Tom McMackin
High Prairie earned its approval as a 2017 nationally recognized Firewise Community. One requirement, for a minimum investment by the community, was met by receiving dollar-value credit for High Prairie residents’ participation in fire mitigation activities. These included active involvement in Firewise presentations; work on a project to improve signage for first responders on Oda Knight Road; participation in a Klickitat County chipping event; and participation in the Washington State Assistance to Land Owners fuels reduction efforts. Thank you!
Now That The Smoke Has Cleared… Last fall’s Eagle Creek Fire began 2 September and was declared ‘contained’ on 30 November at 48,861 acres, but it continues to burn in some remote areas. The cost to date for fighting the fire is $25+ million. The economic costs to communities and for any recovery efforts will add tens of millions of dollars over a decade or more.
Recent research has identified High Prairie as an area that, in Nature’s cycle of renovation by fire, should have a significant fire event every 35 year on average. No one I’ve talked to can remember the last time we had an area-wide wildland fire. There has been, however, considerable growth in the number of full and part-time High Prairians.
Our own ‘Eagle Creek’ event is not a matter of ‘If ?’, but ‘When ?’ and ‘How Bad ?’. The last question is an aspect of our wildfire experience that we can prepare for to help reduce the financial and emotional impacts on our boundary of humans living in open, forested, wild landscapes.
What can you do to make your home and property defensible and ready for when ‘our’ fire event comes to High Prairie? Get started by incorporating the Firewise 5’/30’/100’ protection zones concept into your yard work plans for Spring.
Begin with the 5 foot zone, the most important buffer ~ Look up and around your house/barn/shop/sheds for debris that needs clearing from the roof or next to the structure so embers or flames in the grass can’t find an entry point. Make these tasks priorities for your basic fire-defensible space. These are tasks you can complete in the near term.
Start thinking about the 30 foot zone ~ Consider this area out from your properties in your extended Spring/Summer yard maintenance plan, remembering that fire in the grass passing to a low hanging bush or branches of a tree could be a ladder for the fire to attack your home.
Create a longer term plan for the 100 foot zone ~ Make a plan for the changes over the next year or so that will increase the buffer area, your wildfire ‘life raft’ that will slow the fire and help first responders guide a fire around your property safely.
Resources are available within the High Prairie Firewise Community and online to assist you with developing a protection plan:
Contact me, Tom McMackin, if you’d like more information on the ‘Firewise’ and ‘Ready, Set, Go!’ programs, if you have comments or suggestions, or if you would like to be more involved with the High Prairie Firewise effort. I can answer questions and get you connected with the resources we have available as a recognized Firewise Community. Contact me by email at firewise.onhighprairie@gmail.com or by phone message by calling 509-365-2786.
Online resources:
Firewise – http://www.firewise.org or http://www.firewise.org/wildfire-preparedness/be-firewise/home-and-landscape.aspx
Ready, Set, Go! – http://www.wildlandfirersg.org or http://www.wildlandfirersg.org/Resident