Advocacy & Action
FIREWISE FESTIVAL RAISES THOUSANDS $$
FOR FIREWISE COMMUNITIES IN 2024
Thank you to the Firewise Festival Committee for creating a successful fundraising event which benefited all the Firewise Communities attending and working the event. The core Committee members were Steve Eubanks, Pete Williams, Warren Knox, Jim Mathias, Mo Graber, Kristen Cook, and Paul Tebbel.
River Valley Bank and Bob Long also get a huge shout-out for their service in handling the financials which were kept separate from those of the event sponsor, Fire Safe Council. The hard work of those named above and many other volunteers raised a significant sum of money to help us protect our homes. We are happy that we could support them in their efforts.
Checks ranging from $1,000 to $2,500 were awarded to 17 Firewise Communities in a random drawing, and checks for $325 were written to 28 other FWCs whose members attended or worked the event, enabling these neighborhoods to fund projects specific to their needs. Thank you again to everyone who helped make this happen.
Steering Committee, Nevada County Coalition of Firewise Communities
Keeping our promise of financial transparency, here are the:
GREENHORN FWC INSTALLS FOUR WATER TANKS FOR FIRE SUPPRESSION - 2022
The Greenhorn Firewise Community purchased and installed water tanks with 40,000 total gallons of water storage on the Greenhorn Road corridor for the sole purpose of fire suppression. The tanks are strategically located two and four miles from the intersection with Brunswick Road. Approximately 780 households will benefit from this increased dedicated water supply by reducing turnaround times for fire resources, thus greatly increasing the ability of the fire agencies to suppress fires early in their progression.
Read this 13-page report, "Greenhorn Water Tanks Lessons Learned" for a detailed step-by-step explanation of how other Firewise Communities could follow this example. Greenhorn FWC Water Tank Committee chair Dianne Marshall gets a special shout-out for her diligence in spearheading this project and writing up the excellent documentation.
DEER CREEK SOUTHSIDE FWC CLEANUP MAKES HEADLINES - June 2022
Congrats to the volunteers who hauled about 70 cubic yards of garbage out of the Deer Creek watershed in early June 2022. Special shout-out to Lorraine Gervais, her husband Charlie Faber, and the agencies that came together to support this community action. Read the article and see the graphic photos here.
HOMEOWNERS INSTALL WATER TANK STORAGE FOR THEIR NEIGHBORHOOD - April 2022
Lauren Drutz and her husband, private homeowners in the 6B & Friends Firewise Community, spent their own money to install a pair of underground water storage tanks which provide 5,000 gallons of water to help protect their home and their entire community. Check out the specs and costs, with color photos, in this 6-slide PDF.
CALTRANS HIGHWAY ROADSIDE CLEARING - January 2021
The squeaky wheel gets the grease. As Public Input to a draft State Route 49 Safety Assessment Report, Coalition vice chair Susan Rogers wrote and sent this letter (after receiving Coalition membership approval) to Caltrans on Dec. 4, 2020, calling for an updated vision of highway safety to include evacuation safety, and asking for aggressive roadside fuel reduction across all state highways in Nevada County.
We received this Jan. 15, 2021 response from them. It sounds like they heard us and they are moving in the right direction. But as we know, it's a big bureaucracy and they have a lot on their plate. So, the more people who let them know that "speed is of the essence," the greater chance that they will apply staff and financial resources in a more timely manner. You can make your voice heard by writing to our local District 3 Director for Caltrans: Amarjeet S. Benipal, District 3 Director, Caltrans, 703 B Street, Marysville, CA 95901.
Written letters have the most impact because they demonstrate the writer's commitment to the issue. But if email is what you can do:
Email: d3pio@dot.ca.gov and ask that your email be forwarded to the Public Information Officer. Please also copy your letter to the head of Caltrans statewide (as of Aug. 2024 per the Caltrans website): Tony Tavares, Director, Caltrans, P.O. Box 942873, Sacramento, CA.
Thank you to Susan, and thanks everyone else who will also send their letters to support this effort.
Background information specific to the SR 49 Safety Assessment Report:
Here is Caltrans' article on the project: https://dot.ca.gov/caltrans-near-me/district-3/d3-projects/d3-sr-49-safety-assessment.
Here is the entire Draft Safety Assessment Report: https://dot.ca.gov/-/media/
Firewise Community Leader Gets BLM to Create a Permit Process
There is now a permit process to help landowners pursue clearing on adjacent land owned by the Bureau of Land Management (a federal agency). Thanks to the advocacy of Bob Long, chair of the Sherwood Forest Firewise Community, BLM (which has a large piece of land on the back side of numerous Sherwood Forest homeowners' properties) created this Defensible Space Permit Application which you can download here. Their phone number is not on the application; it's (916) 941-3101. Note that the BLM Mother Lode Field Office covers all BLM land in Nevada County.
Should BLM should do this work themselves? Sure, but they are greatly understaffed and underfunded. Contact your local Congressperson to ask for increased federal funding of BLM for fire safety.