2002 Fire Ready in the news

2004 News
2003 News

Beetles a Concern When Thinning Pines
Durango Herald

By Beth Morin

Conscientious property owners who hire fire-mitigation companies to reduce the danger of wildfires may unknowingly be leaving their remaining trees more vulnerable to bark beetle infestation.

Heather Mullett, of Durango, had fire-mitigation work done on her property in Trappers Crossing subdivision in July. About two weeks after the project was completed, Mullett noticed many of the remaining pinon pines were turning brown.

"We were unprepared for the fact that this would possibly make us lose more trees," Mullett said. "There was so much news encouraging fire mitigation and we thought it was important, but we certainly could have timed it better." Mullett lost between 35 and 40 trees to beetles, she said.

In a Forest Service report issued this month about the relationship between fire-fuels reduction and bark beetles, entomologist Dave Leatherman acknowledges the severity of the beetle problem, but he emphasizes it should not deter people from conducting fire-mitigation work.

"The need to conduct mitigation work trumps the potential attraction of insects," Leatherman writes, "and only in very rare instances would this be a reason to postpone or not perform the project."

According to Tammy Tyner, owner of Timber Tech, fire mitigation will make remaining trees more resistant to pine beetles in the long run. Thinning prevents trees from competing for scarce nutrients and water and becoming stressed, Tyner said. Stressed trees are more vulnerable to beetle infestation.

Agricultural Extension Agent Kevin Mallow suggests thinning and removing trees during the dormant winter season to minimize beetle attraction. "When you do any pruning or cutting of pinon, the injury gives off the pinon sap smell and the injury attracts beetles," Mallow said.

Ryan Borchers, owner of Fire Ready, a fire-protection service in Mancos, said his company will offer both pesticide spraying and fire-mitigation services starting in 2003.

"In the past we haven't had this complication arise, but now we're realizing we need to spray in conjunction with mitigation," Borchers said. "We've really had a savage year for beetles."

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Habitat for Humanity building new home in Forest Lakes
Pine River Times

By Melanie Brubaker Mazur

Instead of the sounds of hammering, a new house being built by Habitat for Humanity is being accompanied by the buzz of chainsaws clearing trees and the soft thud of earth blocks being heaved into place. The house is the first home to be built in Forest Lakes by Habitat for Humanity of La Plata County, and it's also the first to be built using earth blocks, said Jose Rivera, Habitat's construction supervisor.

Habitat for Humanity homes are built by volunteers and sold to qualified families at a zero-interest loan. The home buyers have to work on the construction, providing what Habitat calls "sweat equity." Habitat homes aren't free, said Kay Uwelling, director of Habitat. They are sold to people who earn between 30 and 50 percent of La Plata County's median income, and the homeowners are required to have jobs so they can pay the mortgage.

"It's a real tough market," Uwelling said of local home prices. This is the local Habitat group's 15th house, and it is being purchased by Brandy Wright and Wesley Hallick. The new home is being built by earth blocks because Hallick is sensitive to the glues and fiberglass used in traditional building, Rivera said. The three-bedroom, one-bath home, located at 37 Blue Ridge Drive, will be coated with stucco to protect the walls. The house was designed by Earth Block, Inc., of Pagosa Springs.

While Habitat volunteers are enjoying building the home using a non-traditional technique, earth block buildings require a lot of time to built, and volunteers, particularly groups of them, are needed to help finish construction, Rivera said. All volunteers have to be at least 14 years old, and construction experience isn't required. Habitat also could use donations of lunches on Saturdays for crew of 10 to 15 people.

In late September, Dan and Sheri MacVeigh, of Fire Ready of Pagosa Springs, were joined by volunteers from Durango and Florida Road to help thin trees around the house. The MacVeigh's company provides tree thinning and chipping to create defensible space around homes. A healthy forest in the area would have about three dozen Ponderosa pines per acre, while the area surrounding the Habitat home has 75 to 90 trees per acre. After thinning, and with a fire hydrant across the street, "the Fire Department could defend this," MacVeigh said of the new home.

Volunteers are welcome to help build the home from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day in October. Volunteers are asked to call 382-9930 to confirm work projects and days people are needed to work.

