In my experience on wildfires, it's not
the raging wall of fire that hits you.
It's the embers.
Yellowstone Ecosystem is a fire-adapted ecosystem.
If you do not have community
support, the system usually doesn't work.
[Music]
In the steep terrain and dry summer
weather of western Wyoming, wildfires are
an annual occurrence.
It is not a
question of if a wildfire will occur, but
when.
Each year, many structures are lost
to wildfires.
Some of those structures
are homes.
It's the spot fires.
It's just
like I said before it's one little
ember they can take that, I've been on
fires where we're getting full-sized
pine cones falling two miles out and
they were on fire starting spot fires.
And we were nowhere near the head of the fire.
We were just doing structure
protection.
The amount of wildland urban
interface is increasing which can create
problems for local firefighters.
When I'm
talking about wildland urban interface,
we are basically talking about those
areas that are prone to wildfires where
there's structures and other values at
risk such as communication sites, power
lines etc. and the western US is booming
as far as population goes, every
community across the West seems to be
experiencing more and more population
growth and as such we're getting more
and more homes and values that we need
to protect in the wildland urban
interface areas.
Let's see if 2.3 billion
acres in the US and 1 billion of them
are what we within what we call the
wildland urban interface and that's
where there could be fires.
So if we got
a third of our people roughly in the
wildland urban interface where there are
going to be fires.
Because fires are a natural
part of the system, we got to learn how
to live with fire.
We're in drier conditions and heavy fuel
loads, we're gonna have more and larger fires.
How can communities work together
to prepare for wildfire?
A fire adapted
community is one in which people an
infrastructure can withstand a wildfire
without loss of life and property.
Fire adapted communities are more than just
defensible space, they are communities
that are resilient to fires occurring in
their area.
They're prone to fires and
they're ready for fires when they come
along.
They're ready for the smoke,
they've treated their fuels,
they have an exit strategy in case they
need to evacuate.
Being a fire adapted
community means that everyone in the
community,
homeowners, firefighters, land managers,
and civic leaders is doing their part to
prepare for the next wildfire.
The more
actions a community takes the more fire
adapted it becomes.
Star Valley Ranch is
a Firewise USA site in Lincoln County,
Wyoming.
Let's look at some of the steps
they took to become recognized.
The town
of star Valley Ranch was the first
incorporated town in the state of
Wyoming to receive Firewise community
status.
One of the steps that we did in
becoming a Firewise community is doing a
Firewise assessment.
During the
assessment, we looked at how we could
work with landowners to reduce fuels,
dead and downed fuels, to increase
defense of space around structures, to
work with our road system and improve
turnaround and access and with our water
system.
Homeowners can create defensible
space around their properties and make
small changes to prepare for wildfire.
Keep your roof and gutters clear of
debris and choose a non-flammable roof
and decking materials such as metal or
fiberglass.
Place a non-flammable screen
no larger than a 1/8 inch mesh over
cable vents and soffits and under
foundation vents.
Reduce fuels in your
yard by removing dead trees and brush,
pruning branches near the house, mowing
and weeding.
Visit WWW.Firewise.org to see
lists of native fire resilient plants
for your zone.
Have outdoor water
resources readily available.
Locate
firewood and debris at least 30 feet
uphill from the house.
Have a wide
driveway with an easy turnaround for
fire equipment.
Preparing in advance and
maintaining your defensible space can
make a big difference when wildfire is
near your home.
People and fire are
compatible
if actions are taken to be aware of and
prepared for local fire conditions.
We've got some great success stories locally here
working with the homeowners to to do
these treatments on their, in their
communities and on their private lands
and we're really proud of the
collaboration with the Teton Area
wildfire protection coalition to do that.
Three homes that had done fire wise the
fire came through, completely scorched
the earth around the areas in there
those three owners had done their
homework had done their Firewise program.
Fire wise works because it saved their homes.
As you can see fire wise practices
really do help protect our homes and
communities.
But it can be hard to make
the recommended changes.
What are some of
the hurdles to becoming a fire adaptive community?
from the standpoint of how do
you talk someone into doing this work if
there isn't a wildfire racing down the
hill at them that's a difficult thing to do.
Through the help of communities, we
can encourage our politicians to support
and enforce codes to back up FAC and
build safety into our neighborhoods for
firefighters many of whom are
volunteering to protect their homes.
We have a mixed bag of those communities
that have taken the necessary steps to
be fire-adapted.
Some of the challenges to increase the
number of communities that are
practicing some degree of fire
adaptiveness or to creating defensible
space is just getting folks to
understand the value.
What it really
provides them.
There's a lot of miss
communications where people think that
it's maybe a federal agency's job or a
state agency's job to protect their
property but when it comes down to it,
it's their own responsibility to protect
their property.
Teton interagency fire
managers are working with other federal
and state agencies, tribes, non-government
organizations and homeowners to help
people understand what it means to live
in a fire prone area.
As a community, we
can realize the benefits of managing
fire, protecting lives, our resources, and
our homes.
It's really important to deliver
the message for homeowners to be
prepared in the event of wildland fires.
To be prepared in the event of any
disaster.
But for wildland fires it's
important for us to to share the
message of being ready being set and
being prepared to go.
So what that means
is that homeowners and local entities
are ready with wild fire preparedness.
We're set with the situational awareness
for the threats and the potential
problems with wildland fire.
And we're
ready to go and really execute our, our
exit plan in the case and in the event
of an evacuation.
So ready set go it's
really important for homeowners to
prepare on that and it kind of follows
the level one, two, and three evacuation
preparedness that the local the local
responders follow.
The fire adapted
communities program aims to help prepare
for the threat of wildfire at every
level.
As we've seen in Star Valley Ranch,
free assessments are a great place to
start.
Some good resources to to learn
about fire adaptive community especially
in Fremont County, we have Fremont County
Fire Wise, they have a website you can go
to they have a director that runs that
locally out of Riverton and you know
they're always available to help you out.
It's just one phone call away or one
click on your mouse away to get in or to
learn what you need to learn.
Fortunately, a large percentage of wildland urban
interface is still unbuilt and there are
opportunities for success.
We have the
opportunity to move forward and not
repeat past mistakes in developing fire
prone areas.
With enough local interest
and desire, our communities have the
means available to move towards building
and adapting fire safe neighborhoods.
Many assets to shape fire adapted
communities may already exist within
your neighborhood.
Maybe you are that
asset.
Everyone has a role to play in
developing and supporting fire adapted
communities at the local level.
Reach out
to your local fire department, federal
fire manager, or local Conservation
District to learn more about the
activities already in place to support
you, your neighborhood, and your community
before the next unwanted wildfire.
Fire adapted communities are one
component of the cohesive strategy.
But to be effective we need all three.
Resilient landscapes help lower the risk
to our fire adapted communities and
allow safe and effective wildfire
response to take place
managing fires effectively with
firefighter safety as the first priority.
[Music]