Wildfire Wednesdays #3 - Meet an Ambassador - Assess the Hazard - Upcoming Webinars - This Old House -

Hello,

We are all in this together and it is more important than ever that we we can to encourage those around us (from a distance) to prepare for wildfires. Although things are fluctuating quickly and a lot is unknown, we can be sure that fire season on its way.  

Creative approaches to wildfire preparedness during social distancing are all the rage this year and we’ve got the tools you need to lead the way for your friends and neighbors. With that in mind, please share these resources and feel free to use any part of the newsletter to post or send!

This week in the blog:

  • a profile of Pam Ryan, a community Fireshed Ambassador,

  • Planning tips to prepare your home for wildfire,

  • Upcoming webinars, and

  • “This Old House” episodes where they visit Paradise, California after the Camp fire.

  • Campfire Ban on US Forest Service lands.

From my kitchen table to yours,

Gabe

Pam Ryan - Profile of a Fireshed Ambassador

We’re beginning a series of profiles of people that inspire us in their creativity and determination in their wildfire adaptation work and we hope they inspire you too!

Today we’d like to introduce Pam Ryan, one of our Fireshed ambassadors.

pam.jpg

Pam finds being an ambassador rewarding in the simple ways she can open people’s eyes and get them thinking about fire mitigation, from her roadside chats with shears in hand, or during conversations with friends and acquaintances.

“You want to put the welcome mat out for firefighters not the wildfire, and that welcome mat is the 30 foot perimeter. People respond to that idea and it’s rewarding to be able to open their eyes.”   - Pam

Click below to read more of Pam’s story as a Fireshed Ambassador and how she’s prepared her family and neighborhood for wildfire.

Read Pam's Profile
Flammable Debris under a canale

Flammable Debris under a canale

Pam’s spring wildfire cleaning tip

“We adapt to changes around our homes pretty quickly. With cleaning for fire season you have to get small and zoom in to notice where there could be problems, it’s easy to overlook these areas but they could be a big deal if an ember ignites them.

debris.jpg

For example, under the canales on my house there are rocks to break up the water hitting the ground. These become a trap for needles and leaves that get wedged in the rocks right next to your house. If you have one tree on your property you’ll find similar places around your house. It’s important to take a walk around your home and take notice of where the remnants of Fall have stuck, such as in corners or where stairs meet a portal.” - Pam    

Home Hazard Assessment

The prospect of preparing your home for fire season can seem overwhelming, since planning for any disaster means imaging the worst. So, to get started the best thing to do is to create a plan and then begin with the easiest tasks, and luckily some of the simplest things can make the biggest difference! Check out these 7 things to get you started. (Click the image to make it larger)

To assist in making a plan we’d like to present the Home Hazard Assessment Guide. With this guide and the accompanying worksheet you can assess the areas of your home that could use improvement and then keep track as you work to improve them. This short guide covers all the areas that you might be concerned about that might cause your home to ignite.

Many organizations offer more in-depth assessments of your house although these services may be limited this season, please contact sam@forestguild.org for more information.

We will be offering a webinar about how to prepare your home for wildfire with lots of details and a chance to ask questions. See more information below or Click here to register! 

This Old House - Rebuilding Paradise

What better time to catch up on some television than during social distancing. Pop some popcorn and enjoy these episodes of “This Old House” that show the determination of the community of Paradise, CA to rebuild following the 2018 Paradise wildfire.

Seeing how the people of Paradise work together to rebuild their town is an inspiring example of the power of community connections and may boost your spirits during these unprecedented times. Share these episodes with your friends , family, and neighbors as an inspiring example of how communities can work together in the face of challenging times. 

To view all five episodes of “This Old House” click here.

Upcoming Webinars

Join us virtually!

Alert Santa Fe Webinar

Apr 23, 2020 11:00 AM Mountain Time

Click here to register!

In this 30 minute webinar Porfirio Chavarria of the City of Santa Fe Fire Department will show you how to sign up for Alert Santa Fe, Santa Fe City and County's Smart 911, emergency alert system. He will cover the features of Alert Santa Fe's notification options and explain how emergency managers use the information you provide to better serve you in an emergency. This webinar is hosted by the Greater Santa Fe Fireshed Coalition.

The Home Ignition Zone - What to do to prep your home for fire season

Apr 30, 2020 02:00 PM Mountain Time

Click here to register!

In this 60 minute webinar Sam Berry of the Forest Stewards Guild and Porfirio Chavarria of the City of Santa Fe Fire Department will show you how to prepare your home for fire season. Research has shown that there are simple and easy actions you can take in the areas closest to your home to drastically lessen the chances of it catching fire in a wildfire. Tune in to learn about the Home Ignition Zones and find out what you can do!

Southwest Fire Science Consortium: Fireseason review for 2019 and 2020 outlook

Apr 29, 2020 01:00 PM Mountain Time

Click Here to Register!

