Extension Report: Help your community prepare for wildfire

Basic steps for assessing and reducing risk are illustrated in “Keeping Your Home and Property Safe from Wildfire: A Defensible Space and Fuel Reduction Guide for Homeowners and Landowners .”

This publication shows how to reduce vulnerability of buildings to fire and how to manage vegetation to make an area “less inviting to fire and more inviting to firefighters.”

Reducing fire hazards where we live is a good start. However, to be effective in preparing whole communities for wildfire, we have to manage fire hazards across the larger landscape, across both private and public landowner boundaries.

In the face of the horrific wildfire scenes from California and elsewhere, we might think there is nothing we can do to prepare for fires that start on a hot and windy day. But it is important to know that large-scale planning and treatment of the landscape can make a difference in fire behavior and reduce fire damage.

A nationwide push for wildfire protection planning helps identify the next steps needed to reduce risk for communities. Most counties in Oregon have developed Community Wildfire Protection Plans. Further effort is needed to map forest and fuel conditions, predict fire behavior under extreme weather and identify priority actions for communities at risk. OSU Extension can help communities do this by facilitating partnerships and projects across ownerships.

A great example is provided by the Klamath-Lake Forest Health Partnership in southeastern Oregon. Their work provides a model that can be applied in Hood River County and beyond, as illustrated in the publication Planning and Implementing Cross-boundary, Landscape-scale Restoration and Wildfire Risk Reduction Projects. To expand this kind of effort across Oregon, OSU Extension is undertaking a Statewide Fire Program initiative. Goals include:

Establish an OSU Extension Fire Program Leader/Coordinator and secure the funding to support them.

Develop new curriculum and education programs to help communities prepare for and adapt to wildfire.

Provide leadership in fire science and education to help people take the next steps in Community Wildfire Protection, across ownerships.

For more information, see the research-based educational materials about wildfire, online at catalog.extension.oregonstate.edu/topic/forestry-and-wood-processing/wildfire and knowyourforest.org/learning-library/reducing-fire-hazard.

If you are interested in getting involved with the OSU Extension fire education program, please contact Glenn Ahrens at 503-655-8631 or glenn.ahrens@oregonstate.edu

May 30 workshop

To learn more, attend the upcoming workshop for landowners and residents “Keeping Your Home and Property Safe from Wildfire”, May 30, 2019, 6 to 8 p.m., Ty Taylor Fire Station, Community Room, 1785 Meyer Parkway, Hood River, next to Hood River Aquatic Center.

The workshop is free but space is limited, so registration is required. To register, please call OSU Extension, Hood River County at 541-386-3343 or go to https://extension.oregonstate.edu/county/hoodriver/events  .

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Glenn Ahrens works as OSU Extension Forester in Clackamas, Hood River, and Marion counties.