the project, including an estimate of the number of
habitable structures in the SRA and the names of the general communities that will benefit
2. Describe the goals, objectives, and expected outcomes of the project.
3. Provide a clear rational for how the proposed project will reduce the risks associated with
wildfire to habitable structures in the SRA.
4. Identify any additional assets at risk to wildfire that will benefit from the proposed project.
These may include, but are not limited to, domestic and municipal water supplies, power
lines, communication facilities and community centers.
5. Is the scale of the project appropriate to achieve the stated goals, objectives and outcomes
discussed in Item 2 above?
Planning Projects
1. Describe the geographic scope of the project, including the communities that will benefit,
and an estimate of the number of structures within the project area.
2. Describe how the project will assess the risks to residents and structures in the SRA and
prioritize projects to reduce this risk over time
3. Does the proposed plan add or build upon previous wildfire prevention planning efforts in the
general project area?
4. Identify a diverse group of key stakeholders, including local, state, and federal officials
where appropriate, to collaborate with during the planning process. Discuss how the project
proponent plans to engage with these targeted stakeholders.
5. Describe the pathways for community involvement that will be incorporated in the planning
process.
Education and Training Projects
1. Describe the specific message of the education program and how it relates to reducing the
risk of wildfire to owners of structures in the SRA.
2. Describe the target audience of the education program and how information will be
distributed to this audience.
3. Will the education program raise the awareness of homeowner responsibilities of living in a
fire prone environment?
4. Identify specific actions being advocated in the education material that is expected to
increase the preparedness of residents and structures in the SRA for wildfire.
5. Describe the expected outcome of the education in terms of increased or changed public
awareness about wildfire.
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CALFIRE)
SRAFPF Grant Project Scope of Work
Funding Opportunity 15-SRA
Page 3 of 13
Answer only 1 set of questions from above, depending on your project; Fuel Reduction, Planning or
Education.
2. More than 740 habitable structures, numerous accessory structures, and public
facilities including multiple schools, lie within a mile of the Project area and
depend upon the four selected roads for ingress-egress. The Coloma-Lotus
Phase 1 Project will directly address Fuel Reduction within our CL FSC
boundaries, as indicated in Table 2, below. These routes are key to safely
evacuating residents while allowing CALFIRE equipment to address issues
within and during a wildfire. The proposed Project will reduce fuel loads thereby
increasing road effectiveness during a wildfire crisis, by removal of potential
obstacles to use of these critical evacuation routes. Safer, wider road corridors
will assure residents that firefighting operations will be able to save the
maximum number of habitable structures within the SRA.
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Table 2. Estimated Light and Heavy Brush Fuel Levels
Access Corridors – Acres – Light Brush Fuels – Heavy Brush Fuels
State Hwy 49/ Cold
Springs Road 1.30 80% 20%
State Hwy 49/
Lotus Road 1.30 80% 20%
Cold Springs Road 9.38 42% 58%
Lotus Road 9.90 55% 45%
Marshall Grade 14.59 68% 32%
Total 36.47
acres
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As a recent situation shows, preparedness is key to protecting residential structures
within the SRA. On December 23, 2015 our planned southern route, Cold Springs
Road, was closed to all traffic due to one fallen tree. County Department of
Transportation personnel closed the road for over an hour in order to remove a
single decayed tree that had fallen across both travel lanes. By comparison, the
proposed Project would clear both light and heavy fuels along the Project roadways
while minimizing traffic disruptions.
For the proposed Project, decayed limbs up to 50 feet above the critical roads and
live limbs up to 16 feet above the roadway will be removed. Overall clearing from 4
feet to 10 feet in width along both sides of the roads will also be conducted. We
recognize that the treated areas will require maintenance to sustain the
effectiveness of the road fuel breaks. The Project is devised explicitly to be
combined with residents’ defensible space adjacent to the Project area.