Forest Stewardship Tip of the Day: What if a fire started near your home today? Is your family prepared?

Forestry Tip of the Day: As I type this email the Hewlett wildfire just west of Fort Collins is now estimated to be over 5,000 acres and continues to grow. Mandatory evacuation notices were issued today for homeowners living in the path of that fire.

If you received an emergency evacuation notice would you be ready? Do you have a GO Kit? Do you have pre-planned evacuation routes?

Why is this important??  Having a plan in place and being ready to evacuate early will be critical in your ability to effectively respond to an emergency. There are many online resources available to help you prepare your Personal Wildfire Action Plan and we encourage you to take the time today to prepare your home and family!

The Boulder Office of Emergency Management has online resources available that we encourage you to utilize before, during and after an emergency. During an emergency please visit their website for the most up-to-date information on that emergency: http://boulderoem.com.

Boulder Office of Emergency Management Emergency Preparedness Resources:

• Disaster Planning: http://boulderoem.com/disaster-planning
• Emergency Kit Checklist: http://boulderoem.com/emergency-kit-checklist
• Be Informed: http://boulderoem.com/being-informed
• Emergency Preparedness Guide (5 MB): http://boulderoem.com/files/BCE-OEM-EPG-final_2-16-12.pdf (see p. 23-27 for info specific to Wildland Fire Preparedness)

A shorter one-page wildfire safety checklist from the Red Cross:

·       http://www.redcross.org/www-files/Documents/pdf/Preparedness/checklists/Wildfire.pdf
State of Colorado resource specific to your Personal Wildfire Action Plan:

·       Ready, Set, Go! This is a great all in one resource that focuses on preparing for wildland fires: http://www.firesafetyeducators.org/lessonplans/ReadySetGoColorado.pdf
National FEMA resource on Wildfire Preparedness:

·       http://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/fa-287-508.pdf
I do realize we included more resources than you might need. However, each resource takes a slightly different approach and we wanted to expose you to a few examples of useful Wildland Fire Preparedness resources. In these times of high wildland fire danger we highly recommend all landowners take the time to make sure your family is prepared!

Announcement: The Nederland Community Forestry Sort Yard Opens Friday May 18

Bring us your slash, logs and storm damaged trees!  The Allenspark sort yard is already open (and has seen heavy usage) and the Nederland sort yard opens Friday April 18 at 9am. The Nederland sort yard will remain open for four consecutive Fridays and Saturdays thru June 9. Take advantage of this special spring opening by hauling as much slash and logs to our free of charge site as possible. For more visit: http://www.bouldercounty.org/property/forest/pages/fhsortyards.aspx

FYI – For the past several weeks ips beetles have been infesting material “like crazy” and nearly every piece of freshly cut pine slash, fresh pine logs and storm damaged pine trees that I have surveyed have been heavily infested with ips. One of the best ways to battle ips infestation is to cut material, leave it on the forest floor for a couple of weeks to “bait” the beetles into your pile, and then haul that infested material out of your woods up to one of our sort yard sites.

I will be working at the Nederland sort yard tomorrow and I look forward to seeing you all and your truck loads of slash!

Community Training Location and Time Change: Allenspark Wildfire Mitigation Training on Wed. May 23.

The last scheduled training in our series of community meetings titled “The Keys to Creating and Maintaining Effective Defensible Space” is scheduled for next Wed. May 23 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Highland Presbyterian Camp and Retreat Center, 1306 Business Highway 7, Allenspark, CO. We changed the location and time for this training so please make note and help spread the word in your community.

This series of trainings has received very positive feedback from folks who have attended past dates. Many people have told us they leave the training feeling motivated and empowered to take action on their land. Folks are also telling us we are focusing on new science based information that helps them understand WHY homes burn during wildfires. I started this email by mentioning the Hewlett wildfire west of Fort Collins and that is how I will end. Seeing the active fire behavior and rapid fire growth of that fire gives us an idea about how important it is to make sure our homes and family are prepared for the next wildland fire. Join us at the next community training and learn what you can do to dramatically improve the chances of your home surviving the next fire.

Complete training details are available here: http://www.bouldercounty.org/property/forest/pages/foresthealthevents.aspx

Cheers,
Ryan

Ryan Ludlow | Forestry Education & Outreach Coordinator 
Boulder County | Land Use Department
P.O. Box 471, Boulder CO 80306
O: 720.564.2641 | F: 303.441.4856
rludlow@nullbouldercounty.org | www.bouldercounty.org/ForestHealth