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Bayfield neighborhood improves fire safety with grants

FireWise to lead tour through Timberdale Ranch

Local leaders will tour a Bayfield-area community on Monday to see fire-mitigation measures the neighborhood accomplished this year with the aid of FireWise of Southwest Colorado.

Using grant money, including from the Department of Natural Resources, the homeowners association of Timberdale Ranch improved fire safety by clearing hazardous vegetation.

It’s one of several residential communities in La Plata County over the years that have secured grant money with help from FireWise, a fire-education organization, and dedicated it to lessening the risk of fires spreading.

“I believe highlighting these communities will help others realize the funding and the work that can be done,” said Nell Jordan, La Plata County coordinator for FireWise. “And when we talk about mitigating, we create a beautiful landscape. Some think fire mitigation is clearing all the vegetation, and it’s not.”

Local fire-protection districts, county commissioners and U.S. Forest Service officials were invited.

Jim Tencza, a Timberdale resident, county planning commissioner and FireWise ambassador, said the community hired contractors to clear hazardous trees and vegetation from nearly 20 properties.

Growth also was cleared along roadways to create better access for emergency responders without destroying wildlife habitat.

“The neighborhood has done a lot of mastication with a piece of equipment called a masticator, or brush hog, with a focus on Gambel oak, which is an issue in this area because it grows so quickly,” Jordan said. “It’s also really easily burned during a fire, and in our forests here in the Southwest, it can become a ladder fuel.”

The group will meet at 9:30 a.m. Monday at 1234 County Road 504, near the gate entrance of Timberdale Ranch.

jpace@durangoherald.com



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