DEAR JON: Mowing along roads begins as dry conditions get worse

It’s so dry everywhere and you can see the dangers all around as dry grass is sometimes waist high. With the ‘exceptional drought’, it’s not surprising that Steve wrote to me concerned about mowing programs, “Dear Jon will it take a catastrophic fire to get local, county and state agencies to mow dry grasslands along roads and canyons?”

I made several calls on this and learned that the mowing season just got underway on June 1. Caltrans has a regular schedule that they follow and they were out in Watsonville Monday along Highway one and Riverside Road. Monterey County has its own mowing schedule and they were on Carmel Valley Road on Monday. I’ve learned that one of their two mowers is currently down for repairs.

In speaking with Dorothy Priolo with Monterey County Regional Fire, she said that dangerous conditions exist and will continue to deteriorate. “This spring we had to suspend the agricultural burning due to the early dryness of the brush in those areas. So we have seen that the vegetation has dried up much earlier due to the rains finishing earlier, about a month and half earlier.”

I went to a call for a fire off Laureless Grade Road on Monday in Monterey County where multiple agencies responded. The grass in this neighborhood was waist to chest high. Firefighters told me that the residents had put ashes in a plastic dumpster. If that had spread, no telling how big that could have been.

Priolo says Monterey County Regional Fire expects certain agencies to take responsibility for mowing the grass. “We have seen mowing activity around the county but we understand it takes time for them to make their way around the different roadways. We do see progress but now that the rain has stopped the mowing should continue and we anticipate that Caltrans and Monterey Public Works will be able to finish that.”

Fire crews like to see at least 10 feet of clearance on the side of our roadways especially on our public roadways. That’s for emergency response and fire safety.

At home, 100 feet of defensible space is the law and Calfire tells me, this is the year to do that, if you haven’t already.

In the meantime the mowing will continue and let’s hope we don’t have a fire.

If you have a question for me email me at DearJon@KIONRightnow.com or on Facebook and Twitter.