What’ Up With the Mayor’s App? Part III
By Colleen O’Connor
Guess what. California is headed for another drought.
The snowpack is below normal. The rainfall insufficient. And the reservoirs are catching mostly heatwave-driven snow-melt runoff.
“The 2020-2021 winter was the third driest on record, according to the California Department of Water Resources. The region’s reservoirs are beginning to see the impact and are at half their total capacity.” Sfgate.com
According to Craig Clements, a San Jose State University professor and director of the center of the only wildfire research center in California noted:
“The lack of rain this season has severely impacted our chaparral live fuel moistures. Wow, never seen April fuels look so… dry. No new growth anywhere in this Chamise. April is climatologically the highest live FMC (Fuel Moisture Content) of the season. Very Scary!”
“We weren’t seeing any of the lighter colored, bright green new growth sprouting out of the growth. This has never happened.”
Remember, recently when California saw 10,000 wildfires char over 4.2 million acres?
This year’s drought may bring a repeat of that catastrophe.
But, you could be part of the solution. You could take photos of dry timber, trash, and/or flammable palm fronds left lying around; as pictured above (in Presidio Park).
If the Mayor’s new “Get It Done” app would allow for you to upload these photos from your iPhone or iPad; and if you did not live in areas with little or no internet connections, street cleanings and where the Mayor’s App is near useless – then you could make a difference.
Someone cleaned up the trash near Witherby and Hancock after those photos were posted; and then they cleaned up the trash on Rosecrans over the weekend after the OB Rag posted those images
Perhaps, the same will happened with the palm fronds lying in wait for an errant match this fire season. You could use the Mayor’s “Get It Done” app and help clean up the debris that litters so much of San Diego’s neighborhoods and possibly help prevent another year of unnecessary fires.
Or, perhaps, the Mayor could “Just Fix It.” And name a “Trash Czar.”
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