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, . . Carol Forrest. vice president of the firm. broughl in over 60 specialists from around the country. including Mike Harding, an independent consul- lanl, to help implemenl the plan. Harding's official litle is Certified Professional in Erosion and Sediment Control. a mouthful that indicates his special abililies to deal with the prob. lems Ihe cily faced. Both Harding and Forrest arc pa~t presidents of the Inter- national Erosion Control Association. In addition to their work addressing this past season's fires, \VoodwardM Clyde is also drawing up a pre.disas. ter guidance document to help prepare communities in the state for fire disas. ters in the years to come. Woodward-Clyde has been respon. sible for engineering not only Laguna Beach's response to the calamity but also the action in Orange County, the cily of Thousand Oaks the Big Rock area of Malibu. and for drawing up an overall plan for all olher fire sites in the state. Their experience in dealing with similar situations taught them Ihat Ihe damage musl be addressed immediately. before the winter rains were due. so their engineers were on site November I. the day after the fire was contained. Scott Huntsman. who was project manager of Ihe Oakland effort. was Ihe first Woodward-Clyde engineer on.site. Huntsman. who later gave way to Harding. coordinated Ihe plans wilh several federal and stale agencies. in- cluding a few Ihal brought money with them. Much of Ihe funds to pay for the restoration came from the Fed- . Vegetation springs to life from beneath a blank.et of wood fiber-based soil treatment. ---- ""'" Concrete slabs are all that remain of many of the homes that once perched on the hilltops. ':-i:.--r ":-\ .... .... ". ~ ....., process by placing hay bales for sedi- ment control. Sediment control. which involves controlling whatever run.off that does occur, was the first phase of the anack. The next phase, erosion prevention. involved revege- tating the erosion-prone areas. The usual approach to accomplish revegetation is that of seeding under jute nening. Jute nening is a burlap covering Ihal is slapled or staked into the ground. It is effective in erosion control and fostering plant growth, but it's quite labor intensive and conse- quently expensive (approaching S 15.000 per acre). and it can suffer "tenting" - as the seed begins to grow, it can push up the netting, allowing erosion beneath it. Many private own- ers in Ihe area pursued Ihis type of at- tack, but most often on a small scale. The cily of Laguna Beach. on the other hand. used three different meth- ods to prevent erosion and mudslides. particularly in the Hidden Valley Canyon area of the city, where the fire was the most devastating. The first method was to blow straw mixed with a tackifier. a option that was confined to easily accessible areas. The cily treated approximately II acres with straw. But for the hardest-hit areas, stronger measures were needed, so Harding broughl in Chuck Austin. an independent contractor from Col- orado, who is an expert in hydroseed- ing. He helped supervise hydroseed- ing operations in Laguna Beach. So the second melhod the eity used '. . eral Emergency Managemenl Agency (FEMA) and the USDA Soil Conser. vat ion Service; other funds were sup. plied by Ihe California Office of Emergency Services. The city picked up the balance of Ihe tab. Terry Brandt. direclor of Municipal Services for the city, was responsible for turning thai money into action. Because the situation was deemed an emergency. the cilY was legally al- lowed to skip the bidding process for Ihe work ilself. The city did bid oul prices for Ihe materials, bUI when il came to hiring contractors to apply it. Ihey used a number of factors to quickly seleCI appropriale firms. in- cluding past experience. availability and minority hiring practices. among others qualifications. AnOlher Woodward.Clyde engi- neer, Chuck Rambo, supervised the California Conservation Corps' volun- teers. who were involved early in the