"Rehydrate California" Mini-Workshop Wednesday, April 30th 8:30 AM Pacific
Innovations of the Ojai Valley Fire Safe Council: How they are using planned grazing, mapping, (and more!) to create community fire resilience.
Join me Wednesday April 30th 8:30 AM Pacific for our next “Can We Rehydrate California?” mini workshop, with Chris Danch of the Ojai Valley Fire Safe Council (OVFSC) to learn how they are using grazing and mapping to create resilience in one of the US’s top wildfire areas. You can sign up here to attend and get the recording of this workshop as well as our previous ones.
This week we will discuss a community-driven organization promoting wildfire safety and resilience in an area ranked in the top 1% nationally for wildfire risk (top 3% in California). The OVFSC is leading a paradigm shift from the old regime of “Command & Control" to a new regime of “Integration" that emphasizes:
Moving from the myth of individualism to building community cohesion and resilience
Shifting from reliance on public safety agencies to community empowerment
Complementing suppression efforts with community mitigation measures
Enhancing wildland mitigation measures with proper adaptive responses at the community level
Two of their many projects include
An ongoing prescribed grazing program that provides: reduced fuel loads at landscape level, enhanced defensible space, improved firefighter safety and access, enhanced watershed function and tie ins to local food and fiber production. The program includes development of "The Corridor" - a Wildfire Intensity Reduction Zone around the Ojai Valley, and a prescribed grazing curriculum for local schools in partnership with Grazing School of the West, and Shepherdess Land & Livestock.
An interactive online portal that provides over 100 data layers including critical species habitat, riparian corridors, structure density, Red Cross shelters, land use, and critical infrastructure, as well as LIVE data on current wildfire locations, Red Flag Warnings, and EPA Air Quality Index forecasts.
The Ojai Valley faces exceptional wildfire challenges due to multiple geographic and infrastructure factors:
● Location surrounded by rugged mountains and chaparral-covered canyons
● Steep terrain that accelerates fire spread
● Hot, dry weather patterns and dangerous Santa Ana winds
● Classified as Very-High and High Fire Hazard Severity Zones
● 89% of building stock constructed pre-2009 (before Wildland-Urban Interface standards)
● Limited evacuation routes creating bottlenecks during emergencies
● Communication "dead-zones" hampering emergency response
● Vulnerable grid dependency affecting resilience during power outages
OVFSC Executive Director Chris Danch will give a presentation, and we will discuss the project through a place-sourced perspective. Sign up here to attend and/or get the recording of this workshop (as well as our previous ones.)
Christopher Danch is the executive director of the Ojai Valley Fire Safe Council (OVFSC). Chris has a broad, diverse background in law, business, education, environmental issues, and community service.
When Chris is not working on wildfire risk mitigation and community resilience, he maintains a small part-time practice of law, with an emphasis on providing general counsel to select non-profit and for- profit organizations, including those involved in regenerative agriculture. He is currently a legal advisor to California Farmlink in the area of prescribed grazing and regenerative agriculture. Chris previously worked as a consultant in agroforestry development and alternative energy with an emphasis on biomass energy utilizing pyrolytic conversion and gasification technologies. He recently was part of a consulting team to the Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety, the state agency tasked with regulation of the Wildfire Mitigation Plans required of California investor-owned electrical utilities.
He has over 42 years of legal experience including the areas of strategic legal planning and consultation, business law, nonprofit organizations, environmental, agriculture and natural resource management, international law, construction, and real estate/land use. He has 25 years of direct litigation experience at both the federal and state level, with jury and non-jury trials, class actions, complex (multi-jurisdictional) litigation, judicial and non-judicial arbitration, administrative proceedings, mediation, and appeals.