Let us savor a success! I refer to the highway fuel abatement projects sponsored by the National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). If you have driven off the hill in any direction lately you will have noticed that swaths of brush have been cleared near the road. This brush clearance makes us all safer, protecting evacuation routes off the hill and mitigating the effects of fires originating from the highway.

The project was conceived jointly by NRCS and the Forest Service and brought to the Riverside MAST (Mountain Area Safety Taskforce) for development. Our MAST, by the way, is another success story, bringing together all the organizations relevant to the safety of the mountain to solve problems. Caltrans also played an important role, since most of the work would be done 300 feet from the highway. The Forest Service conducted an extensive environmental study to assure forest health, and NRCS put the work out for bids, and provides the money and management. All the highway projects will be complete by May, at a cost of $2.8 million. The central 74 project may last longer because of the steep slopes involved south of the highway.

Why NRCS is up here is a great story in itself. Their focus has historically been soil, and they were founded to deal with the agonies of the dust bowl in the 1930's. NRCS often comes to an area after a disaster to mitigate the effects on soil with Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) Programs. Bob Hewitt, District Conservationist from San Jacinto, was asked in 2002 to talk to MAST about the extreme tree die-off from the bark beetle infestation. Plans for a special EWP were submitted, but it was the devastating 2003 fires that moved Congress, led by Senator Feinstein and Congressman Lewis, to pass a special $120 million supplemental for Southern California. The stance, uncharacteristically, was to be proactive-why wait for another disaster before reducing the fuel load? Thanks to this program, NRCS is close to putting $22 million into the San Jacintos. They have worked all around the community, managing contracts to remove dead and dying trees-if you have seen the logging helicopters you have some idea where they have worked.

Hal Carey, the NRCS forester who is based in the Idyllwild office, said that as work progressed and they knew more about the mountain, they came to understand that dead trees were only one part of the dangerous fuel load. Mature chaparral, which can spread an intense fire quickly across and up the mountain, was another. Their new appreciation for the risk posed by chaparral resulted in the highway abatement projects.

The projects include the two roads up and down the hill-highways 243 and 74. The first time I really noticed the work was when the project began on southern 243, the portion connecting Idyllwild and Mountain Center. This was an expensive section ($816,527), but you can see dramatic changes to the area. Also dramatic is the work on the Hemet side, down to Dry Creek. My friends in Mountain Center are already breathing easier.

So lets give three cheers to NRCS, the Forest Service, Caltrans, Congress, and everyone who worked to make this happen. It was a good idea, well executed, and it has made us safer. Chalk one up for good government.