Being Firewise is Being Fire Smart

On July 10, 2008, fire struck the Park Hills and Park Meadows housing developments in the Dishman Hills on the south edge of the Spokane Valley.  Fortunately no injuries or deaths occurred during the fire, but the effects of that fire on the residents, their homes and properties will be felt for years to come.  The fire burned over 1100 acres and destroyed 13 homes. At one point, over 450 firefighters were on the scene.  Every year, from Alaska to Florida, thousands of homes are destroyed by wildfire. What is happening right now in Colorado is perfect example of the devastation created by wildfire. Homes are destroyed, lives are shattered and landscapes are changed forever. 

 As the wildland/urban interface continues to expand, the risk of wildfire increases, becoming all too real for those who live through the terrifying experience.  But there are steps that can be taken to reduce the risk of losing a home to wildfire.  Establishing defensible space around a home doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive to be effective.  Firewise is a very effective national program designed to assist landowners and communities prepare for wildfire and establish defensible space around homes, neighborhoods and entire communities.  

The Firewise program defines ignition zones around the home.  Starting right at the edge of the home out to 30' is called Zone 1 and should receive the most attention.  Anything burning in Zone 1 increases the possibility of the home burning as well. Anything directly adjacent to the home such as a garage, decks and even fences are also possible points of ignition.  The simplest treatments can also be the most effective.  Inside of Zone 1 all plant materials should be green and not touching the building.  Firewood should never be stacked next to the house or garage or under a deck.  Lumber or other flammable materials like pine needles, leaves and other woody debris should be eliminated within this zone.  The easiest way to think of how defensible this zone is; imagine the hottest day of the summer and someone is walking around the outside of your home  lighting matches.  Where are the possible points of ignition and is there anything that would burn and carry the fire to the building itself?     Light, “flash fuels” like grasses and small shrubs will burn quickly without generating a lot of heat.  A fire burning in those fuels will probably not cause a home to burn without igniting heavier fuels first.  Larger fuels like trees and even logs on the ground take much longer to get burning, but once ignited, will burn very hot, super heating flammable materials in the path of the fire.   Don't forget to look up.  Are there trees close to the house with limbs and branches overhanging the house or even touching it?  And don't forget the gutters.  Are they clean or full of leaves and needles?  Air-borne embers from a fire not even on your property can easily ignite a fire on a roof or gutters that are covered with flammable debris.

Treatments in the zones further from the house would include pruning limbs and tree branches up 6-10 above the ground so a ground fire cannot use those limbs as ladder fuels to get into the tops of the trees.  Once a fire is in the forest canopy, only good luck and lots of defensible space around a home will keep it from burning.  Hazard fuels reduction is often a recommended treatment, thinning out heavily stocked stands of timber, in the Spokane area usually a spacing of 12' or more in Ponderosa pines. 

One of the many reasons people choose to live in rural wooded areas is because they like the trees.  They like the quiet and solitude and the aesthetics of being surrounded by the forest.  But that which they love can also be the cause of losing their home.  As anyone who has ever been through the terrifying experience of a wildfire will tell you; it is not a matter of if the fire will come, it is a matter of when.  Will you be ready?  Do you have defensible space around your home?  Can fire vehicles get in on your road?  Is your address clearly marked?

Having a Firewise risk assessment done and implementing the recommendations is no guarantee that a home would not be lost or damaged in a wildfire.  The fuels, terrain, weather and availability of fire suppression assistance are all factors that could work against a homeowner.  But the Firewise program teaches us to plan for the worst case scenario; a hot day with winds driving a fire up the hill toward your home. Establishing adequate defensible space around your home is the very best action you could take to reduce the risk of losing that home, even if you have to evacuate.  Visit http://www.firewise.org/ to get more information. For a Free Firewise Risk Assessment, contact the Spokane Conservation District at 535 7274 soon.  The best time to be Firewise is before the next fire starts…

Photos of the Valley View Fire in progress have been provided by Tom Watson, a resident of the Park Hills development. Tom was able to save his home only by having defensible space. Fire crews did not reach his home until after the fire had already burned past it.

Sheep Eat My Grass Part 2

The "girls" before shearing.  The Katahdin's are in front. Four weeks after purchasing two Icelandic and three Shetland sheep to eat the flourishing grasses on my property, I discovered that these "easy keeper" sheep weren't eating enough!  At the rate that the grass was being consumed in the 150 x 150 pasture, the 10 plus acres of pasture on the property were not going to be eaten by my sheep and I would be back on the tractor mowing.  Enter two Katahdin ewes a couple of weeks ago, soon to be followed by another half dozen.  Katahdin sheep are hair sheep, meaning they do not have to be sheared.  That means no wool but then the primary purpose was to have the sheep eat my grass rather than spending countless hours mowing.  The plan was good.  The number of animals needed was grossly underestimated.  With more animals on the way, I turned my attention to the task of shearing the Icelandic and Shetlands.  Having no clue on how to accomplish the task, I did the sensible thing and looked around for a professional.  As it turns out, there aren't that many people out there that hire themselves out as sheep shearers.  I did find one on Craig's list, made the They aren't nearly as big as they looked! call and set the appointment for June 20th.   The sheep I ended up with are, in the vernacular, considered very "light".  Read that wild and crazy!  There is no way to walk up to these sheep with a grain bucket and lead them into a pen for shearing.  The only chance I had of getting these sheep sheared was to construct a pen out of 16' horse panels, using one side as a gate.  But the problem of getting the sheep in the pen was still the issue.  Using our novice herding Border collie wasn’t an option in that confined space so my wife and I did the herding.  Using additional panels, we were able to funnel the sheep into the pen without too much difficulty.  But five skittish sheep in a 16' x 16' pen still have a lot of room to get away from one person trying to catch them.  So, turning the gate panel toward the inside of the pen allowed us to reduce the size of the pen making it easier to capture them.  My wife and Jason, the sheep shearer guarded the gate thus preventing a mass escape, I was able to capture the sheep one at a time and escort them out to be sheared.  That sounds simple but it probably would have won a "Funniest Home Videos" prize!  I ended up on my back once, got pulled around a bit and had my feet stomped on numerous times.  It wasn't pretty, but we got it done!  The end result was sheep with their summer haircuts and 25 pounds of fleece. I have no hesitation in recommending Jason Dockter for shearing.  He was very pleasant, helpful and his rates are quite reasonable.  His primary profession is a farrier so for shearing or shoeing call Jason at 509 435 7275.    Sheep Eat My Grass Part 3 will be dedicated to cleaning and carding the fleece and constructing simple shade shelters. Jason shears one of the Shetlands Shetland Sheep wool The Icelandic wool is thick, soft and very warm! Icelandic Sheep wool fiber

