Portola Valley, Calif. sits deep in the Santa Cruz Mountains with median home prices above $4 million, a Very High Fire Hazard severity rating, and essentially two roads out. Now the agency that manages the forested ridgelines above the town is moving to reduce the fire risk along one of those corridors.
The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, which oversees roughly 65,000 acres across San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz counties, has posted a solicitation for a wildland fire capacity project along Alpine Road, a key ridgeline corridor threading through the district's Coal Creek and Skyline Ridge preserves. The work is backed by FEMA funding, most likely through the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program after the Trump administration cancelled FEMA's newer BRIC pre-disaster mitigation program in April 2025.
The project's full dollar value and specific scope have not been disclosed publicly. Fuel reduction, shaded fuel breaks, and access improvements are typical components of this type of work, and Alpine Road in particular has been on fire planners' radar since the CZU Lightning Complex fire in August 2020 burned through Big Basin State Park just to the south, destroying more than 900 homes and exposing how few escape routes exist in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Source: NationGraph.
Midpen launched its Wildland Fire Resiliency Program that same year and has been stacking funding from CAL FIRE grants, FEMA, and its voter-approved Measure AA bond to expand prescribed burns and fuel breaks along ridgeline roads that double as evacuation corridors. The district conducted its first prescribed burn in decades in 2022.
The timing is notable. Major insurers including State Farm and Allstate have declined to renew policies across the Peninsula since 2023, and the political appetite for visible fire mitigation in communities like Portola Valley is high. At the same time, federal pre-disaster mitigation funding is less certain than it was even two years ago, making existing FEMA commitments like this one more valuable.
The project is listed on the district's bid portal. Midpen has not announced a timeline for contractor selection or construction start.
