January 16, 2018; 9-10 am
Bray Commercial Real Estate Building – 244 N. 7th, Grand Junction, CO
Prioritization of Hazard Fuels Mitigation Work on Private Lands
Next Meeting:
- February 13th, 9-10 am
- Bray Commercial Real Estate Building, Large Conference Room
Present:
- Rich Acree (Emergency Services Sergeant, Mesa County)
- Randy Coleman (City of Grand Junction)
- Shannon Hatch (Restoration Coordinator, Tamarisk Coalition)
- Rusty Lloyd (Tamarisk Coalition)
- Doug Paul (Wildland Fire Mitigation/ Training Officer Upper Colorado Interagency Fire Management Unit, BLM)
- Andy Martsolf (Emergency Manager, Mesa County)
- Ryan McCulley (Division of Fire Prevention & Control)
- John Rizza (Small Acreage Specialist, CSU Extension/NRCS)
- Mandy Scott (Assistant District Forester, CSFS)
Workshop & training events
- Landowner workshops focused on fuels mitigation
- Focus on specific neighborhoods
- Glade Park
- Residents along 21 ½ Rd
- County GIS person to help determine ownership
- Trying to spend down community assistance grant in this area
- Preserve/20 Rd area
- John would like to help with this training/ landowner outreach
- Downtown?
- Would be good to look at County data to see problem areas
- Talk to Teresa Nees, Mesa County Weed Manager, for additional contacts
- Curriculum
- Doug can send out a draft agenda and speaker ideas
- John would like to include the “Fifteens”
- Definitely want to discuss that there is a problem; but that there is something we can do about it
- Use Community Wildlife Community Protection Plan for explaining issues and prioritizing sites
- Include FireWise trainers
- Include field trip component for interested individuals
- CSU Extension can help with outreach/flyers
- Workshop for professionals (e.g. land managers, realtors, etc.)
- Need to educate people that are making decisions about WUI
- In the past, have missed the boat on reaching out to planners, real estate agents, insurance agents
- Offer CEUs
- Doug and John know how to get credits approved
- Typically realtors pay up to $100 per credit (we can offer class for much less)
- May be good to include home assessment training to determine defensible space as was done in Eagle County
- Similar events
- An event like this was held in Glenwood Springs that was really successful
- Randy, with the City of Grand Junction, has been talking with the Forestry Board about doing something similar
- Randy will talk with the Board about their plans/dates and see if there is a way we can coordinate
- Other people to contact/include
- City and County
- Kaye Simonson with Mesa County planning
- Gus Hendrix, , City Emergency Manager
- Rural districts
- CSU Extension has an economist that can speak to value of fuels treatment
- Chamber of Commerce
- Doug will approach
- Look up County vs. City emergency response districts/fire protection district (County GIS has this info)
- Timing for workshop
- May 17th tentative date; want to do when smoke in the air
- Location
- Doug has a budget for meetings; could look into room at Marriot or other hotel
- Community Building at Fairgrounds also an option
- Certified Burner III
- 3 day training for landowners, professionals
- If a firefighter, only have to go for 1 day
- Goes over liability, burn pile building, burn plan preparation
- While geared towards pile burning, but could be applicable to a lot of people
- Hold off on date for now; would make sense to host after a few landowner meetings
- Ryan will look into setting a date after landowner meetings set
- Ryan can also reach out to PeteFirmin re. partnering
Re-visit top priority areas for fuels treatment projects
- Mid-channel islands/Broadway Bridge
- Mesa County currently assessing these sites; discuss after findings release
- Looking for funding/partnering opportunities for long-term maintenance
- Preserve/Redlands
- Could qualify for BLM community assistance program; John and Shannon can provide some names of interested landowners
- Good time to build momentum for this area
- Glade Park
Any good names for the group?