Defensible Space
The Fire District along with its many partners has continued promoting fuel reduction by visiting with landowners and dispersing grant funds to those landowners that completed projects on their land. The primary goal here was to make the home defendable and less dependant on firefighting resources if and when a fire should spread towards their homes. With hundreds of homes threatened during fires it is simply impossible to place a fire engine at each residence to protect them and in some cases, the fuels were too heavy to safely place equipment and personnel in those situations.
This fuel reduction work will not keep a fire from starting but in most cases will change the dynamics of how a fire burns in an area by keeping the fire burning on the ground, which is a fire of lesser intensity than a fire that burns through the tree tops and produces high intensities and longer range spotting that continues to spread the fire and keeps the fire from being suppressed with routine tactics.
Cady Road – After Cady Road - During
In administering these programs, landowners were given rebates or charged a percentage per acre for acres that were included in the agreement. The agreement was made between the landowner and the fire official that wrote the agreement. The landowner has the fire district complete the work using a licensed contractor, hires a contractor to complete the work or completes the work themselves.
2005/2006 Defensible Space Grants
The Fire District has continued to be successful at obtaining federal grants for continued defensible space work. Preference will go to people who have not received any previous grants and need either defensible space or driveway fuel reduction work. As we did at the end of last year, we will be targeting those properties that we know need defensible space. In past years there has limited funds available for areas of the Fire District that are outside of the Applegate Watershed. We should have adequate funding for the next couple of years for those areas outside the Applegate Watershed.
Larger Scale Fuel
Reduction Projects
The national emphasis for funding fuel reduction projects is for communities to become more focused or strategic in the manner in which we spend these federal dollars. More specifically, the bulk of the funding will be going to completing fuel reduction work on private land that is adjacent to federally managed land that has either been treated or is due to be treated. With that in mind the following projects have been developed to work on specific areas that were also identified in the Applegate Fire Plan:
Cady-Jack
This project is centered around five isolated parcels of BLM
ground which is located between
Cady Jack – After Cady Jack - Before
Ferris Gulch
This project was thinned and piled in spring of 2005 and is scheduled to be burned this fall. We have treated 76 acres of private property in Ferris Gulch to date. Approximately 55 acres remain that need to be burned.
This project had a combination of mechanical work and hand work done in the spring of 2005. Approximately 27 acres were treated with 3 acres left to burn this fall.
Mechanical Treatment on Kubli Road.
Upper
This project on Upper Applegate Rd begins near Little Applegate Road and runs south to the Lake and takes in French Gulch Road. This is a joint strategic project between ourselves, the US Forest Service and the BLM. The Fire District had limited funding to get started in one specific area near McKee last winter, but the bulk of the funding has been authorized through the National Fire Plan. We had several meetings with neighbors in different areas over the last year. We are starting to make contact with property owners in this area, so we can schedule appointments. Work can be started as soon as the fire danger decreases and permits thinning and burning. If you are one of those that we have already met with, you will be receiving letters in the next month or two. Do not hesitate to contact us and find out where you are on our list.
If you are interested in fuel reduction, give us a call at 899-1050 and we will have someone set up an appointment with you and go from there.