Tahoe Resource Conservation District, the University of Nevada Reno Extension, fire districts, and land management agencies at Lake Tahoe are embarking on a six-month-long Lake Tahoe Wildfire Awareness Campaign. This year s campaign will run from May through October with the theme: Is your home ignition resistant? The campaign encourages residents to get prepared for wildfires throughout the year by creating defensible space, addressing home ember vulnerabilities, and working together with neighborhood leaders and the community. Information and resources on how to prepare for wildfires will be continuously shared via their social media, Tahoe Living With Fire website, and monthly newsletter.
2019 defensible space community workday in the Golden Bear neighborhood, South Lake Tahoe
By residing in the Wildland Urban Interface (the zone where natural environments intersect human development), we take on the extra responsibility of living with wildfire.
However, living with wildfire at Lake Tahoe isn t just an individual journeyâit s a team effort between ourselves, our neighbors, and federal, state, and local agencies. It is a partnership, and we all play a role.
Saturday, May 1 is Wildfire Community Preparedness Day, a national campaign that encourages people and organizations everywhere to come together on a single day to take action to raise awareness and reduce wildfire risks.
As the flowers start blooming and days get warmer, it means fire danger increases. Living alongside the wilderness in a region where fire is part of the landscape, spring is an important time for residents to get prepared for wildfire.
Each spring, re-evaluating defensible space and home hardening techniques is part of life in the basin. While it’s important to focus on the vegetation around the home, it’s also key to reduce the risk from the infrastructure as both play important roles in protecting property.
Several fire scientists and agencies from both California and Nevada collaborated to produce a step-by-step 20-page guide for homeowners to retrofit their homes to be more suited, resilient and less vulnerable to ignition from wildfire. It’s called the Wildfire Home Retrofit Guide which was funded primarily by Cal Fire.
Tahoe Network of Fire Adapted Communities
As spring and summer approach, so does the threat of wildfire. You can get ahead of the curve by planning projects that harden your home against embers and increase the chance of it surviving during a wildfire.
Home hardening is the process of preparing your home for wildfire embers by addressing its most vulnerable components and retrofitting them with fire-resistant building materials.
How you prioritize home hardening projects may depend on your time and personal budget. Even if you can t do everything, anything you do to harden your home can increase its odds.
Annual Maintenance
A team of California and Nevada fire scientists have produced a booklet with step-by-step guidance on retrofitting an existing home to be more resilient to fire.
Susie Kocher, UC Cooperative Extension forestry and natural resources advisor and co-author of the new guide, said some homeowners feel powerless to protect their homes against California s increasing wildfire threat. I m happy to tell them that s not true. There are specific actions that we can all take to reduce the likelihood of our homes being burned in wildfire, said Kocher, who lives in a forested area near Lake Tahoe. We need to educate ourselves on the details of home construction that make homes less vulnerable to ignition.