The purpose of this webinar is to review 2019 fires and look ahead toward conditions for 2020. Dr. Zander Evans presented an overview of the largest fires in the Southwest during 2019. He will share summaries of forest types and burn severities for each of the fires. In addition, Rich Naden, Fire Weather Meteorologist with the Southwest Coordination Center, will discuss the fire season outlook for 2020 in the Southwest, and Terrance Gallegos and Brent Davidson of the US Forest Service will discuss the impacts of COVID-19 on the upcoming fire season.

Up-Coming Webinars

Evacuations and Construct a Go Kit

First Week of May- date TBD

Ready Set Go -Santa Fe Make a plan for wildfire

Mid- May- date TBD

Forest Service Takes Steps to Reduce Human-Caused Wildfire during Global Pandemic

April 15, 2020 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service, Southwestern Region today enacted a campfire restriction to protect the health and safety of employees and communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. From April 15 through June 30, campfires are prohibited on all five national forests in New Mexico and national grasslands on the Cibola in Oklahoma and Texas. Forest Service officials are taking necessary steps to ensure first responders are available to safely respond to and manage incidents. This campfire restriction will prevent the drawdown of fire and medical resources to human-caused wildfires and reduce firefighter exposure to COVID-19 during the current pandemic. Read more about the bans here and here.

Wildfire Wednesdays #2 - Alerts – Fire Response – Detecting Fires

Hello,

These trying times have shown us the power of our communities and networks to support one another. Our faith in the strength of networks and personal connections to affect change is the basis behind building the Fireshed Ambassador program.

With that in mind part of our intent with this blog is to create content that you can share with your community, neighborhood association, or any neighbor, friend, or relative. Please feel free to use any part of the newsletter to post or send. Just remember to add your own personal message, even if it’s a quick sentence or two, it’s the personal touches that help keep us going through this time of social distance!

Best, Sam

Stay informed – sign up for emergency alerts and wildfire notices.

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Local emergency alerts are a crucial way to stay informed about wildfires and any other emergency notifications. These alerts allow emergency managers to send you timely information such as wildfire evacuation notices by text, landline phone, or email. You must sign up for these services to get the full benefits, so please do so and encourage your friends and neighbors too!

In Santa Fe (city and county), Alert Santa Fe is the way that this information is distributed. Once you sign up for alerts you can choose how they will be sent and which ones you’d like to receive. Also, once you register the information you provide gives critical knowledge to emergency responders such as where the gas shutoff is on your house or medical conditions of family members. Click here to sign up!

For wildfire specific information, NM Fire Info is the best way to receive updates across all jurisdictions in New Mexico. This site is regularly updated with wildfire and prescribed fire information and will send email updates or, you can also follow them on Facebook or Twitter.  

Fire response during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Wildland firefighters prep for new guidelines to protect against virus spread – Santa Fe New Mexican - April 4, 2020, by Amanda Martinez

Wildfires and the Pandemic – What’s Ahead – Western Fire Chiefs Association response to the Pandemic.

Meeting the Challenges of Covid 19 –Letter from the director of the Office of Wildland Fire in the Department Of Interior and outlines their response to Corona Virus.  

The 2020 Fire Year: Managing risk in a pandemic – Letter from the Chief of the Forest Service

Forest Service Coronavirus (Covid-19) Updates – Nationwide guidance on Coroavirus impacts on Forest Service lands and operations

How The Coronavirus Could Hurt Our Ability To Fight Wildfires - Google Podcasts- Interview with Kendra Pierre-Louis, a reporter on the New York Times, many of the concerns raised in this podcast are the ones addressed by the articles above.

We can expect our first responders to do everything they can this year to suppress wildfires, but it’s even more important than normal this year to do what we can to set them up for success. We can assist firefighters by preparing our homes and our families for wildfire and preventing human-caused ignitions.

First responders from every jurisdiction are making plans for how to fight wildfires while keeping firefighters safe this year in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. At the highest level the National Interagency Fire Center has convened three regional Area Command teams to develop plans and direction for fire response, while locally we are already in the beginning of fire season and agencies have made adjustments to their tactics to fight fires.

Listed here are several news articles and resources about how firefighters and agencies are preparing. This is a dynamic issue and we will continue to post relevant articles as they appear.

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Descartes Labs Advances Wildfire Detection across New Mexico

New Mexico’s ability to detect and respond to wildfires across the state will be improved through an innovative tool from Descartes Labs. Descartes Labs has built an automated, early-warning wildfire detector using satellite data that will be put to work in New Mexico during the 2020 wildfire season. The wildfire detector will alert the state’s Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department’s Forestry Division of wildfires in real-time.

At a time when first responders are adapting to a fire season with multiple hazards, this improvement in detection provides a powerful tool to respond to and suppress wildfires before they can spread.

We are excited to have the bright minds from Descartes Labs working toward improving our wildfire resilience across the state and look forward to seeing this new tool in action.

Read more about this breakthrough in New Mexico’s wildfire detection system.

Photo courtesy of Descartes Labs

Photo courtesy of Descartes Labs

Wildfire Wednesdays #1 - Staying Connected

Hello All,

We are excited to introduce our new weekly blog, Wildfire Wednesdays! We will miss seeing all of you at the events we had planned this spring so we’re trying something new to stay as connected as we can.

