Wildfire Preparedness Day 2019 Wrap Up

Thanks to everyone who helped make another successful Wildfire Preparedness Week!

Era of Mega Fires Film

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We kicked off with a screening of the Era of Megafires film at the Jean Cocteau Cinema with ~80 attendees. The screening was followed by a lively panel discussion that covered topics ranging from what makes a community fire adapted to tree planting efforts in the Las Canchas burn scar.

Wildfire and Businesses

On Tuesday there was a discussion of the impacts of wildfire on businesses. This was part of the Wildfire Mitigation Clearinghouse’s ongoing effort to build a network of businesses that are committed to helping citizens of Santa Fe realize and act to reduce their wildfire risk.  For more information visit: https://arthurblackchimney.com/wildfire-mitigation-clearinghouse/

Canyon Road Presentation

On Friday, the City of Santa Fe Fire Department presented to the Canyon Road Association about the hard truths of evacuation. They covered wildfire evacuation scenarios and what it would look like if you chose to shelter in place or were trapped in your home.

Wildfire Preparedness Day, Saturday May 4th

Wildfire Preparedness Day Open House

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Over 30 attendees learned how to prepare for a possible evacuation, including what to put into an evacuation kit, from the City of Santa Fe Department of Emergency Management and the Villages of Santa Fe. Three complete evacuation kits were built and given away as door prizes by the Villages of Santa Fe, this was made possible due to a grant from NFPA and State Farm.

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Simtable and the Santa Fe Fire Department demonstrated their advanced technology that projects a modeled fire onto a sand table. They showed how a fire would potentially behave in Santa Fe.

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The Forest Stewards Guild held a tour of how to make your home more resistant to igniting in a wildfire.

 

Huge thanks to the Villages of Santa Fe and their volunteers for their assistance in this event!

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Eldorado Chipper Day

In Eldorado there was a very successful community chipper day that reduced hazardous fuels from along roadways and evacuation routes and chipped up fuels that were cut down by residents. Events like this embody the community action that is so crucial to reducing wildfire risk to residents.

Another community showed off their plans to put in a garden of fire-resistant plants and what forests that have been treated for defensible space can look like.

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Pacheco Canyon Prescribed Fire

The week ended with the Santa Fe National Forest completing a 500-acre prescribed fire in Pacheco Canyon on Sunday. This is just another piece of the puzzle that members of the coalition are fitting together to make communities more adapted to wildfire. The National Park Service, the Pueblo of Tesuque, the Santa Fe County Fire Department, the Santa Fe City Fire Department, and the Forest Stewards Guild were all crucial in completing this prescribed burn.

The Greater Santa Fe Fireshed Coalition is very excited about all of the responsibility that people are taking on to get these events going and to help their communities to prepare for wildfire.

The work to prepare your community, home, and family shouldn’t stop now!

 If you’d like to organize an event in your community, consider joining our Fireshed ambassador program. Contact either Sam Berry at sam@forestguild.org of Porfirio Chavarria at pnchavarria@santafenm.gov

Sam Berry

The GSFFC is a coalition of public and private organizations. The GSFFC is not a subdivision of the State of New Mexico, as defined in the state’s Open Meetings Act, §§ 10-15-1 to 10-15-4 NMSA 1978. Although federal agencies participate in the GSFFC, the Coalition is not a federal advisory board and was not created by a federal agency, as defined by the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), 5.U.S.C. app. 2, §§ 1 to 16 (2012). The GSFFC operates informally to support its partners, and is not incorporated as a non-profit, 501(C)(3), partnership, or other legal status.