Sherwood Firewise Communities holds first meeting of the year
Sherwood Firewise Communities (SFC) held its first monthly meeting of the year on Jan. 9, with a full agenda. Doreen Blumenfeld kicked off the meeting with introductions which were followed by a report from 3rd district supervisor, John Haschak.
Haschak congratulated SFC on getting their CAL FIRE and Mendocino Community Foundation grant applications in. He then talked about County Service Area 3 (CSA3), which would serve a funding mechanism for evacuation route maintenance. After a couple of meetings, the county council decided they would come back in February with a proposal to the board of how to make CSA3 a reality. He discussed having CAL FIRE do more work, specifically creating more fuel breaks, in the Sherwood/Brooktrails area.
Haschak went on to explain that the county was looking for an entity to be to lead agency on the CAL
FIRE grant, as Sherwood Road is under varied jurisdiction. The Planning and Funding Committee of SFC stepped up and completed the extensive application. Haschak then spoke of another grant the county applied for in the amount of $280,000 which would enable them to perform a feasibility study for all the one way in and out communities in the county and try to figure out what is needed to be done to make the communities safe. They have hired an individual out of Oxnard who will complete that work over the next two years.
Vice-President of Brooktrails Township Board of Directors, Tony Orth spoke as a representative of all the fire districts in Mendocino County. Orth spoke of Measure D, the transient occupancy tax and Measure E, which would distribute the revenue from Measure D to the fire districts of Mendocino County. Orth encouraged citizens to vote in favor of these measures on the March ballot. The second thing Orth reported on was the Fire Vulnerability Assessment and Emergency Evacuation Plan which he said is moving forward and a consultant has been hired. He stated that the Fire District Association and the Fire Chief Association negotiating team would be meeting with the supervisors to request hiring a Mendocino Fire Marshall, a position that has not been held in the county for 20 years, which they believe should be a cost of having legal marijuana in the county. He also said they would be discussing the reduction of Prop 172 funding and AB85 inspections. The last thing Orth discussed was funding for advanced life support ambulance services.
The next agenda item was Working Teams, and the first discussed was Planning and Funding. Brian Ferr-Taylor said that SFC had won a $75,000 award from Mendocino County Fire Safe Council and California Fire Safe Council for roadside fuel reduction. He stated, “This is our big project, it’s a two-year program. If we are going to be traveling these roads it needs to be safe, we need to get some of that fuel backed off. So, we are going to have neighborhood groups organizing to see what needs to be done, working together. We are going to have a chipper come by and get stuff out of here. This is where the real core of Sherwood Firewise is, the neighbors connecting with neighbors. Talking to your neighbors and getting groups together to get some of this work done.”
Ferr-Taylor discussed several pending grant applications as well as $18,000 in pro-bono legal work the group recently received. The upcoming May 2 Firewise Expo was discussed, and when the group looked at the planning chart from last year and it was discovered that nearly all the goals listed were met.
Next, under the Working Groups category was Communications discussed by Keith Rutledge. Rutledge began with Safety Net and stated a need for volunteers to listen to the scanner. Residents were encouraged to report any fire maintenance they do at their properties to info@ sherwoodfirewise.org as it will help secure with future funding.
In the final Working Group, Emergency Preparation, Brian Weller said SFC officially had National Firewise USA recognition, which is something that needs to be reapplied for annually. Weller talked further about chipper days and roadside clearing that will be done with the awarded grant monies.
A minimum of 75 and up to 150 homes and lots will be selected to take advantage of the chipper days. Additionally, two to three miles of roadside will be cleared for fuel reduction.
Neighborhood groups and coordinators are currently being formed for increased efficiency of fuel reduction. The next steps will be mapping and evaluation and scheduling of the chipper.
Rutledge further explained the process, “What we are going to do is get volunteers to go onto people’s property, take the material off the property. We are talking limbing trees up, taking brush out, we’re not talking falling big trees or doing anything big, we’re doing small work. And then get that material to the curb and have it stacked properly so that the chipper can then come along in an efficient fashion and just chip.”
A key step to chipper days happening are landowner access agreements that must be signed before work can begin. The access agreement was passed around, as well as a chipper guidelines sheet and release of liability for volunteers. SFC has contact information for vacant lot owners, which can be contacted if residents have concerns about fire fuel on vacant lots adjacent to their homes. Brooktrails has 4,500 vacant lots and 1,500 lots with homes, so this is potentially an issue.
In closing, the possibility of having one Saturday meeting per quarter was discussed to increase attendance by residents unable to attend weeknight meetings. For more information, email info@sherwoodfirewise.org for more information.