Firewise Week in Ashland is May 5-12

What is Firewise Week? A week to promote Firewise Communities, to make sure your home and yard are Firewise, and to get ready for wildfire season.

This year’s theme is “Protect Your Home, Protect Your Community”. Home loss to wildfire is not inevitable. Simple low cost actions around your home and yard can determine whether a home survives a wildfire, or is devastated by windborne embers from a nearby fire. Because Ashland’s homes are close together, neighbors can work together to prevent the spread of wildfire in a neighborhood.

Several Ashland neighborhoods have done just that. At this point, Ashland has eleven neighborhood groups that are working together for wildfire preparedness, and have received or will receive national Firewise Community recognition for their work.

Ashland’s Firewise Commission has been working on several events for city residents to promote Firewise Communities in Ashland.

Firewise Week Events:

• May 5th: First Annual Firewise 5K! An SOU student is organizing this race for Firewise awareness in Ashland as his Capstone Project. A 1K event for kids will be part of the fun. Proceeds will benefit the Ashland Emergency Food Bank. Register today at active.com!

• May 6th: Firewise Clean-Up Day. Free yard debris drop-off for Ashland residents to dispose of all those leftover leaves, dead plants, branches and overhanging tree limbs that can be fuel for a wildfire. See the link for more specific information about this opportunity. This event is a partnership with Recology Ashland Sanitary Service.

• Firewise in the 4th Grade Poster Contest Winners Announced: Ashland’s 4th graders have learned about The Firewise 5 and the poster contest winners will be announced this week, with the winning poster displayed at Ashland Fire Station 1.

• All Week: Ashland Public Library will be featuring a Firewise display and wildfire-related literature. The children’s department will host Smokey Bear and special guest storytellers during story time. Mayor Stromberg will read a Firewise Week Proclamation at the May 1st City Council Meeting.

What can you do during Firewise Week? Make sure you are ready for wildfire season. Learn how at ashlandfirewise.org, and talk to your neighbors about how you can work together. Grants are still available, for those who have not received grant money in the past, for hazardous vegetation removal near Ashland homes. Keeping a community safe from wildfire is everyone’s responsibility. Take part during Firewise Week and help make Ashland a Firewise place to live and work!

Beat Fire Season to the Punch

There is still time for reducing flammable vegetation

 

Don’t wait ‘till fire season to prepare your residence for greater safety. Fuel reduction assistance grants are available from the Oregon Department of Forestry’s Grants Pass Unit. A grant is a specific rebate per acre for fuel reduction. The focus is on a home site’s defensible space and a fuel break along the driveway.

 

Defensible space around a home provides firefighters with a reduced risk zone in which they may safely and effectively protect a home against damage or destruction caused by a wildfire. Reducing fuel along a driveway improves access for emergency vehicles.

 

Call (541) 474-3152 to schedule a free fuel-reduction inspection and to start the process.

 

Guidelines for getting a fuel-reduction assistance grant are as follows:

• A fuel reduction plan must be developed before the project begins.
• Both the ODF inspector and the landowner must agree to the plan.
• A completion date is established as part of the plan.
• A grant payment cannot be made for fuel-reduction projects already completed.

Also, by meeting the requirements of a fuel-reduction grant, a homeowner will satisfy the requirements of the Oregon Forestland-Urban Interface Fire Protection Act (SB 360). If the project has been completed according to the plan, both the ODF inspector and the landowner must sign a project completion form, then this documentation will be submitted for the rebate.

Completion of a fuel reduction grant project will greatly increase the chance of a home surviving a wildfire, but it is not a guarantee. Maintaining the fuel-reduction area is important. Periodic mowing of dry grasses, raking of dry leaves and needles, and removing dead vegetation will help to keep a fire from igniting in and spreading through a fuel break area.

 

Grants are only available whenever fire season is not in effect.