Even as the Coronavirus pandemic had made it more difficult to gather in person it has also shown how important it is to have a strong community that supports one another. A focus of ours is building Fire Adapted Communities that engage in the things you’d think of like making defensible space, but they also connect us and prepare us for any emergency. This happens by making neighborhood phone trees, signing up for emergency alerts, or simply reaching out to your neighbor and checking that they are adequately prepared for the uncertainty we are currently facing and of that of the upcoming fire season.

So, starting today we will be posting weekly blog posts on Wednesdays including things to do from home to prepare for fire, activities to pass the time, emergency preparedness tips, webinars about the upcoming fire season, and more. Please feel free to reach out to us if we can assist with anything and send resources or ideas you think others would benefit from or enjoy for the newsletter!

Best, Sam  

Sam Berry of the Forest Stewards Guild installing interpretive signs at Big Tesuque Trailhead

Sam Berry of the Forest Stewards Guild installing interpretive signs at Big Tesuque Trailhead

Gabe Kohler of the Forest Stewards Guild

Gabe Kohler of the Forest Stewards Guild

P.S. To pull the curtain away some, the Forest Stewards Guild, a non-profit in Santa Fe, runs the communications for two networks here in New Mexico, The Greater Santa Fe Fireshed Coalition, and Fire Adapted New Mexico Learning Network. For this newsletter series we will be combining forces of these networks. Myself (Sam, sam@forestguild.org ) and my colleague Gabe Kohler (gabe@forestguild.org) are very excited about this series. Please feel free to reach out to us.

Staying Connected

The bright light in the challenges that lie ahead is that there are specific steps that we all can take to make our communities more resilient to wildfire, and most of us have the time at home right now.

Through creative and socially-responsible approaches we can share information with our friends and neighbors about the importance of wildfire preparedness and empower them to take action amidst a global pandemic.

We have compiled a list of resources to encourage and empower you to reach out to those in your community. The good news is that all actions that build community will help build your capacity to respond to or recover from wildfire or any other crisis, bonus points if you accomplish some wildfire mitigation too!

Here are some fun and effective ways for you to strengthen your community while social distancing:

1.       Host a virtual happy hour or coffee meetup for you and your neighbors and schedule one or two special guest that can provide expert opinions on wildfire related topics.

Create a relaxed atmosphere by taking turns with introductions, enjoying a nice beverage, and allowing people to get comfortable with the platform. Here are some suggestions on holding a virtual conversation. Virtual meeting platforms like Zoom or freeconferencecall.com are good options for this type of event.

2.       Set up a neighborhood text tree that lets you send an email via text.

Once your list is created you can rapidly share detailed emergency information in your neighborhood.

3.       Set up a group chat or Facebook group with your neighbors.

Encourage them to post pictures of the Wildfire preparedness work they are doing around their houses. Share these photos on the Fire Adapted New Mexico Learning Network Facebook page to help encourage action through our statewide audience.

4.       If you have other ideas or things you’re already doing to stay connected in you communities please let us know!

Dr. Craig Allen Video “The State and Fate of our Mountain Forests in New Mexico and the West.”

As we adjust to our new reality of stay at home instructions and all the other ways Coronavirus has impacted our everyday lives, the Greater Santa Fe Fireshed Coalition is working to adjust and prepare new content and materials to keep you informed and up-to-date on forest health and wildfire issues here in Santa Fe.

Stay tuned for a series of blog posts and other content, hopefully including webinars, videos and more!

In the meantime, we’re excited to share this video of Dr. Craig Allen who addressed a full house at the New Mexico Land Conservancy last month. Also, remember that with the appropriate social distance it’s a great time to get outdoors!

Video of Craig Allen, PhD, is now available

“The State and Fate of our Mountain Forests in

New Mexico and the West.”

Our first NMLC speaker event on January 28 was a success – a full house – thanks to our speaker that night, place-based ecologist, Dr. Craig Allen who generously dedicated an evening. Click the button below for a link to a video of his slide presentation, including an introduction from NMLC’s Executive Director, Scott Wilber, and ending with an interesting Q&A session.

Click here to see the video!

Greater Santa Fe Fireshed response to Coronavirus

As the coronavirus (COVID-19) situation continues to evolve daily, the Greater Santa Fe Fireshed Coalition is keeping a close eye on the unfolding events. All members of the Coalition share an equal concern for stewardship of public health as with stewardship of our forests.  

The Coalition is seeking opportunities to carry on our work while limiting chances for the spread of the virus. For the time being, we are postponing any events or gatherings planned through mid-May and possibly further. We are exploring opportunities to offer alternative ways to engage with the Coalition, such as webinars and increased online content. As we have a better understanding of this pandemic and its ramifications in our community, we will be in touch about our modified plans and measures to support wildfire preparedness. In the meantime, please take all adequate precautions to protect yourself, loved ones, and the community as this event unfolds.  

Lastly, most of the members of the Coalition are still working remotely, please feel free to reach out if you have any concerns or questions that we can assist with.

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.