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This is the time of year when we really start to worry. It is fire season in the Sierra.
Radio ads remind us that too much fuel in growing in our forests and our backyards. Neighbors may start to take the warnings of needed defensible space seriously; the sound of chainsaws and weed whackers can make a Sunday morning less idyllic.
Personal evacuation planning guides appear in the newspaper, and the perennial warnings about it being a terrible fire season are heard from fire officials. A sniff of smoke in the air is enough to send us to the screen door to see if there is a column of smoke in view. The high-pitched drone of a Calfire spotter plane can stop many a conversation.
We live in a high fire-danger zone.
But we are blessed some of the best wildland firefighters we could imagine. We have a regional firefighting air wing in our midst. We have developed our own defensible space, and have worked at fire-hardening our own homes. We even still have insurance on the place.
Besides, we are lucky — we haven't had a major county fire in years. What else is there to do?
I think sometimes we get lost in our own hype — the strong, independent landowner fighting the ravages of the wilderness on our own. The images of Louis L'Amour and “Lonesome Dove” are burned in our historical pride and we fail to realize this is not the old Wild West.
Instead, we live in charming, but extremely hazardous, urban communities. We are not alone against the elements; we are just a member of a community of folks facing the same hazards together. No matter how hard we work on our own defensible space, home maintenance or scotch broom removal, we are still subject to the fire readiness of our entire neighborhood.
When flying embers can carry a fire a mile or more beyond the fire lines, and flames on a neighbor's property can trap our families on dead-end roads, we have to realize that we are all in this together. And together, in these times of decreasing public budgets and increasing wildland fuels, we can make a difference.
The Firewise Communities/USA program is a unique opportunity for America's fire-prone communities. Its goal is to encourage and acknowledge action that minimizes home loss to wildfire. It adapts especially well to small communities, developments and residential associations of all types. Lake Wildwood is Nevada County's first “firewise” community, but Banner Mountain, Lake of the Pines, Tahoe-Donner, and Mountain Lake Estates Homeowners Associations are all currently working toward becoming “firewise” communities.
As “firewise” communities, we can work together to go beyond our individual property lines and work with our neighbors to make our neighborhoods and communities safer.
Together, neighbors can enlist wildland/urban interface specialists to do community assessments and create plans that identify agreed-upon, achievable solutions within the neighborhood.
Fire-safe communities can create opportunities for volunteers to help neighbors unable to complete needed fuels management, coordinate fuels treatments across property lines, increasing fire safety and actually enhancing wildlife habitat and wildlife corridors.
Neighbors can work to establish community green waste dump sites for lower cost disposal of fuels, work with fire officials to identify and maintain water storage facilities, reduce fuels along potential evacuation routes, and educate friends and neighbors of basic firesafe practices.
Community cleanup days, awareness events, and other cooperative activities can be successfully accomplished through partnerships among neighbors, local businesses, and local fire departments.
Neighborhoods can work with major private or public land owners to reduce fuel beyond government mandated defensible space to make entire communities safer.
For more information contact the Fire Safe Council of Nevada County at (503) 272-1122, or visit the Firewise Communities/USA Web site at www.firewise.org. Members of the local community will be happy to help you, and Nevada County be “firewise” and fire-safe.
Radio ads remind us that too much fuel in growing in our forests and our backyards. Neighbors may start to take the warnings of needed defensible space seriously; the sound of chainsaws and weed whackers can make a Sunday morning less idyllic.
Personal evacuation planning guides appear in the newspaper, and the perennial warnings about it being a terrible fire season are heard from fire officials. A sniff of smoke in the air is enough to send us to the screen door to see if there is a column of smoke in view. The high-pitched drone of a Calfire spotter plane can stop many a conversation.
We live in a high fire-danger zone.
But we are blessed some of the best wildland firefighters we could imagine. We have a regional firefighting air wing in our midst. We have developed our own defensible space, and have worked at fire-hardening our own homes. We even still have insurance on the place.
Besides, we are lucky — we haven't had a major county fire in years. What else is there to do?
I think sometimes we get lost in our own hype — the strong, independent landowner fighting the ravages of the wilderness on our own. The images of Louis L'Amour and “Lonesome Dove” are burned in our historical pride and we fail to realize this is not the old Wild West.
Instead, we live in charming, but extremely hazardous, urban communities. We are not alone against the elements; we are just a member of a community of folks facing the same hazards together. No matter how hard we work on our own defensible space, home maintenance or scotch broom removal, we are still subject to the fire readiness of our entire neighborhood.
When flying embers can carry a fire a mile or more beyond the fire lines, and flames on a neighbor's property can trap our families on dead-end roads, we have to realize that we are all in this together. And together, in these times of decreasing public budgets and increasing wildland fuels, we can make a difference.
The Firewise Communities/USA program is a unique opportunity for America's fire-prone communities. Its goal is to encourage and acknowledge action that minimizes home loss to wildfire. It adapts especially well to small communities, developments and residential associations of all types. Lake Wildwood is Nevada County's first “firewise” community, but Banner Mountain, Lake of the Pines, Tahoe-Donner, and Mountain Lake Estates Homeowners Associations are all currently working toward becoming “firewise” communities.
As “firewise” communities, we can work together to go beyond our individual property lines and work with our neighbors to make our neighborhoods and communities safer.
Together, neighbors can enlist wildland/urban interface specialists to do community assessments and create plans that identify agreed-upon, achievable solutions within the neighborhood.
Fire-safe communities can create opportunities for volunteers to help neighbors unable to complete needed fuels management, coordinate fuels treatments across property lines, increasing fire safety and actually enhancing wildlife habitat and wildlife corridors.
Neighbors can work to establish community green waste dump sites for lower cost disposal of fuels, work with fire officials to identify and maintain water storage facilities, reduce fuels along potential evacuation routes, and educate friends and neighbors of basic firesafe practices.
Community cleanup days, awareness events, and other cooperative activities can be successfully accomplished through partnerships among neighbors, local businesses, and local fire departments.
Neighborhoods can work with major private or public land owners to reduce fuel beyond government mandated defensible space to make entire communities safer.
For more information contact the Fire Safe Council of Nevada County at (503) 272-1122, or visit the Firewise Communities/USA Web site at www.firewise.org. Members of the local community will be happy to help you, and Nevada County be “firewise” and fire-safe.
Warren Knox is on the board of the Fire Safe Council and co-chair of the Federations of Neighborhood Associations.
