As many of you know, I work for the Bureau of Land Management. We have a large wildfire program and, in Oregon, state law requires people who live in the Wildland-Urban Interface (out in the country, to most folks) to maintain a defensible space around their homes and outbuildings. If you don't and a wildfire gets loose on your property, you stand a good chance of getting a big fine plus paying part or all of the suppression costs of the fire. Here's what we recommend--not all of this would be applicable in Carta Valley, but for those of you who live outside regular service areas, these may be some things to consider: Remember the three Rs of creating a defensible space zone:
Remove dead and dying grass, shrubs, and trees. Reduce the density of vegetation (fuel) and ladder fuels (those fuels extending from the ground to the tree canopies). Replace hazardous vegetation with less flammable, irrigated landscape vegetation including lawn or other low-growing ground covers and flower plants (probably not applicable to CV).Other recommendations: Post address signs so emergency responders can find you. Trim branches along your driveway at least 14' up and 14' wide for firetrucks. Construct a fuelbreak along your driveway--at least 15' on both sides. Replace wood shake roofs with nonflammable roofing material. Clean out your gutters, roofs and decks. Remove tree limbs that overhang your roof (not a problem in CV). Screen vents and areas under decks with 1/8"-1/4" metal mesh. It keeps embers from under decks and houses. Maintain a 30' lean, green & clean space around your home. Locate wood piles and propane tanks away from your house. If your home is on or at the top of a slope, increase your defensible distance up to 100 feet, depending on the steepness of the slope and the types of vegetation. I realize that a lot of this is not applicable to the CV field house. Also, a lot of this is just common sense. After looking at the pics, however, you may want to put some mesh around the bottom of the house, the porch and the on vents just in case a fire starts when nobody's there. It'll keep embers from getting under the house. Also I saw a bit of dry grass along the drive and near the house. Might want to chop that back about 15' on either side. Probably nothing you didn't already know. I've worked in public information for wildfire for about 25 years and believe me, once those things start to move, they're really hard to stop--especially in high-resin plants like cedar. Good luck. I'm glad you all came back safe. Louise
