Fire preparation

Bonnie Burchill and Neville Connell talk fire risks at the Back Country Land Trust’s wildfire preparedness event June 8.

The Back Country Land Trust pulled together the Greater Alpine Fire Safe Council, United States Forest Service, Animal Fire Rescue and other groups June 8 to provide local residents with fire preparedness information as the wet winter turns into a hot, dry summer. Less than one year ago in July 2018, 504 acres and 56 structures were lost in Alpine during the West fire. This year, local groups are taking steps early in the season to prevent a repeat of last year’s events.
“We’re doing the event now as the fire season begins in earnest to encourage homeowners in Al¬pine to be prepared both by making their homes as defensible as possible and being ready to evacuate themselves and their animals if that ever becomes necessary. We have many pro¬grams available to homeowners to help them do these things,” said Greater Alpine Fire Safe Council president Neville Connell.
Urban Corps of San Diego County provided information explaining how locals can hire people from their organization for help with protecting their homes against fires.
“We train youth ages 18-26 in different skills like working in brush fire management, irrigation, and other environmental outreach projects,” Urban Corps supervisor Fernando Soto said.
Soto went on to say that their Environmental Services Division trains young adults to protect and maintain fire-prone areas in San Diego County, among other conservation and preservation projects.
Back Country Land Trust volunteer coordinator Courtney Pesce said that non-native plants are a problem and that some residents have asked about removing species that are notoriously quick to burn.
“There seems to be lots of interest in Arundo removal. Despite what it looks like, it’s not bamboo and it grows differently; it has a knot at the bottom and when you cut it, it comes back. It is highly flammable, it goes up in a minute, and there are lots of little plants hiding in there that dry out and are also super flammable,” Pesce said.

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