Editorial from July 31, 2007

 “No trees or woodpiles in BBL”

   There isn’t anyone who doesn’t want to make the community safer from fire. Ever since the 2003 Old Fire that threatened us, all of the communities have been looking to improve the situation we live with in the mountains. Slowly, things have improved and the public is being educated in making their homes and landscape better. Tons of brush has been removed with the Chipper program started by the Valley’s Fire Safe Council and neighborhood yard waste curbside removal. Every time someone sees a Fire Safe Council member, they should get a big hug for all that they have gotten started and completed in a few years. Having said that …

   A couple of months ago, Dick Kun came to the Big Bear City Council meeting and asked them to speed up the new fire ordinances. Not only did they take Kun’s request to heart; they went into a state of frenzy. Hurriedly, the wood shake roof and vegetation ordinance were put together and brought to the City Council for approval. With almost no objection from the council members they passed the roof ordinance with known problems in it, so that they wouldn’t lose any time; planning to revise the ordinance later. The vegetation reduction ordinance is even more concerning, which had its first reading at the Council’s July 23rd meeting. The second reading of the vegetation ordinance will be held on Aug. 13th and considering how the wood shake roof ordinance went, it will be passed. Within another 30 days thereafter, it will become the law of Big Bear Lake and the enforcement hounds will be sent out.

   I have a real problem with incomplete and unenforceable ordinances being passed, only for the lawmakers to come back at a later time to fix it. According to Fire Chief John Morley, no where could they find any kind of fire ordinances in this country to use as a template. With that in mind, I can only ask “what are you thinking?”

   The vegetation ordinance has the following within it and some of the problems I see, if this ordinance becomes law.

• “Thin and/or remove native brush by limiting the size of individual plants or groups of plants to no more than 10 ft. in diameter” – First of all, who is going to measure the diameter and what is “native brush”? The definition of “brush” is a dense growth of bushes and how long must a bush be here to be considered native? The weed abatement person, who slowly drives past a property, isn’t getting out of the vehicle to measure. Will a botanist have to be hired or will enforcement personnel have to be trained? We will have the most educated enforcement people in the world and lots of them, if they have to get a tape measure. But good news, the tape measure doesn’t have to be longer than 15 feet, so we should be able to save a little money.

• “Remove Juniper plants that reside within 10 ft. of a structure or deck” – Again with personnel having to get out of their cars to measure? Junipers can be a fire hazard, especially if not cleaned out under the top layer. However, there is millions of Juniper plants around the city and will the abatement letter sent to the property owner tell them which plants have to be removed or will the owner have to get their own tape measure. To be safe, just yank them all out. 

• “Limb up all evergreen conifer trees 1/3 of their height to a maximum of 6 ft. from the ground” – so if your kids planted last year’s living Christmas tree outside, get out the saws. From now on, just hire someone 6-foot tall guy to walk around your yard and cut down anything that hits his head.

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• “Create a space between brushes under evergreen conifer trees of 3 times the height of the brush to the lowest tree limbs.” – So if I have all the limbs of my trees cut off the first 6-feet, can I have brush under the tree that is 3-feet tall? No way, if I read this correctly. I have either to cut the brush down by a foot or limb up the tree by another 3-feet.  

• “Evergreen conifer trees 8 in. or less in diameter shall not be located within 15 ft. of another evergreen conifer tree.” – Get out that tape measure; measure the diameter of your small trees and then measure to see if there is another tree within 15-feet. Well, if mother nature managed to grow the tree bigger than 8 inches, it gets to stay. Otherwise, get the saw out – no new trees allowed. 

• “Woodpile storage shall not be located within 15 ft. of a structure or deck.” – this one is my favorite, since last year the weed abatement people told me to move my pile. I asked Chief Morley and David Yeggie where I should put it and Yeggie gave me a spot. Now, if this one gets enacted, I’ve got to move the pile again, though Chief Morley did tell me that wood piles can be moved closer to the house in winter time for easy access. At first they were talking 10-feet, so 15-feet only makes it worse. If your house is setback 5-feet from the sides of they property, you can’t put the pile there. Same thing goes for the front or back setback to your deck or house. Are they telling me I have to make my wood pile the fence around my property? Didn’t the planning commission just hear an appeal about fencing and that a fence is an “accessory structure”? That would mean that the wood pile must be the same distance from the fence.

   Let's just call the horse a horse! The Big Bear Lake Fire Department doesn’t want any wood piles. I guess we can hide them in the garage until they start inspection of garages for flammable things. Oops, that includes the car too. Suggesting that people can move a wood pile for the winter and moving it back in springtime is just plain silly; especially for our elderly people. I see more locals going to the doctor with back problems.

   No more Juniper plants allowed in Big Bear Lake is what they are telling us. Before you buy the thing at the nursery or K-Mart, bring it by the fire department and ask if it is ok to plant and where. Get it in writing, since there is no telling whatever you put in your yard, they will not allow next year.

   These laws boarder on the ridiculous are absolutely unenforceable. The weed abatement people don’t have the time to get out of their cars and check out or measure things. One abatement officer told me that they never get out of their cars and if the place looks good at the front, they assume it looks good in the back. Besides, how will they get into the back yards to make sure? Guess if you have a fence, you have a better chance of getting away with no weed abatement, unless it grows above the fence line. Considering that the City doesn’t have enough money for roads and drainage, adding more personnel will not happen.

   A few years ago, you couldn’t cut down a tree and now the fire department is deciding what has to be cut down. These fire ordinances will conflict with the building ordinances and landscaping conservation of the DWP. While the DWP is trying to get people to use drought tolerant plants, like the Juniper; the fire department wants them pulled out. Last month, DWP board member Susan Conley who just received a Juniper plant for her retirement and someone from the DWP was going to plant it for her. I sure hope no one tells the fire department.

   No more trees, no more wood to warm you in the winter, and get ready for the fire police to come knocking on your door. Orwell’s 1984 was just a couple of decades off and if that is what you want, you may get it. If you think that education instead of the fire police, with the water police and code enforcement are getting a bit out of hand; you better write, email,  or come to the Aug. 13th City Council meeting. We all want to be safer, but there is a balance between safe and being immune. We will never be immune from fire. We live in the forest, for Pete’s sake. Can we learn to live wisely and reduce the risk – sure we can. But let’s not run around like Chicken Little, yelling the “fire is coming, the fire is coming”. I beginning to get sick and tired of my lawmakers telling me to live in fear; fear of fire, fear of water shortages, fear of the hospital closing, fear of terrorists, and the list goes on forever. We got serious problems, but running around with your head cut off, creating more rules and regulations is not the best answer. Where are the cooler heads? You know the guys who don’t throw out the baby with the bath water.

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