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January 2026
From Seth Schalet, Santa Clara County FireSafe Council CEO
| | | We ended 2025 with one of our strongest years in terms of the amount of work completed for Santa Clara County and SCCFSC’s financial performance. The approved budget and workplan for 2026 takes this to another level. None of this would be possible without the SCCFSC team and support of the board. I remember reading a Harvard Business Review article titled “To See the Way Forward, Look Back” that helped me understand the importance of celebrating and focusing on past success as a foundation to guide the future. Click on the photo below, or here, to view photos from some of our projects, events and activities in 2025. As the saying goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” | As we enter 2026, SCCFSC looks forward to continuing our work with Congressman Sam Liccardo, the District 16 team and fellow county agency participants to provide input on the Congressman’s Wildfire Resilience Partnership. The Los Altos Hill County Fire District (LAHCFD) has embarked on a comprehensive plan, the Page Mill / I-280 Interchange Project. The Page Mill / I-280 Interchange in Los Altos Hills provides a significant route of egress/ingress for the northern portion of the Los Altos Hills Community in the event of a fire. This project, scheduled to start February 17, 2026, will treat four outer ramps and two inner loop ramps. SCCFSC is honored to support this effort. Read more in our projects section below. | | | |
Lastly, here is a brief video on Santa Clara County FireSafe Council and our Los Gatos Creek Watershed Collaborative Forest Health Grant project, funded by CAL FIRE, and how it protects critical drinking water system serving Silicon Valley. Watch here.
You will find a variety of articles and research studies in this newsletter I have read and trust you will find them interesting as well. Time for me to fade to black and to bring the team into focus.
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Yours truly,
Seth Schalet
CEO, Santa Clara County FireSafe Council
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Firewise USA® Recognition
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Congratulations to the Old Alpine!
We’re excited to welcome Old Alpine as our newest Firewise USA® recognized community in Santa Clara County! Their commitment to wildfire preparedness and community collaboration helps make our county safer and more resilient.
Santa Clara County now proudly has 30 Firewise USA® communities working together to reduce wildfire risk.
Is your neighborhood ready to take the next step?
Contact us at firewise@sccfiresafe.org to learn how to get started with the Firewise USA® program.
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SCCFSC Cost Share Program —
Neighbor-to-Neighbor (N2N)
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Our Neighbor-to-Neighbor Cost Share Program is awarding mini-grants to neighborhoods for local fire prevention projects. Neighborhoods can receive up to 50% in cost-share assistance (max $5,000). Funding is limited and awarded on a first come, first served basis.
Interested in working with your neighbors on a community project? Apply for our N2N Cost Share Program and the FireSafe Council can help support your efforts! Funding is limited. Apply by February 10th. Projects must be completed by February 28, 2026.
| | | Special Needs Assistance Program (SNAP) | | | |
Our Special Needs Assistance Program (SNAP) is also offering up to $2,500 per applicant to help eligible residents improve defensible space around their homes. For 2026, eligibility is based on location within Communities at Risk or high fire severity zones in Santa Clara County.
Apply by February 10th. Projects must be completed by February 28, 2026.
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Chipping Program Registration Opens —
March 2nd!
Our Spring Community Chipping Program is approaching! Registration for Saratoga, Palo Alto, and County Fire residents opens on March 2nd. This program is free to WUI residents.
Availability will be limited, so registrations will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. A waitlist will be made available when registration reaches capacity.
Learn More
| | | Los Gatos Creek Watershed Collaborative Forest Health Grant Update | | | |
In December, crews gained steady ground across priority treatment areas. A total of 59.22 acres were treated on San Jose Water (SJW) lands and 18.51 acres on Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) project sites totaling 77.73 acres.
Mechanical and hand-treatment operations have been completed on the West Branch! Treatment activities included mechanical mastication, chipping, and hand treatments using chainsaws and other hand tools. Despite challenging terrain, unfavorable weather, and unforeseen hazards, the project was completed through a strong and effective collaborative effort.