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"Fireproofing Business"

Colorado Public Radio interview on Colorado Matters hosted by Dan Drayer

"Diesels, Brush Thinning in Works for Next Year"
Durango Herald

By Jim Greenhill, Herald Staff Writer

A contract with a major movie production, five modern diesel locomotives and aggressive brush-thinning operations are among the steps that railroad officials hope will snap the 120-year-old railroad out of a losing trend.

"We can't afford to have another season like this as a railroad or as a community," said Jeff Jackson, senior vice president of the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. "Our goal is to have an alternative operating plan in place for next season. We've got to preserve our service."

An alternative operating plan translates to a plan to deal with fire danger if the 100-year drought doesn't end this year. That plan includes purchasing five diesel locomotives by next season, to be used during times of extreme fire danger. Diesel locomotives produce none of the cinders that coal-fired trains emit from their smokestacks and will give the railroad the option to run trains to Silverton even if the fire danger is again extreme next summer.

Some people balk at the idea of anything other than a coal-fired engine pulling the train. Harper said he had a message for purists. "(Diesel trains) will never be a scheduled service. That'll be an emergency."

Harper said he has also authorized $55,000 to be spent on immediate work thinning brush along parts of the railroad that have been particularly vulnerable to fire. The brush, debris and some branches are being removed by Fire Ready, a company that creates defensible space to lower fire risk. "What it does is it buys us time," Harper said.

Meanwhile, Harper said news of a major movie production expected to use the D&SNG in the first half of 2003 is a boost to morale. John Woo - whose movie credits include "Mission Impossible II," "Broken Arrow" and "Face/Off" - is expected to film a movie about the making of the transcontinental railroad, Harper said. It will star Nicholas Cage, he said. Filmmakers might use the railroad for up to a month in the first half of the year, Harper said.

In October, 500 to 600 members of the group that represents owners and operators of more than 200 scenic railroads and museums around the country will converge on Durango. A convention of model railroad enthusiasts in 2006 is expected to bring 2,000 people to town, Harper said.

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"Ready for Flames"
Colorado Country Life

By Mona Neeley, Editor

Fire Ready owner Ryan Borchers of Mancos has been preaching defensible space for homes in the forest. He has cut trees and cleared brush and landscaped homes with aesthetically-pleasing, fire-resistant landscapes. But how well would it work in one of 2002's monster wildfires?

Borchers, who studied forestry at Oregon State University and fought wildfires for seven years, had an opportunity to test his methods during the Missionary Ridge Fire in southwestern Colorado. In one case, he and an employee stayed with a home surrounded by the fire and defended it with a garden hose. In another case, he went in, up a three-quarter mile drive with fire raging on both sides. He found the house untouched in the middle of the fire and took refuge from the intense heat inside. He knocked embers off the deck a couple of times, but otherwise the fire never approached the house. "It was definitely a place where I found that (the defensible space) worked," he said.

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"Your Best Defense"
Durango Herald

By Lynn Sutherland, Los Ranchitos property owner

Defensible space gets a trial by fire as subdivision resident holds her breath

"It's 8:45. We are evacuating. You can reach us on our cell phones ... " I heard the message my partner John was leaving on our answering machine, and I wondered if we'd get a chance to change that message.

The Missionary Ridge Fire had been burning for over five days. Our subdivision - Los Ranchitos - was on pre-evacuation alert. We apprehensively watched the air-tankers as the smoke column kept getting larger and larger. I thought the "splat" noise was the retardant hitting the ground, but John said it was the sound of trees exploding. That's when I decided to call Fire Ready - a wildfire mitigation company - that had done a lot of fuels reduction work in our subdivision. Owner Ryan Borchers finished lining out his crews (working in the Mancos and Cortez area that day), grabbed his fire clothing, and called employee Brad Buckley (also a trained wildland firefighter) to meet him at Los Ranchitos. Brad and Ryan helped us put out ladders, turn off propane tanks, lay out garden hoses, move barbecue tanks to the middle of the large meadow, and sweep pine needles off the roofs and out of the gutters.