Dig It! The Secrets of Soil Revealed!

I never knew… I had so much fun… I can’t wait to come back… These are just a few of the comments on the notes school kids have written and left at the  Dig It! The Secrets of Soil exhibit at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture (MAC),  during  classroom visits from schools across the region.  The experience of visiting Dig It! has the same effect on older folks too, with "Wow" and "This is great" being just a couple of the more frequent exclamations heard in the exhibit. It’s not every day that one gets to visit an exhibit from the renowned Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, and since opening in early February, the museum has been visited by thousands of schoolchildren who after touring the exhibit, which at 5,000 square feet can take up to an hour, head to an adjacent classroom where they participate in a variety of educational activities under the guidance of MAC employees and volunteers, including Spokane Conservation District staff. Science lessons have never seemed this much fun as the students learn about soil, (arguably the most important natural resource), while digging through the worm bin, testing soil ph, discovering soil texture and creating masterpieces using the art of soil painting. The museum was originally open to accommodate school tours on Wednesdays-Fridays, but due to the high demand, they quickly had to open time-slots on Tuesdays as well. The exhibit will be on display until September 22, and the museum is already booking visits for the summer and the first weeks of September. To ensure that any school who wanted to visit the exhibit could, the Spokane Conservation District worked with other agencies to procure enough donations to cover all transportation costs for schools to get to and from the museum. Those schools included local schools, such as Franklin and Windsor Elementary, schools from Medical Lake and Fairchild Air Force Base, and schools from as far away as Moses Lake, Idaho, and Okanogan County.  The students in the photos  are from the St. John/Endicott School District in Whitman County,  the leading wheat producing county in the entire nation.  Soils are the life-blood of Whitman County and Dig It! brings that importance into focus in a fun and informational format.   It's easy to imagine that among all the students- nearly 5,000 visited the exhibit during the 2011-12 school year; there are more than a few future budding soil scientists in the crowd, and even more who will leave a better educated and more responsible steward of soil.  We encourage everyone to visit at least once.  Can you Dig It?  We can!

No more mowing, sheep eat my grass!

Sheep Eat My Grass Part 1 I don't like mowing.  With more than 10 acres of property to mow, the job takes way too much time.  But if we didn't mow, the weeds would grow, sometimes out-competing the grasses.  And then there was the fire danger and defensible space to consider.  The long grass dries out at the end of summer and is a fire hazard.  After countless hours of mowing over the years, my wife and I figured we could stop mowing and turn the grass into a resource instead of a problem.  We decided to run a few head of sheep on the property to keep the grasses down and potentially have wool, animals or meat to sell.  The first problem to overcome was a lack of fencing.  We had none.  After doing a bit of research, we decided on woven wire and "T" posts for the perimeter fencing.  We chose woven wire rather than welded wire because of the strength and durability.  We decided on portable, solar powered electric net fencing to delineate the pastures inside the perimeter. There are several brands and styles to choose from depending on the intended application.  The advantage of using the portable electric fencing is in the flexibility of being able to move the animals frequently in a rotational grazing system without the expense of permanent fencing and being able to use the perimeter fencing as one side of the enclosure.  It not only keeps the livestock contained but keeps the coyotes out as well.  Depending on your pasture situation, the type of grazing being done can be simple or labor intensive.  Continuous grazing on one large pasture may work, but in our case with several small pastures mixed with timber scattered throughout the property, a rotational grazing system is necessary.  Sheep can also be used in prescribed grazing situations on your own property and for hire for controlling weeds and reducing fire hazard.  There are lots of resources on-line to help.   http://www.spokane-county.wsu.edu/Rural%20Living/index.html http://www.sheep101.info/201/grazingsystems.html Simple shelters that can be dismantled and moved fairly easily may be constructed out of straw bales and plywood in minutes, providing both shade and cover from rain and snow.  We have 75 gallon heavy-duty plastic tubs for water that are light and easy to move. Compared to the amount of money spent on the purchase of a tractor and the maintenance and fuel for it, (not to mention the hours mowing) setting up a sheep operation was relatively inexpensive and easy.  For more information and advice on starting a small livestock operation, contact Pat Munts, small farm program coordinator at the District. pat-munts@sccd.org or Walt Edelen, Water Resources and Livestock and Land program manager. walt-edelen@sccd.org  or visit  www.sccd.org  And be sure to put September 28-29 on your calendar for the Inland Northwest Small Farmers Conference at the Fairgrounds in Spokane.  If you are interested in home  gardening, having chickens or raising livestock, you won't want to miss it.