Wildfires: Summit County taking grant applications for fuel-reduction projects
Wildfires: Summit County taking grant applications for fuel-reduction projects
27 March 2013
published by www.summitcountyvoice.com
USA — The Summit County Wildfire Council is once again preparing to award grants for residents who want to remove hazardous fuels and reduce wildfire risks around their homes and neighborhoods.
Grant applications will be taken through April 26. The application forms are available online at http://www.co.summit.co.us/extension. Call Dan Schroder at 970-668-4140 for more information.
Wildfire Council grant applicants must also develop a weed management plan with the help of Summit County experts to prevent the spread of invasive plants in treated areas.
Sine 2006, the grant program has awarded about $1.3 million, leveraging additional funds to total $3.3 million for fuels reduction and wildfire mitigation. Locally, about 10,000 acres have been treated. Details on treatment areas are available in an online map book created by the wildfire council.
There has been extensive mitigation work completed throughout the community. There are many excellent examples where the community has come together to complete cross-boundary projects that give greater protection to the community, Schroder said, singling out the Golden Horseshoe area where numerous local entities collaborated with the Forest Service on projects.
Summit County has done a good job of implementing many projects identified in the Community Wildfire Protection Plan, Schroder said, explaining that an annual review of the plan helps identify new priorities, including the concept of linked defensible space between adjoining homes and throughout neighborhoods and communities.
Our added emphasis is ongoing annual maintenance pertaining specifically toward low cost actions such as mowing grasses, clearing woody debris and limbing trees to deconstruct ladder fuels, Schroder said.
The Blue River and Boulder Creek areas are in the most need of dramatic fuels reduction work, however there is no area in the county that is done, he continued. We recently went on a four-day tour through all focus areas and learned that wildfire preparedness includes heavy fuel removal as well as many tasks that are not directly related to trees.
Schroder outlined some of the other challenges:
In many parts of the county, road signs are deceiving; many homes do not have addresses (numbering); for those that do have home address numbers, many are partial, not on contrasting backgrounds, and are not reflective. Building materials continue to be a challenge as many homes in Summit County have cedar shake shingle roofs and combustible siding.
Some neighborhoods have engaged in reverse defensible space by clearing the defensible zones and then placing new landscaping within zone 1, up against eves and foundations.
For those communities that have cleared live and dead trees, flashy fuels such as grasses have grown. This is an ongoing hazard as grass carries fire quite well. Overhanging porches tend to shelter household possessions.
In many cases, we observed combustible materials such as lawn furniture, tools, and grills under these porches, creating an opportunity for embers to smolder and start a house on fire well after a flame front passes. This is the case with many wildland fires that start homes on fire.
Much of the fuels reduction work around Summit Cove has been completed, but requires ongoing maintenance.
