Photo Credit: Check out these recent examples of investments in wildfire mitigation paying big dividends. (Photo: Mitigation work completed by property owners facilitated the Vail Fire Department’s safe and effective response to the Lake Christine Fire in Colorado earlier this summer. Photo by Eric Lovgren, Fire Adapted Colorado)
Extreme fire behavior, like what we’ve seen in California this summer and last fall, demonstrates that there are no guarantees when it comes to preparing homes and families for wildfire. But defensible space and other mitigation efforts can, and do, protect homes under many conditions. Below are a few stories of communities being spared, at least in part, thanks to their investments in defensible space and forest restoration.
- Get a community member’s perspective — who is involved with FireWise of Southwest Colorado — and understand why he thinks his neighborhood’s investments and culture of fire adaptation made a difference during the 416 Fire: Years of Fire Mitigation Pays off in Falls Creek Ranch, Durango Herald. When describing the same fire, the Durango Fire Department’s chief, Hal Doughty, said, “That mitigation work did what it was supposed to do. We were able to save every single structure in that area because of the mitigation work that slowed the fire down.” Watch the video below for more insights into the 416 Fire.
- Read about how just over 200 acres of mitigation helped save 300 homes during the Golf Course Fire: Fuelbreaks ‘Without a Doubt’ Save Grand Lake Subdivision, Colorado State Forest Service.
- Learn how removing beetle-killed trees in-between two subdivisions helped keep the Buffalo Fire from destroying homes: How Defensible Space Helped Avoid Catastrophe as the Buffalo Fire Blew Up, Colorado Public Radio. Also check out the USDA Forest Service’s blog post regarding that same fire and how important decades of work proved to be: Proactive Fuel Breaks Protect Nearly $1 Billion in Homes, Infrastructure During Colorado Wildfire. Bill Jackson, district ranger of the White River National Forest put it this way: “The fuel breaks reduced the number of trees available to burn next to homes; gave firefighters safe spots to aggressively fight the fire; and provided for effective fire-retardant drop zones.”
Another photo of mitigation successfully protecting a home during the Lake Christine Fire, which occurred earlier this summer in Colorado. Credit: Eric Lovgren, Fire Adapted Colorado
Although this post highlights several examples from Colorado, the value of defensible space has showed itself in other places this year, too. Read the National Fire Protection Association’s article, Firewise USA® Site in Florida Takes on Two Wildfires and Survives, for an example from the Southeast.
Examples of investments in defensible space paying off are a testament to the great work happening across the country, and they fill me with hope. Still, fires like the Carr Fire remind us that defensible space isn’t a guarantee, and as wildfire behavior continues to push preconceived boundaries, evacuation preparedness is an essential component of every community’s fire adaptation work. Stay safe this summer, folks.
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It’s been a plea for years -thinning the forest with logging managed grazing stop the Blazing. It would provide jobs to have Cowboys, Forest service riders, what have you move herds over the lands, cattle goats eating brush and grass. It’ss not rocket science. I prayer Arizona and the West puts this together before next spring. Thank you.
And of course they would be thinning it not clearing it as if in causing mudslides. Pausing on the trail now with four foot high grass, oak and other browse and beautiful wildflowers; if we don’t do this next spring don’t want even think about it. As ranchers said 20 years ago managed grazing – stop the Blazing. Utilize us; thank you. Arizona writer, photographer, former ranch hand.