Fire safety, forest preservation, environmental protection
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Mixed-species forest in the East Bay hills of the SF Bay Area is not just beautiful, but generates the fog that keeps the landscape wet and able to sustain more plants and wildlife than chaparral and grasslands do.
Photo by Deane Little, DeaneLittleImagery.com
Photograph by Indira Nair
Mixed-species forest in the East Bay hills of the SF Bay Area is not just beautiful, but generates the fog that keeps the landscape wet and able to sustain more plants and wildlife than chaparral and grasslands do.
Hills Conservation Network
A San Francisco Bay Area community organization committed to fire safety, forest preservation and environmental protection.
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Hills Conservation Network was founded in 2007 by residents of the East Bay hills to reduce wildfire danger while preserving the unique, precious woodlands we call home. We work with local agencies to implement effective, species-neutral risk mitigation strategies.
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For over a decade, we have effectively influenced environmental policies with a combination of active, constructive engagement and, when necessary, legal action. READ WHAT WE'VE ACCOMPLISHED.
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Since its inception, HCN has filed three lawsuits, all of which were settled with terms favorable to our environmental goals. We don't consider litigation the preferred means to resolve deforestation and vegetation management conflicts — it's expensive and time-consuming — but we resort to it after exhausting all other means.
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HCN's Board of Directors understands, first hand, the risks of inadequate preparation and ineffective vegetation management. Many of us suffered personal losses in the 1991 Oakland Hills fire, yet we still choose to live in the wildland urban interface (WUI) of Claremont Canyon.
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Funds raised by HCN primarily pay for legal services. A very small amount pays for administrative support. All of our board members are unpaid.
Thus we are committed to ensuring that wildfire, increasingly common in California, will never again do such tragic, avoidable damage in the Oakland/Berkeley hills.
