A 20-person vegetation mitigation crew has wrapped up work clearing invasive brush and fire-damaged slash near Cross Creek Road and St. Andrews Road in Santa Rosa's Fountaingrove neighborhood, targeting heavy fuel loads that have lingered in the Tubbs Fire burn scar since the 2017 blaze killed at least 22 people. The effort comes nine years after the fire tore through the area, and officials say it's aimed squarely at protecting one of the city's key evacuation corridors.
According to the City of Santa Rosa, the completed project was a coordinated effort involving the city, the Sonoma County Fire Chiefs Association and Fire Safe Sonoma, a local wildfire-safety organization. The Fountaingrove/Skyfarm area off Cross Creek Road was identified as one of the first treatment sites in Sonoma County, and work tied to the city's broader wildfire-reduction push for the 2026 season began in late April and was expected to continue as fuels dried out, per the city's wildfire-reduction page. St. Andrews Drive serves as an evacuation route for the neighborhood, underscoring why the cleared corridor matters beyond simple brush removal.
As The Press Democrat reports, the mitigation work has been ongoing since 2024 and is funded in part by a fire safety measure that directs 5% of total tax revenue toward prevention efforts. Paul Lowenthal, division chief fire marshal for the Santa Rosa Fire Department, said the wildfire mitigation work is setting the community up for success across Sonoma County. Vegetation clearance like this can give firefighters more opportunity to halt flames and can help protect travel routes during evacuations, according to the same report.
Measure H Dollars Flow Into Fountaingrove
Much of the funding backbone traces to Measure H, a half-cent countywide sales tax approved by Sonoma County voters in 2024 with 61% of the vote. The tax has no sunset date and generates about $62 million annually, with Santa Rosa receiving 14.4% of that revenue and a countywide vegetation crew receiving another 5%, per the Press Democrat's reporting. Steve Akre, chief of the Sonoma Valley Fire District and president of the Sonoma County Fire Chiefs Association, noted that Sonoma County fire agencies dedicate millions of dollars every year to the countywide fuels crew.
Victoria Fleming, who represents Santa Rosa's Fountaingrove area, said vegetation management reduces fire risk and improves firefighters' ability to protect homes and evacuation routes. Private landowners must provide permission before crews can perform mitigation work on their property, a detail that shapes how far these projects can reach into a neighborhood. Gregory Pech said the Fountaingrove Firewise community achieved almost 100% participation, pointing to Firewise USA as the framework that gives neighbors a structure for reducing wildfire risks locally.
A Burn Scar That Keeps Growing Back
The need for repeated clearance isn't new. The Press Democrat reported in 2020 that vegetation was constantly growing back in Fountaingrove, with the Open Space Management Association spending roughly $250,000 annually on brush management and about 115 acres managed as fuel breaks at the time.
Much of the neighborhood has rebounded since the fire. The Santa Rosa recovery dashboard shows 2,508 rebuilt structures, and Coffey Park has seen more than 90% of its burned lots reoccupied. Estimates of the Tubbs Fire's toll vary by source: the Press Democrat's reporting cites about 4,600 homes destroyed overall, while the Los Angeles Times has put the number at more than 3,000 homes within Santa Rosa city limits and more than 5,000 across the surrounding area, while the San Francisco Chronicle has reported the fire wiped out 2,800 homes in Santa Rosa, including the 162 mobile homes at Journey's End. The Chronicle also noted in October 2023 that most of the torched parts of the city had been rebuilt, with new developments built taller and denser than what existed before — including the Journey's End site, where Laurel at Perennial Park is a new housing development with 162 affordable senior units and 260 market-rate apartments; its first building had been completed and occupied.
What's Next for Wildfire Readiness
City officials have said they hope to eventually develop enforceable requirements addressing both landscape design and vegetation management near wildland areas, according to sonomanews.com. For now, the Fountaingrove work stands as a concrete marker of how settlement and tax dollars are being funneled into fuel reduction nearly a decade after the Tubbs Fire reshaped the neighborhood. The city's most recent prescribed burn, by comparison, took place in 2025 off Sonoma Highway near Melita Road, just west of Oakmont, illustrating that fuel management remains an active, countywide effort rather than a one-time fix.
