Fire and Forest

The Fire Safe Council began the year with its attention on the new insect threat to the Hill’s oaks, the Goldspotted oak borer. Many of our volunteers and staff attended a training program in January at the Nature Center led by experts from the Forest Service and University of California, Riverside. From that training came…

Now that the nights are cold and we wonder if the next storm will bring rain or snow, the threat of wildfire is greatly reduced. But though the threat of forest fire is diminished, the threat to an individual home has grown. More homes catch fire in winter than in any other season, and of…

Roof replacement going well … News about the Mountain Community’s Fire Safe Council’s reroofing program has appeared in this column before, but now that it is in full swing I think it’s worth going over in more detail. What with the Affordable Care Act web site working so poorly, I thought it a good time…

Wildfire is getting some prominent and fresh attention in major newspapers. Both the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times have published thoughtful articles this summer examining the larger issues involved. (They are catching up to this newspaper, which has had great reporting on fire for as long as I can remember.) It seems…

If anything good comes out of the two major fires on the Hill this summer, I hope it’s a renewed interest and commitment in making our communities fire safe. The Mountain and the Silver fires should serve as reminders of our vulnerability. So I hope we again ask the question, “What can we do to…

We are all glad that our town was unharmed by the Mountain Fire, but I don’t want to celebrate too much. I don’t want us to draw the wrong lesson, which is that fire agencies will always have the personnel and equipment to save us. After all, can’t they just keep pulling in more and…

Southern California jumped into the fire season with a large fire in the Angeles National Forest in early June. The Powerhouse Fire burned more than 30,000 acres in dense, mature chaparral just north of Santa Clarita. Fire Safe Council Board Member Norm Walker, an incident commander on the fire, told the council that the wind,…

The Mountain Communities Fire Safe Council received the 2013 Greenwood Award for outstanding contributions to our regional environment. Karen and Richard Greenwood presented the award to us at the Idyllwild Earth Fair on May 23. We are very grateful for this recognition. In line with the spirit of the award, we continue to cope with…

Quick, who knows what PRC 4291 is? Here’s a hint — homeowners are supposed to be in compliance with it everywhere in California where there is a threat of wildfire. Okay, I know the old-timers up here got it, but in case you are new to these altitudes, this is the statewide code for fire…