We attended a public meeting earlier that week, where the Forest Service had estimated that the fire would reach Los Ranchitos in two to four days. We had let our guard down a bit, and then the downslope winds changed. Suddenly the crowning fire was licking at the edges of our little world. As we were pulling out of the subdivision - with a carload of six cats, two dogs, a cockatiel, and a box turtle - John stopped to talk to Ryan. "Your subdivision is as prepared as it can be. Now get out of here," he said.

The Los Ranchitos subdivision is located about 15 miles northeast of Durango. Our homeowner's association was the recipient of a 2001-2002 challenge cost-share grant from the Colorado State Forest Service. Our entire subdivision addressed the wildfire issue by forming a Fire Prevention Committee. The Colorado State Forest Service assessed our area and approved the work done by Fire Ready. In a letter of support for the grant, resident George Rose pointed out that "funding spent now on mitigation work is a fraction of the cost to fight a large-scale fire should these measures not be taken." By working together, Los Ranchitos had reduced the overall risk of wildfire in our small community. We were about to test that theory!

"The defensible space is working! It's beautiful," an ecstatic Borchers told me at 11 p.m. that night. The crown fire topped the ridge, and headed down towards Jackie and Paul Dzuibek's property in the northwest corner of the Los Ranchitos subdivision. Several spot fires reached the edges of the wildfire-resistant landscape. With isolated pockets of fuel, the only place for the fire to go was to the ground. Defending the homes meant keeping embers washed off the decks and keeping an eye on the ground fire as it smoldered.

We all received an education about defensible space. We learned that a wildfire resistant landscape reduces fuels in close proximity to houses, while still maintaining natural beauty and privacy screening. Ideally, homes can survive a wildfire with just an altered landscape and no need for firefighting resources - which are often stretched pretty thin during a catastrophic wildfire event. The defensible space can also create a safe place for firefighters to defend structures.

Of the thirty homes in Los Ranchitos, nearly twenty property owners had created wildfire resistant landscapes prior to the Missionary Ridge Fire. Another half a dozen have done the work since the fire.

Reducing wildfire risk makes communities and subdivisions safer from the threat of wildfire, increases property values, improves wildlife habitat, reduces the risk of disease and insect damage to trees, and improves accessibility in forested areas. The beauty of the forest is why I choose to live here. I was hesitant to do the work until I toured other properties with defensible space and saw the attractive end result.

A phone call the next morning from the Fire Ready office told me that the Missionary Ridge Fire came to the edges of the Dzuibek's wildfire resistant landscape and that all the homes were untouched. "I thought we had said good-bye to everything," says Jackie Dzuibek.

"Los Ranchitos is an ideal example for communities located in the trees - they worked together as a subdivision, used the State Forest Service to help identify risks, implemented the suggested precautions, and survived a catastrophic wildfire. We are happy to help fund this kind of project," says Dan Ochocki, district forester for the Colorado State Forest Service.

The preventative measures taken by our entire subdivision saved our homes.

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Companies Find Market in Reducing Wildfire Risk
Associated Press

By Robert Weller

Tammy Tyner has one of the hottest businesses in southwestern Colorado. From a base in Durango, her Timber Tech West helps homeowners and developers by thinning trees, removing brush, and offering tips to safeguard mountain homes and building sites from wildfires. "When we started in 1997, the public wasn't very aware or concerned. Now we have more business than we can handle," Tyner said.

At least two more companies offer the same services, an indication of growing demand. They are the kind of companies needed to reduce wildfire risk in the wooded foothills of Colorado and other Western cities, U.S. Forest Service and state forester's office representatives said. About 750,000 people live in "red zones," areas rated high for wildfire risk in the foothills, according to the state Office of Emergency Management.

The homes range from rough-hewn cabin hideaways to million-dollar-plus properties between thick stands of pine trees. Many are accessible only by narrow dirt roads that are difficult for fire trucks and heavy equipment to maneuver. About 90% of foothills homes did not meet wildfire standards in the most recent survey by the forester's office.

