Colony Mountain Community neighbors,

I am reaching out one last time to try to get more people involved in the grant opportunity we have with the DNR to provide clean-up of fire fuels within 100’ parameter of your home and any of your buildings. I cannot overemphasize the value of having a safety zone around your home. It may be the only thing that saves it in the event of a forest fire.  Remember, if your house burns, the fire is more likely to spread to your neighbor’s house. So far we have 31 lots participating.

We are currently in the scope process, which means the DNR foresters are only taking notes by walking through each property to see how big the project may be. Even if there is little to do on your place, please consider joining in because the more lots we have the better chance of us receiving this grant.  At yesterday’s meeting, they also mentioned they will try to get the sales tax covered through the grant as well, so it may be at no cost to the homeowner.

We have a very tight deadline.  If you’d like to opt in, please let me know by Sunday, March 2.  You can always opt out, but you will not be able to opt in after this date.

Let’s do what we can to keep our neighborhood ready for fire season and take advantage of this rare opportunity for our neighborhood.  Call me if you are interested at 360.391.0817.

Thank you.

Chris England

Lot 39

Over many years now we have imagined and discussed the possibility of a wildfire overrunning our community.  Firewise has provided recommendations on what actions can be taken to prepare your home and property to withstand a fire.  If you are unaware of the wildfire danger here or what Firewise is, please Google “Firewise USA”.   Many members of our community have said they understand the need and know what needs to be done, but the work is beyond their ability to perform.

Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has offered our Colony Mountain Community a grant to pay for cutting and removing of fire fuels from within 100’ of your home. This includes dense ground vegetation like blackberries, dead branches and other fuels on the forest floor, trees under 8” in diameter, limbs within 10’ of the ground, etc.  All of this back breaking work done for you and all you would be responsible for paying is the sales tax on the work.

I just received the proposal this morning (and I have not read the entire document yet), but here is the most important point:  All work needs to be completed by July 2025, which isn’t much time.

At this point, I just need to know who is interested in participating in the project.

I know there will be plenty of questions, as I have many myself.  There will be a time to answer questions once we get an idea of how many folks are interested.  Once we know this, we can have a meeting with a DNR official and get our questions answered.  I do know this — you have control of your property and they will not just start cutting down trees willy-nilly.  A DNR forester will come out and mark trees to be removed with your consultation.

Please reach out to me directly @ england@valleyint.com by February 14 if you are interested.  It would be helpful if you type ‘Grant Opportunity’ in the subject line and provide the following information: 

• Name
• Email address
• Lot #
• Phone #

Thank you.

Chris England

Lot 39

360-391-0817

A message from your neighbor: Chris England

With winter here, it’s not likely you’re thinking about wildfire these days. However I just sat down with officials from the DNR to discuss updating our Fire Risk Assessment and Action Plan for Firewise.  

One action that they recommend is having a “Chipper Day”. This is where landowners would bring trees, branches and brush to a pile on their property near a roadway, and crews from the DNR would come by with a chipper to chip the debris and carry away the chips, or leave them in place if the landowner prefers. The chipper could be paid for by a Firewise Micro-grant. In short all you need do is cut and gather your brush. The DNR does the rest at no cost to you. The plan here is to help you reduce fire fuel on your property.

Like anything involving government funds, these things take patience, time and planning. This is why I’m reaching out to everyone now when this “Chipper Day” will not likely occur until March sometime.

If you are interested in participating in this event please get back to me soon with your name, contact number, lot number and address. You may start clearing your brush and tree debris anytime but you should probably wait for further instructions as to where to stage the material.

We can’t say exactly when this event will happen until we know how many people want to participate, so the sooner you reply the more likely we can make this happen.

I look forward to hearing from you but I likely won’t reply until I have more information to share.

Thank you.

Chris England for Firewise

*Note: An email was sent to everyone in the community who we have valid email addresses for. This email contained Chris’s contact information. Optionally, you can contact us for more information or to update your contact details. Thank you.

A message from your neighbor: Chris England

Hello neighbors, I need to report to Firewise the hours and $ we are spending to prepare our community for wildfire. I do this every year as it is part of the application process to stay “In good standing”.

So If you have labored to clean the fire fuels away from your buildings, replaced cedar roofing with fire resistive roofing, or anything that would harden your place against wildfire in 2023 I would appreciate you sending me an estimate of the hours or money you have spent. We don’t need to present receipts, our good word is enough. I just add it all up and submit it to the Firewise people.

Thank you,

Chris England

A great big “thank you” to the Englands for hosting the August 26 Firewise Meeting for our community. It was very informative, and several neighbors asked that I share notes from that meeting here as a point of reference. Please keep in mind that the following are the notes I took personally from the meeting, and this is certainly not a complete record, but it’s a start.

For questions or more information, please contact the following professionals who spoke that day:

Okay, here’s my notes:

From Amanda’s talk:

• Wildfire risk in western WA is increasing
• Ignition sources that are risks to homes include: crown (tree canopies), surface, embers (airborne). Embers are the #1 cause of home destruction from wildfires.
• Approximately 100 feet around your home is where to focus, it’s what’s referred to as the “Home Ignition Zone”
• Some tips:
  • Very important to keep your roof and gutters clean. It’s probably a good idea to start cleaning them at the start of each summer and maintain throughout the wildfire season.
  • Also keep your decks clean and clear of debris.
  • Might want to consider smaller than standard vent screens (8th inch).
  • Prune branches close to the house.
  • While your away, put away potted plants and furniture, especially if it’s near windows and doors.
  • Wood siding is fine, it’s more about what’s against it.
  • Keep an 8-inch gap around your house (i.e. bushes, etc shouldn’t be touching the sides of your home)
  • Consider your landscaping within the first 5ft of your house = should be non-flammable.
  • Break up vegetation so there’s not a continuous surface path for fire to travel to your house. Look around your space: break up any continuous flammable fuels. Look for ladder fuels and break it up.

More tips & other details can be found on the Firewise.org website, and a lot was covered in handouts which are reflective of what can also be found here.

Amanda will provide individual home risk assessments and the Conservation District offers cost sharing programs to help harden your home against wildfires. Contact Amanda for more information.
*Note: The Conservation District is educational, non-regulatory, and confidential.

From Nichole’s Talk:

• Nichole will also provide individual walk throughs to answer your questions, and afterwards you’ll be provided with a report which you can choose to use for applying for DNR cost sharing programs, if you wish.
• They have a list of contractors who they’ve worked with in the past, and if you have a contractor you prefer, you can simply ask them to apply to be approved as part of the program – it’s a very simple process.
• DNR also provides a stewardship program, and will help with invasive species control.
• Spring/Summer is Nichole’s (and Amanda’s) busiest times, so if you don’t mind doing walk throughs in the colder months, they tend to be more available then.

Contact Nichole for more information.
*Note: This DNR program is also educational and non-regulatory.

Additional notes and reminders provided by community members:

• Our well is powered by electricity, and if there’s a wildfire here the power will likely go out. So we don’t want to all rush out to water our houses and roofs = that will run us out of water very quickly. Better to reserve the water for the firefighters.
• If you get an evacuation notice – don’t ignore it. Get yourself out of harm’s way quickly and evacuate as directed.

There was so much more information provided at the meeting that I didn’t get captured. So be sure to review www.firewise.org and contact Nichole and Amanda to talk to you about the specifics of your property.

Take care friends!

Paula