Message to RiverCamps Owners / Residents – Fire Safety
First – Thank you to our Firewise committee: John and Kim Ackerman, Lisa and Rudy Arietta, and Randy Merritt for their research and work to make us a Firewise community and to develop and administer our fire prevention and protection program. The Firewise committee works actively with the US Forest Service and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) to communicate and manage our wildfire risk.
The prescribed burn a few weeks ago on HW 388 a few miles east of RiverCamps got many peoples’ attention. If you drove by that fire when it was raging a few hundred yards from the road, you felt the heat that immediately came through the vehicle window even at that distance. It’s scary to think how fast that much heat would incinerate a wooded area with lots of vegetation fuel. We were lucky the fire was a few miles away and the wind was mostly from the north on the days of that controlled.
The prescribed burn a few weeks ago on HW 388 a few miles east of RiverCamps got many peoples’ attention. If you drove by that fire when it was raging a few hundred yards from the road, you felt the heat that immediately came through the vehicle window even at that distance. It’s scary to think how fast that much heat would incinerate a wooded area with lots of vegetation fuel. We were lucky the fire was a few miles away and the wind was mostly from the north on the days of that controlled.
Wildfire risk is a very real threat for Rivercamps. The risk is directly proportional to the amount of available fuel in the fire’s path. Fuel is not just dry or dead vegetation – it’s also live, green vegetation. Most everyone is familiar with our annual bush hogging (mowing) of grasses and low brush growth in our relatively open and accessible tall pines areas. Bush hogging is not just a cosmetic step to make the open woods areas look more tidy. The main reason for bush hogging is to reduce wildfire fuel. But bush hogging alone doesn't address all or even the majority of the most potentially dangerous fuels [threats] in our community. Since Rivercamps was developed in 2005 -2006, the borders of our roads and trails, wetlands, and green spaces have grown unmanaged to 10 – 20 feet height. These tall, thick undergrowth areas represent a tremendous amount of potential wildfire fuel.
Our Firewise committee in consultation with the Forest Service recommends that we implement a program of strategic clearing to reduce wildfire fuel and to preserve our escape routes in the event of a wildfire. Preservation Drive is our main escape route. Protecting that escape route is why we started trial clearing recently on the east side of Preservation near the main gate and on the north side of Preservation across from Morning Marsh. The objective of clearing is to reduce vegetation, provide a fire break, and increase the distance from the road to the fire for safe escape. Vegetation is mechanically chopped and pulverized, and the organic debris left to decompose and eventually become natural fertilizer for the tall pines and low ground cover that can be bush hogged each year.
The Forest Service makes grant funding available to help with fire safety programs in communities like Rivercamps. Our Firewise committee is in touch with the Forest Service to get us set up for grant funding for our annual fire safety program.
There is a large clearing workload to catch us up in fire risk management, then there will be a continuing annual scope of work for both bush hogging and clearing to maintain a reasonable fire safety condition for our community. Over the next few months, we’ll be reviewing our landscape maintenance contract scope and breaking out some of the heavier activities like trails maintenance to be combined in an annual contract for bush hogging, clearing, and trails and drainage ditches maintenance.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
Thank you for your understanding and support.
John and Kim Ackerman
Lisa and Rudy Arietta
Randy Merritt
Herman Zacherl
Randy Plank