COST Director Lucy Dilworth on Measure A Wildfire Threat
“Our communities remain at risk until everyone does their part to reduce hazards. Measure C was never intended to pay for reducing all wildfire hazards. Just as Marin homeowners are asked to pay for their own expensive defensible space, every other property owner and land manager should cover these vitally important maintenance costs. Public agency land managers should pay for this work out of their own budgets. If it requires reallocating limited money to meet new urgent priorities, so be it. Everyone has hard choices to make.
Measure A’s annual reports show that the parks department spent an average of only $1.5 million annually on all their vegetation management work, a substantial portion of which was for species preservation and overhead personnel allocations. That’s a tiny portion of Measure A’s $15 million annual revenue, and the department’s overall $32.2 million budget.”
-January 14, 2022 Marin IJ