Government officials and firefighters have stepped up efforts to persuade homeowners to make their homes defensible after hundreds of homes have been lost to Western wildfires in the past three years. Some Colorado counties have enacted regulations that require homeowners to use fire-resistant materials and developers to pave roads and create multiple exits. Foresters and firefighters also urge homeowners to thin trees on their property.

Here in Archuleta County, developers must reduce wildfire hazards before homes are built in steeply wooded areas. "The potential market for services like Timber Tech is huge," said Dennis Lynch, a Colorado State University forest sciences professor who has documented the need for forest restoration work. Last year, at least two more companies began offering the same services in the Durango area, Fire Ready and Fire Smart. Fire Ready just sold its first franchise operation in Pagosa Springs, and hopes to sell franchises in other markets.

"We've quadrupled our business in the past year. With Tammy and Fire Smart, we've been sort of involved in creating an industry here," said Kristie Borchers, whose husband, Ryan, owns Fire Ready.

"There are a lot of high-dollar people looking for good sound advice," said Justin Dombrowski, a Boulder wildland fire information officer. Lynch estimates it costs from $500 per acre to $2,000 per acre to remove enough trees and brush to make homes safe. Much of the work is paid for by federal grant money, done by volunteers, jail inmates and Americorps volunteers. Dombrowski said there are not enough resources to take care of the problems. "It is a band-aid approach," he said.

Prescribed burns, the other major alternative for clearing forests, do not work in thick tree stands, called "dog-hair" because the fire would denude the forest instead of thinning trees. Many areas are too close to homes to permit safe burns.

Dombrowski says the high cost of insurance scares many contractors away from such jobs. Tyner pays $10,000 a year per field employee for workman's compensation insurance coverage. Tyner and one other employee, who later because her husband, founded Timber Tech. Today, they have nine employees, and company revenue increased from $10,000 five years ago to an estimated $350,000 this year. Clients include subdivisions, including two in Archuleta County in the San Juan Mountains 270 miles southwest of Denver.

"It is much easier doing it on the front end than after homes are built and sold," Tyner said.

Joe Machock, owner of the $30 million Timber Ridge Development near Pagosa Springs is one of Timber Tech's clients. His three-acre lost at the 7,000 foot eleveation usually sell for between $75,000 and $225,000. Million-dollar homes will not be unusual. Eric Stone - Tyner's husband - is an artist with a chainsaw and tractor-mounted chipper and delivers what clients want, Machock said. "He manicures and sculpts the land under our direction. I can find no negative impacts from what he has done," Machock said, "We have found that when we open up the forest a bit, it is better received by the public." Machock estimates the value added to the lot is twice what he pays Timber Tech for the service. The subdivision also has 100-foot fire breaks along the roads and fire hydrants every 1,000 feet.

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Durango subdivision works together to prevent a fire

Lynn Sutherland did not want the Los Ranchitos name added to the ever-growing list of subdivisions burned by wildfires. Los Ranchitos is located in the pines outside of Durango, Colorado, and had all the ingredients for a subdivision fire . . . steep slopes, homes in the wildland-urban interface, and a build-up of fuels. A fire prevention committee was born. Sutherland, along with George and Aurora Rose, urged other residents to consider a community-wide wildfire risk reduction project.

"Dan Ochocki of the Colorado State Forest Service met with individual owners," says Rose. "Our initial concern was the beetles. Ochocki also identified wildfire hazards for our subdivision."

The fire prevention committee began researching options for homeowners. Several homeowners had done fire mitigation work on their property in prior years. Residents of Los Ranchitos met with several other fuels reduction businesses before contracting with Fire Ready. "Fire Ready's hand crews work on steep slopes, and they later offered grant-writing help for a challenge cost-share grant with the Colorado State Forest Service," says Sutherland.

The Los Ranchitos grant was funded so the State Forest Service will reimburse up to 50% of the cost of fuels reduction work. More than half of the homeowners in this subdivision have now created defensible space around their homes and several more have work scheduled in the next few weeks.

As wildfire resistant landscapes began surrounding homes in Los Ranchitos, residents who were hesitant about the term "defensible space" joined the community effort. Darrell Smith, another resident of Los Ranchitos, believes that "reducing fire hazards in our development is best approached on a collective basis since fire doesn't respect property boundaries."