Read More
| | | Page Mill / I-280 Interchange Treatment Project | | | The Page Mill / I-280 Interchange in Los Altos Hills, California, provides a significant route of egress/ingress for the northern portion of the Los Altos Hills Community in the event of a fire. To secure the integrity of these egress/ingress routes and freeway access, Los Altos Hills County Fire District, City of Palo Alto, Palo Alto Fire Department, Santa Clara County Fire Department, and Santa Clara County FireSafe Council propose a roadside treatment of hazardous fuels. Read More | | | Heather Heights Road Neighborhood — Neighbor-to-Neighbor (N2N) Program | | | |
The Santa Clara County Fire Safe Council has approved and has available match funding for a Neighbor-to-Neighbor (N2N) Cost Share Program for the Heather Heights Road neighborhood. Heather Heights Road is a 3-mile-long dead-end road located in the Santa Cruz Mountains above the city of Saratoga.
The purpose of the project is to clear roadside vegetation so that the residents who live up there will have a better chance of escape during a wildfire. This project will also reduce the risk of a roadside fire escaping into the wildland as well as add strength to Santa Clara County’s developing shaded fuel brake system and provide opportunities to protect or manage watersheds from future wildfires.
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Coast Live Oak
(Quercus agrifolia)
The coast live oak is a California native tree, primarily found in Oak Woodlands along the coast, where it thrives in heavy fog and mild winters. It is one of the few native California oaks found in coastal regions (Calscape n.d.).
Coast Live Oaks are highly
fire-resistant, significantly more so than other native oak species. This
is primarily due to their thick bark and ability to quickly resprout. They
sprout from the main trunk and upper crown even after severe fires. Learn More
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Join the City of Saratoga and the Santa Clara County FireSafe Council on Wednesday, February 25, 2026, from 5:00–8:30 p.m. at the Joan Pisani Community Center for an important seminar on evacuation preparedness.
Residents will hear from emergency response leaders, explore resource tables, and learn practical steps for staying safe during an evacuation. The event will highlight local resources and processes and provide tools and guidance to help residents take action and be prepared.
Visit www.saratoga.ca.us/EvacuationPreparedness for more information and sign up to receive updates on this seminar.
| | | Just before Christmas, as part of our contract with the county, approved by the Board of Supervisors, we installed the first batch of wildfire smoke sensors throughout various locations within Santa Clara County Parks, with a few more to follow in early 2026. There are many partners to thank for facilitating and supporting this effort—all of you on our regular Zoom sessions. We will continue with the county teams over the next several months on training, integration and optimization before they are “turned on” for use during the 2026 fire season. | | | Upcoming Board Meeting Guest Presenter Lineup | | | |
Announcing our guest speakers of 2026.
Not that you need any enticement to attend our monthly board meetings—but just in case! The slate of 2026 guest speakers on tap is taking shape. We don’t have a guest speaker for our January annual meeting, as we take time to elect new SCCFSC board officers and elect new board members. Here is the line up for the next 5 months thus far.
February: Ertugrul Taciroglu will present Computational Science in Service of Wildfire Risk and Resilience Assessment: Applications, Challenges, Opportunities.
| E.T. is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. Join us over Zoom on February 17th at 1:30 PM — link coming soon. We are partners in the UC San Diego Wildfire Science & Technology Commons Scale & Sustain Working Group where I get to learn from him. | March: MJ Johns will share research & demo the games. Wildfire Games: A Community Approach to Designing Serious Games as Interventions for Wildfire Preparedness. | April: Dr. Yifang Zhu will share study Indoor and Outdoor Volatile Organic Compound Levels during and after the 2025 Los Angeles Wildfires. | May: Jackson Yip, Cofounder of Paladin Industries, will present and demo Paladin’s Initial Attack (IA) platform. IA includes evaluating the fire, patrolling, monitoring, determining what additional resources are needed and implementing suppression actions to stop the fire and protect both firefighters and public safety. | June: Jay Balagna, MPH, MPhil, RAND School of Public Policy, is the lead author of Accelerating Technological Innovation Across the U.S. Wildfire Management System and will present on these findings. | | | |
Did you know that you might be able to double—or even triple—the impact of your gift?
Many employers sponsor matching gift programs, which means they will match any charitable contribution made by their employees.
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SCCFSC is a local 501(c) non-profit organization that relies on funding from local partners and residents of the wildland-urban interface areas. While federal and state grants provide a significant amount of support for ongoing projects, donations from the local community is crucial to our success.The SCCFSC appreciates every donation, large or small. When you donate to Santa Clara County FireSafe Council, you are helping us and yourself by mobilizing the people of Santa Clara County to protect their homes, communities and environment from wildfires.
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