vigilance on fires & campsites , dangerous conditions

[christmas leubrie]

Dear everyone worried about fires in Monte Rio and Guerneville woods, etc,
Yesterday's fire in Monte Rio deep in the woods across the road and uphill from the skatepark ( on the new,y acquired regional park land )was followed by one near Safeway today ,nearby in the woods there. It's only a matter of a windy day and one campfire too many in the right place, and we could all be unhoused.
I was personally terrified .......
(and also , later enraged when I found out the confirmation from the Monte Rio fire dept Chief Baxman TODAY , that this fire was yet another campfire made at a homeless encampment, which , once again ,spread into the surrounding woods) ..
Yesterday evening watching , and hearing the helicopters and planes dropping fire retardant and water over and over in enormous buckets on yesterday's Monte rio fire, I was, once again , preparing to evacuate , knowing how fast these fires spread. The fact it was windless , and we had so many firefighters and engines , planes and helicopters etc in the area, likely made the difference.
I'm tired of waiting for the county to do something about this ongoing urgent threat to all of us. I don't want " Monte Rio " to be another sad , shorthand for a preventable catastrophe denoting a burned out town like Paradise. We were lucky we had a windless night last night, and 10 engines full of firefighters available, not to mention the plane and helicopter loads of fire retardant and water. What if this were a time when they were responding to fires far away, as they do in these dangerous times by reciprocal fire fighting support , and we didn't have them at the ready in those numbers of firefighters and air support? It really, seriously , easily could have been a life losing , home burning catastrophe.
I want to state here that I am not hostile to unhoused folks in general, and, in fact, I help distribute food to them , and other local folks in need of food assistance, from our Monte rio foodbank every week . The problem is not poverty , it's carelessness, and the inability to be responsible in these dangerous conditions. However, my empathy stops when these fires, which threaten all of us , are repeatedly started from campfires in these crispy dry conditions. This must be stopped now, by any , and all means necessary !!!!!
******( by the way, no one should do patrols alone, or without bear spray to defend yourself from aggressive 4 and 2 legged beings, n matter whether you are regional park folks , or groups of Monte rio folks. The terrible dry conditions has all wildlife on the move, looking for food and water. I now regularly see animals here in Monte rio that I never used to see, and in daylight too*******
I really think these new owners of these lands in Monte rio have a responsibility to all of us. They , the regional park district ,need to have vigorous regular patrolling of their forest lands surrounding our community and immediate , no nonsense removal of any and all campsite materials as soon as they are located on park land, since the unhoused campers seem completely unable and unwilling to follow the no flame rules . In fact, last year's fires included finding abandoned 5 gallon gas cans used for generators at the site if the fires. Can you imagine a fire that included loaded gas cans in these dry conditions???These unsanctioned squatters are regularly having fires start in our woods surrounding both Monte rio and guerneville ( there was another fire today in the woods near Safeway ) . The regional parks are allowing a known hazard to be continuing without mitigation. I'd rather they dealt with it now, rather than after our town burns down. Is it possible to sue them into responsibility for their land ??? What other actions can we take to cause those like the two in charge below to actually act NOW to stop this insanity ? What other folks can we pressure into action? What about law enforcement ?
( definition of insanity: Doing the same thing, over and over, and expecting a different outcome . However, in this case doing NOTHING over and over and expecting things to change.)
Those I know SHOULD be taking action about this:
Supervisor Lynda Hopkins : 707-565-2241
Lyndah...@sonoma.county.org
And her Assistant: ( same number)
Elise....@sonoma-county.org
AND:
Sonoma regional park director Burt Whitaker
( he's in charge of Healdsburg Vets memorial park, which , for some bizarre reason , now includes the new Monte Rio regional parkland too... Who knows why?)
His number is 707-565-2041 ( sorry, I don't have his email address, maybe someone can locate that) I left him an impassioned phone message, but haven't heard anything yet.

There is currently , apparently , a sanctioned campsite at the gville park and ride, and , apparently , currently housing available for unhoused in Windsor, so it is not that other, safer options aren't available. Even if there were not other resources readily available HERE, IN MONTE RIO , leaving them at these dangerous campsites is clearly not a safe option for them or our town. It's also not legal, though , clearly that doesn't stop them.
Supervisor Hopkins apparently is sitting on a huge pot of $ for homeless services ( over $1,000,000, allegedly ) that I propose be joined with regional park land funds to both regularly patrol and remove and relocate encampments , or at least to remove all debris and materials when located. The unhoused are trespassing at minimum, and have habitually created extremely hazardous conditions with their unsanctioned fires . Even if the park and ride is crowded, at least , if they were relocated there, they are not threatening all of us and themselves with being burned alive by staying out in the woods , making fires that regularly escape into the woods in these tinder dry woodland conditions.
Ok, I'm going to go try to take some deep breaths..... This has got me in a serious lather, and I'm sure I'm not alone. How can we join together to get this dangerous situation handled by those who are allegedly in a position to address it now??? I'm open to any suggestions.
Peace,( which does not preclude taking action now ), Christmas leubrie
Sent from my iPad

> On Aug 2, 2021, at 1:48 PM, Joanne W. <2jo...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi neighbors, The fire official on site of last eve's wildfire in new regional park (fire just southwest of Monte Rio Skatepark in hills) told me it sprang up in a homeless camp, and that there are several camps up there. We need more foot patrols going out again, more eyes on the park as it has no daily monitoring by park rangers, not one ranger is dedicated to it solely daily. Please join me in writing the regional park head to add daily dedicated rangers to patrol, as well as contact Lynda Hopkins to do so, and for her to use the $1 million she has for homeless housing in west county to get housing set up. If the govt does not provide housing, they can sleep in public lands, per the 9th District Supreme Court ruling last year for the West U.S. The Park head here said this law makes it a longer bureaucratic process to remove homeless now from public lands out here, if no local housing has been offered. It's too hazardous now to camp in unstaffed and unmonitored parks that have not set up campgrounds. I'm curious what others in this group are doing to remedy this problem? Thanks for any feedback. J. Whitfield