PEBBLE BEACH — Trees are missing from the Del Monte Forest and it’s for a good reason. Crews are removing dead trees and flammable underbrush after the Pebble Beach Community Services District doubled the funding allocated to its long-running Fire Defense Plan.
Pebble Beach firefighters could once find themselves battling flames that soared 150 feet high, according to Fuels Manager John Trenner of Cal Fire. In 1987, a campfire in the Morse Wildlife Preserve quickly spread to Huckleberry Hill, igniting the forest from floor to canopy and burning 30 houses. The District, a government agency that provides essential services such as fire protection to the Del Monte Forest area, responded by creating the Fire Defense Plan, a set of initiatives aimed at reducing future fire risk.
The recent work to thin targeted areas of forest floor in Pebble Beach is one of many projects in this effort, largely led by Fuels Management Fire Captain Greg Leonard. The Fire Defense Plan’s new annual budget of roughly $1 million, which comes in general from property taxes, employs multiple strategies to combat fire, including fuel reduction, added infrastructure to increase access for fighting fires and public education.
Although the team hopes to see a reduction in fires through fire safety education, the goal is not to stop fires altogether. “With Mother Nature, in some way, shape, or form, we’re always going to have wildlife fires. Here, our priority is limiting those impacts and keeping them as small as possible,” says Fire Prevention Battalion Chief Frank Espinosa.
Cutting fire’s fuel
Fire requires fuel to survive. For wildfires, this comes in the form of natural materials that burn, such as dead trees, fallen branches, shrubs and dry grasses. The District uses several methods to remove fuel sources that would otherwise stoke a fire.
Heavy equipment, called masticators, provides mechanical fuel reduction, removing and grinding heavy debris such as dead or fallen trees. Toppled trees are particularly common after major storms and form flammable pathways for fires to travel long distances.
Hand crews then clear vegetation known as ladder fuel, which forms a vertical path for fire to climb from the ground into the treetops. The resulting canopy fires burn hotter and spread faster than other types of fires, making them especially difficult to contain. By removing these fuels, crews remove a fire’s ladder to the canopy and keep flames closer to the ground. “We’ve taken them down to a couple feet. That’s our goal because those are easy to get,” says Trenner.
In areas with flammable material growing close to the ground, herds of between 300 and 400 goats are released into designated areas to graze on light, fast-burning plants. The goats provide an environmentally friendly means of removing fuel.
Fire barriers
According to Trenner, when it comes to fire, time is everything. The Fire Defense Plan works to make fires move more slowly and firefighters move faster through fuel breaks and fire roads. Natural fuel sources function as stepping stones for a fire to blaze across the forest and ascend into the treetops. The removal or thinning of these materials creates gaps in a fire’s path, limiting how fast and far a fire can travel.
The plan includes the creation of fuel breaks, open strips of land where this clearing is done. These breaks are designed to slow or stop fire spread. The gaps in fuel serve to remove stepping stones in the fire’s path, creating a dead end. “It’s safe to put firefighters in there. The fuel is reduced, we can get in there, we can put in hose lines or unload the crew buses,” says Trenner.
Still, a fire within fuel break boundaries can cause tremendous damage unless firefighters are able to arrive at the scene quickly. Access is a key part of the Fire Defense Plan, as it helps crews reach and fight a fire faster. The plan includes maintaining and expanding fire roads, cleared routes through the designated open spaces in the forest that provide pathways for crews and engines to respond within minutes. For many residents, these roads also serve as trails. Without these roads, crews may take longer to reach a fire and are forced to use bulldozers, which can cause damage to habitats and increase soil erosion.
“You want to get the fire while it’s small. By maintaining good access and having reduced the amount of fuel out here, we can not only get there quickly, but we can be confident that we can get it out fast,” says Pebble Beach Community Services District General Manager Nick Becker.
Team effort
The Fire Defense Plan requires extensive cooperation, both from local organizations and community members. The 2025 review of the plan brought together Services District, Cal Fire, the Del Monte Conservancy, the Pebble Beach Company and the Open Space Advisory Committee. Every two years, these groups collaborate to determine which parts of the forest need treatment based on housing locations, recent storm damage, and past fire activity.
“It’s a really good collaboration,” says Resource Ecologist Rob Thompson, “You got fire, you got homeowners, you got the environmental scientists all coming together and working together to implement a project that’s serving both the public protection side of things, and also protecting and preserving the environment, which we all care for and love.”
Each group comes with its own resources and ideas about how to battle fire, but they are ultimately championing the same cause.
“There are so many benefits,” Trenner says. “It benefits public safety, firefighter safety. Overall, the program makes everything a lot better.”
According to Becker, the extra funding allocated to the plan allowed crews to complete major projects that will make future work less intensive, turning large-scale fuel reduction into long-term maintenance.
Ecologists also provide critical input to balance fire prevention with the health of the forest. These experts help crews identify which invasive and flammable plants to remove, such as acacia. For plants that are native and serve an important role to the ecosystem, ecologists may suggest crews prune them to promote healthier growth. Some areas of the forest are left untouched to provide important habitat for animals like deer.
Timing also matters. Work is scheduled to avoid disrupting species during vulnerable times such as birthing seasons. Even the goat program follows ecological advice. Environmental experts informed crews that goats released too early in the season can eat more seeds than leaves and spread invasive species. Animal surveys are completed before and after work is done to ensure that animals such as deer return to the area.
These crews also rely on homeowners to do their part. Through their Defensible Space Inspection Program, the fire department sets fire safety standards for plants, debris and other flammable materials on private property. To maintain these standards, crews routinely inspect land owned by community residents. The goal is to educate rather than enforce and crews offer fire prevention education when residents are not in compliance. In understanding how small steps
help protect property and the community, most homeowners respond quickly, Becker says.
Proven results
The Morse Fire of 1987 changed how Pebble Beach prepares for wildfires. Since then, the Fire Defense Plan has implemented fire roads, fuel breaks and regular maintenance as standard practice for the area. This work continues to show results.
In areas treated a year ago, manzanita is among the native and fire-resistant plants reclaiming the forest floor. Ecologists expect the same for the areas treated recently. “You’ll still have good quality habitat, but it’ll be at much lower risk of a hazardous fire or dangerously high fuel loads,” says Thompson.
Recently, a fire broke out in the same general area where the Morse Fire lit the forest ablaze in 1987. This time, crews quickly contained the fire. “The fire didn’t have anywhere to go,” says Trenner. In the past year, several fires have started but remained small and easy to contain. As someone who witnessed massive fires devastate the Del Monte Forest in years past, this is a welcome change for Trenner.
“I sleep better at night,” he says.