In a letter of support, George Rose pointed out that "funding spent now on mitigation work is a fraction of the cost to fight a large-scale fire should these measures not be taken." By working together, Los Ranchitos has reduced the overall risk of wildfire in their small community.

For more information on cost-share grants, call the Colorado State Forest Service at 970-247-5250.

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By Tom Sluis, Herald Staff Writer

Fires pose threat to subdivisions

If firefighters battling a blaze place a black rubber cone at the entrance to a driveway, it's basically the home's kiss of death. It means the structure is located in too dangerous a spot and is not worth the risk to life and limb to try and save it.

"If we come across a house that is miles down a twisting road, and it has a wood roof covered with pine needles and nothing has been done to impede the spread of flames, it would be a waste of resources," said Keith Hotal, acting chief of the Upper Pine River Protection District. It would also be an unreasonable risk to firefighters, he said.

For Hotal, Forest Lakes is his biggest headache, and the most likely subdivision in his district to receive a black cone. "Whenever we get a call from Forest Lakes, our adrenaline goes up a notch higher," Hotal said. The subdivision has a high amount of vegetation that has not been cleared in years, and miles of twisting roads must be navigated during any emergency.

"If a fire ever does break out there, we probably won't be involved with fighting it, we'll just be evacuating people instead. You can always replace property." Animas Fire Protection District Chief Allen Clay said there hasn't been a fire in La Plata County that has destroyed a subdivision, but it is only a matter of time.

"It's not if, but when," Clay said. "We've suppressed fires for so long, and people take it for granted that it will not happen to them. But we've also put people today in places that they never used to live, which is right where catastrophic fires can happen." To help homeowners avoid receiving the dreaded black cone, federal and local firefighting agencies are trying to reduce the risk of fire where homes are built in areas adjacent to public lands. The federal agencies are using a combination of mechanical thinning and prescribed burns on public lands to lower the fuels that have accumulated over a century of aggressive fire suppression. On private lands, local fire districts are beseeching homeowners to create a defensible space around their structures. This is done generally by removing fuels within at least 100 feet of the house.

The goal is to reduce certain characteristics that at-risk subdivisions share: stands of trees are so dense that the canopies touch. Undergrowth is overgrown. Gutters are jammed with pine needles. Wood is stacked under the deck. Dead branches litter the area.

"People need to understand that creating a defensible space is not so the fire department can come in and defend the property," Clay said. "It's so if a wildfire comes through, it allows the property to survive because the area has been cleared." Creating this defensible space is critically important, the chiefs said, when the geography is working against the homeowner. Sometimes access is difficult because roads are narrow or winding. Water supply is minimal. As homes are built in rural areas, often the land slopes, which allows fires to easily spread uphill.

Add dry weather to the mix and all the ingredients for disaster are present. Local fire chiefs all have horror stories of what happens when fires break out in these areas. "One time we couldn't get to a house because the road was so steep and there was snow on the ground," said Hermosa Cliff Fire Protection District Chief Dan Noonan. "We had to get a front-end loader to pull up a fire engine and we had to put chains on the rest of the vehicles," Noonan said. By the time firefighters reached the house, it was beyond saving.

Clay, with Animas Fire, said that in the Black Ridge Fire of the late 1980s, a couple of homes in La Posta Canyon couldn't be saved because of poor access and because homeowners had not created a defensible space around structures. "Some of the bridges leading to the homes were made out of pallets that our trucks couldn't cross," Clay said.

Where homeowners had cleared a space - essentially a firebreak - around their homes, the firefighters just basically sprayed some fire resistant foam on the homes and left. Those homes survived. To help reduce the threat of wildfires, Congress has appropriated $240 million for fiscal year 2002 that begins October 1.

Last summer's conflagrations torched 7 million acres of public lands in the West, costing taxpayers $2 billion. Prescribed burns to reduce fuels began last week in Saul's Creek near Bayfield, two areas near Dolores and one near Pagosa Springs.

For privately owned land, some of the federal money may be available to help homeowners reduce the fire risk, but the details of the program are still being worked out, said Dan Ochocki, district forester in Durango for the Colorado State Forest Service.

