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organizations or groups of individuals to hire contractors to reduce fuel loads and create defensible space. DFSC may assist Alameda County or Contra Costa County property owners with vegetation management projects that will lead to compliance with their local fire department’s defensible space requirements in areas designated as Priority Hazard Zones. Eligible projects include: • Chipping or green waste removal of homeowner-cut material, • Mowing or “weed whacking” (as a part of a larger project) • Tree thinning (cutting of small trees) or “limbing-up” or removal of small dead trees • Brush cutting (including juniper removal or use of mechanical equipment) • Grazing DFSC was not currently accepting new grant applications when this report was written, but this is a temporary closure, and the grant applications may open in the future (DFSC 2024). It is worth noting that this grant is available to individual property owners and HOAs. The above funding sources are intended to help communities reduce the risk of wildfire by managing vegetation near buildings and critical infrastructure, including tree maintenance. Tree planting is typically not an eligible activity in these funding programs. Wildfire Costs Wildfires of all sizes incur costs that include damages to property, economic disruption, impacts on public health, and the cost to contain or suppress the fire. Preventing catastrophic wildfires, wildfires that cause substantial undesired losses to society and the environment (CCST 2020), is the intent of the Livermore -Pleasanton Fire Department’s defensible space standards and this wildfire section. Catastrophic wildfires have costs that well exceed the tree maintenance costs recommended in this section, which are intended to prevent or reduce the likelihood of catastrophic wildfires in the WUI areas of the city. As an example, the 2020 SCU Complex, probably the closest catastrophic wildfire to the City, had a total acreage of 396,824 and burned from August 16 to October 1, 2020. The fire destroyed 225 structures and damaged 26 additional structures. The SCU complex cost approximately 68 million dollars to contain (NIFC 2020). Estimates of the costs related to the destroyed buildings are not available, but using the median price of homes sold in the County in 2020 ($1,027,860.00)(CA EDD, 2024) multiplied by the total number of structures destroyed (225) comes to more than 231 million dollars. Wildfire prevention, including tree maintenance, is overwhelmingly worth the investment compared to the cost of damages from the fire. As a final example, the Lick Observatory, which the 2020 SCU Complex threatened, was valued at the time of the fire at approximately $77 million. The observatory spent approximately $864 ,000.00 on vegetation management work in 2007 and 2017. CAL FIRE spent approximately $360,000.00 to suppress the fire at the observatory, and the observatory ultimately experienced $3.7 million in damages. Wildfire prevention measures resulted in a $73 million avoided loss (CAL OES, 2023). Property Insurance Considerations Property insurance companies can place demands on property owners to perform vegetation management work on their property in order to maintain coverage or prevent their policy premiums from increasing. While these demands do not carry the same legal authority as fire department requirements, losing coverage or paying significantly more in policy premiums can be just as impactful to property owners as a notice of violation from the City. Vegetation management work can include removing trees from the property. This can include trees that can be considered a foreseeable risk, such as dead or seriously damaged trees, but can also include healthy trees that are near a 25