Deer Valley Estates has earned Firewise Communities/USA® recognition

SOUTHWEST COLORADO COMMUNITY EARNS
NATIONAL RECOGNITION FOR WILDFIRE PREPAREDNESS

Durango, CO — Because of its efforts to reduce the vulnerability of homes and landscapes to wildfire, Deer Valley Estates has earned Firewise Communities/USA® recognition from the National Firewise Communities Program.

“This recognition by the National Firewise Communities Program provides a great feeling of accomplishment for our many dedicated residents that worked so hard in 2009/10. We look forward to a continued relationship with our local agency partners as we continue with our mitigation efforts,” said Les Kole, Neighborhood Firewise Ambassador for Deer Valley. Deer Valley is located five miles east of Bayfield on the south side of Hwy. 160.

Deer Valley Estates worked with the Colorado State Forest Service, USFS/BLM, and Upper Pine Fire Protection District to develop a Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) that addresses the subdivision’s wildfire risk and what could be done to mitigate that risk. The plan was completed in 2009 and residents are currently working on implementing the prioritized list of actions in the CWPP.

“Here in southwest Colorado, fire is an important and natural phenomenon in many of our ecosystems, especially the ponderosa pine. To think that fire is just going to go away is naïve, so it only makes sense to expect and prepare for it.  Wildfire should be taken into account as new communities are designed and built, but it is also important that established subdivisions ‘retrofit’ for wildfire,” said Kent Grant, Colorado State Forest Service District Forester. And the Deer Valley CWPP does just that.

Deer Valley Estates is the first community in southwest Colorado to be recognized as Firewise Communities/USA, joining more than 600 other communities nationwide that have been recognized since the program’s inception in 2002.

“What Deer Valley has done in recognizing the inherent dangers and being proactive in addressing their situation is commendable and we intend to use their well-written plan along with their on-the-ground actions as an example for the many communities within our fire district,” said Rich Graeber, fire chief for the Upper Pine River Fire Protection District.

To receive Firewise Communities/USA recognition, Deer Valley Estates met a rigorous set of requirements. Some of the projects the community has undertaken include:

• Shared mitigation and safety information with residents.
• Installed reflective address signing for every lot in the 84-lot subdivision.
• Removed flammable vegetation from around their homes and other neighborhood structures.
• Added two 10,000 gallon underground water storage tanks that could be accessed by firefighters during a wildfire.
• Encouraged the local Forest Service office to treat the public lands which border the subdivision on three sides.
• Received a grant from Colorado State Forest Service that allowed them to reduce fuels along four miles of road ROW within the subdivision.

“Achieving Firewise recognition is not a quick or easy process. Deer Valley Estates has done an outstanding job of creating a local Firewise Task Force and implementing Firewise principles,” said Michele Steinberg, support manager of the Firewise Communities program. “By preparing homes, structures, and landscapes before a wildfire occurs, Deer Valley Estates has dramatically increased the chance that homes and structures will be protected when a wildfire occurs.” 

Working through the National Association of State Foresters (NASF), state forestry agencies support the Firewise Communities/USA recognition effort. The program is a nationwide initiative that recognizes communities for taking action to protect people and properties from the risk of fire in the wildland-urban interface. This program is of special interest to small communities and neighborhood associations that are willing to mitigate against wildfire by adopting and implementing programs tailored to their needs. The communities create the programs themselves with cooperative assistance from state forestry agencies, local fire staff, and often a local Firewise or FireSafe organization.

Communities interested in earning recognition may visit www.firewise.org/usa for more information.

Firewise Communities/USA^® Recognition Program is part of the National Fire Protection Association, 1 Batterymarch Park, Quincy, MA 02169. For more information visit www.firewise.org.

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Posted by normvance on Jan 18 2011. Filed under Letters & Press Releases. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.