My wife and I will be moving off the Hill this summer to live closer to family, so change is in order. At our January meeting, the board elected Chris Kramer as the new president of the Mountain Communities Fire Safe Council, and Norm Walker as the new first vice president. Both Chris and Norm…
Readers of the Town Crier will know there have been letters critical of the new code committee and of the role the Mountain Communities Fire Safe Council had in bringing it about. The letters either state or imply that both groups are up to no good. I think it is fair to say the formation…
Recently, as a board was wrapping up business for the year, I felt a deep appreciation for everyone at the table. They are all volunteers, donating their time and energy to make sure the organization is on the right track. They ensure that policies are consistent with the mission, and that budgets and balance sheets…
A meeting last week of interested parties on the Goldspotted oak borer provides a good moment to take stock of where we are in relation to this destructive pest. The GSOB is an invasive insect brought to San Diego County around 2004 and since then has devastated the oak trees of many San Diego communities….
I have often been struck by the similarities between fire protection — prevention and suppression — and public health. Both fields are tasked with preventing or containing catastrophes — wildfires and epidemics — that can overwhelm the normal protections of daily life. Both deal with an enemy that is a part of the natural world…
Seventy-six is an attractive number, especially in the United States. It brings up the Declaration of Independence (1776), or perhaps the 76 trombones Professor Harold Hill wanted the town folk to imagine in “The Music Man.” But for us at the Fire Safe Council, 76 refers to the current number of houses that have been…
A fairly new term in wildfire policy is “Fire Adapted Communities.” Important fire organizations have placed a new emphasis on this concept over the last few years and I think it leads us all in the right direction regarding the challenge of wildfire. To begin with, by referring to adaptation, the term leads us to…