Rebates Still Available
Fuels Reduction rebates are still available to homeowners who perform defensible space work during the winter months. Check out the Grant Opportunities page at articles/Grant_Opportunities165604.htm for more information.
Defensible Space Program
The summer of 2007 was memorable for many reasons, some good and some unfortunate. The most notable event of the season was the Angora fire which consumed over 3000 acres and 254 homes. Several months later the Washoe fire on the West shore of Lake Tahoe consumed 20 acres and 5 homes. It is notable that the Angora Fire started in the Wildland area and quickly burned into a residential neighborhood and the Washoe Fire started as a structure fire and quickly burned into the forest. These fires demonstrate the importance of fuels reduction both at the homeowner level and in the forest around our communities. It is also interesting to note that the three largest fire seasons in recent history in terms of acreage burned, have occurred in the past five years.
If anything good did come from these incidents, it was the newfound awareness that many residents gained about the threat of catastrophic wildfire. This was evidenced by the overwhelming increase in demand for our curbside chipping, defensible space evaluation and tree marking programs. During the field season of 2007 the Fire District completed 500 defensible space evaluation, issued 364 tree removal permits, and provided chipping services to nearly 400 homeowners. In addition, over 300 homeowners received grant funds to help offset the cost of completing their defensible space.
The Tahoe Douglas Fire District has been actively working for a number of years to mitigate this threat. In 2004 we completed our Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP); this document is the roadmap for fuel reduction for the district and can be viewed by clicking on this link
http://www.rci-nv.com/reports/tahoedouglas/. In the summer of 2006 the District began offering curbside chipping services and issuing tree removal permits. During the summer of 2007 we continued our curbside chipping programs and added additional seasonal personnel to try to keep pace with the enormous demand.
This season we will be operating two chippers and increasing our seasonal staffing to 20. This increase in seasonal staffing will not only allow us to provide faster service in our chipping program, but it will also allow us to have a full “fuels crew” which will be implementing several fuel break projects around the community. In addition this crew will be working with the Nevada Division of State Lands and the United States Forest Service to treat urban lots within the community. This crew will also be a fully qualified fire suppression crew that will be available to respond should any wildfires occur within our community
Defensible Space
There are several important changes to our defensible space program this year.
1) We have added a position to our fire prevention division to better meet the demand for this program
2) Pine Needles: There are significant changes in the acceptable use of pine needles within 30’ of your home. There should never be pine needles or wood mulch within 5’ of your home and it is now acceptable to rake your pine needles within 30’ of your home. They should be raked at the start of the fire season and then they can be allowed to accumulate until the next spring (unless they become excessively thick)
3) Tree Removal: Trees up to 14” in diameter (measured 4’6” above the ground) may be cut without a permit. For trees larger than 14” DBH the Fire District may issue a tree removal permit for trees that need to be removed to create defensible space. We strongly encourage you to call the fire district before removing trees of any size so we can help the homeowner evaluate the relative risk of all of their vegetation and trees.
Comprehensive defensible space information is also available at http://www.livingwithfire.info/tahoe/
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