{"id":94368,"date":"2019-04-23T10:12:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-23T16:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/residents-urged-to-take-part-in-wildfire-mitigation-season\/"},"modified":"2019-04-23T10:12:00","modified_gmt":"2019-04-23T16:12:00","slug":"residents-urged-to-take-part-in-wildfire-mitigation-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/residents-urged-to-take-part-in-wildfire-mitigation-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Residents urged to take part in wildfire mitigation season"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Wildfire Adapted Partnership is encouraging locals to take steps to mitigate wildfire risk. Pictured here, fire crews were able to save a home near Mancos during the Weber Fire in 2012.<\/span>Journal file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

As temperatures rise and summer encroaches, locals are reminded to take precautionary steps to mitigate wildfire risk.<\/p>\n

Although this past winter saw heavy precipitation, wildfire remains a prevalent threat.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our climate, it only takes a few weeks of warm, dry weather for this risk to return,\u201d staff from the Wildfire Adapted Partnership, a nonprofit based in Southwest Colorado, wrote in a news release.<\/p>\n

In particular, staff pointed to last year\u2019s active wildfire season, and the impact of the 416, Burro and Plateau fires.<\/p>\n

\u201cHomeowner and community mitigation efforts helped stop the progression of the 416 Fire and allowed firefighters to safely enter communities to halt the flames\u2019 progression,\u201d WAP staff wrote.<\/p>\n

The group encourages residents to mark Wildfire Community Preparedness Day on May 4 with some sort of community activity and have shared some tips:<\/p>\n

Create a defensible space<\/div>\n

WAP encourages people to create at least 5 feet of noncombustible space around a home and up to an ideal level of 100 feet of defensible space.<\/p>\n

Creating defensible space includes clearing pine needles and other combustible items, storing firewood at least 30 feet from a structure, and preventing debris buildup in gutters, crawlspaces and under porches.<\/p>\n

WAP is able to provide a free site assessment, and may be able to help fund defensible space cost sharing for eligible homeowners.<\/p>\n

All residents may take part in the group\u2019s chipper rental rebate program \u2013 residents can receive a rebate for renting a chipper or hiring a contractor to process slash.<\/p>\n

Sign up for county emergency alerts<\/div>\n

Early notification is critical in wildfire and emergency situations. The alert system is CodeRed in La Plata County and Nixle in Archuleta, Dolores, Montezuma and San Juan counties.<\/p>\n

Develop a home evacuation plan<\/div>\n

Have a checklist or emergency bag to save time in case of an evacuation. Suggested supplies are copies of important documents, medications and toiletries needed for an extended absence.<\/p>\n

Pets should also be accounted for in an evacuation plan.<\/p>\n

Create a wildfire preparedness committee<\/div>\n

Forming a committee in a neighborhood or community can help to share the workload of coordinating wildfire preparedness efforts. A committee is also able to better reach out to and prepare new residents.<\/p>\n

Become a WAP neighborhood ambassador<\/div>\n

Right now, WAP has 140 volunteer ambassadors to help with outreach and community planning throughout Southwest Colorado. For more information on this opportunity, visit the WAP website.<\/p>\n

ealvero @the-journal.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

tips on keeping homes, communities safe<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":94369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[21,84],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-94368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-cortez","tag-wildfire"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94368"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=94368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}