In the meantime, it is up to homeowners to fork out the money to help fire-proof a home if they want to avoid getting a black cone. Generally, creating a defensible space means removing undergrowth, thinning trees, and clearing out flammable material within 100 feet of a home.

Ryan Borchers is the owner of Fire Ready, a Durango fire-risk consulting company that will also clear a homeowner's property. He said it generally costs about $2000 to create a defensible space around a home, depending how large the parcel is, the amount of clearing and thinning needed, and how much elbow grease the homeowner is willing to supply.

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"Landowners Thin Brush Around Rural Homes to Cut Fire Danger"
Cortez Journal

By Janelle Holden, Journal Staff Writer

Faced with the prospect of a hellish fire season, Karen Fuller has decided to make sure her house won't burn down this summer. Karen and Steve Fuller live in a wooded subdivision above McPhee Reservoir, and though they love the pinon pine and juniper forest that surrounds their house, they know it could be kindling for a fire.

So the Fullers hired Fire Ready, a Mancos company that specializes in thinning trees and brush around homes, to thin the property's four acres and reduce the risk of wildfire. "The major fact is that we're under a lot of drought, the fire danger is high, and we're in a thickly wooded suburb," explained Karen Fuller.

The Fullers aren't the only ones in Montezuma County trying to head off disaster. The Colorado State Forest Service has already doled out $28,000 of federal money to help rural homeowners in Montezuma County build a "defensible space" around their homes and property.

Seventeen homeowners in the Kernin Creek Ranch subdivision east of Cortez have already banded together to thin 51 acres, and 15 homeowners in the Indian Camp Ranch subdivision west of Cortez thinned 200 acres. Efforts are also under way to begin thinning in the Cedar Mesa Ranches subdivision, a fire-prone area east of Mancos near the Mesa Verde National Park turnoff. One homeowner in Cedar Mesa has already treated five acres.

The grants come out of $1.5 million in the National Fire Plan given to Western states by Congress to help defend urban-interface areas. Some private property owners, like the Fullers, are doing the work without government money. Ryan Borchers, the owner of Fire Ready, said his company has thinned around 35 homes this year and is hoping to thin around 60 homes this year. According to one source, 30 homeowners have called on local fire districts to help burn fuels around homes.

Last year, the county's five fire chiefs identified 15 urban-interface areas at risk in the county. Generally defined, the areas are Lowry Ruin, the Dolores Rim, McPhee Mobile Home Park, Granath Mesa, Mountain View subdivision, Summit Lakes, Cedar Mesa, Jackson Lake, East Canyon, the county landfill, Indian Camp Ranch, McElmo Canyon, Kinder-Morgan pump stations, Goodman Point, and Cash Canyon.

Mike Preston, the county's federal lands coordinator, said the chiefs are now trying to pinpoint risk more accurately in those areas. Preston said each of the county's five fire districts is going to pick an area of primary concern and urge property owners to apply for a state cost-share grant. Right now, the areas of concern are McElmo Canyon, Cedar Mesa, and Granath Mesa above Dolores.

However, Preston encourages concerned homeowners not to wait to apply for a grant. "I wouldn't wait around for the cost-share program, if people have the resources to pursue it on their own," said Preston. However, if a property owner is burning fuels on his or her own, Preston issued the same warning that all of the fire districts have been giving.

"It needs to be one during the right time of day and during non-windy conditions," he advised. Other common-sense tips for homeowners include keeping roofs clear of pine needles and overhanging limbs, clearing out gutters, and using noncombustible building materials such as asbestos, concrete and stucco on roofs and outside walls. A spark arrester should be installed on the top of chimneys. Landowners should regularly mow dried grasses, stack firewood clear of the house, remove excessive accumulation of pine cones and needles, and keep at least 2,500 gallons of water in reserve storage.

Montezuma County and four other counties in Southwest Colorado have fire plans, according to Preston, who said the federal public-lands agencies have told the county that the federal government would use the plan to help prioritize thinning and reducing fuels on adjacent public lands. However, some private property owners who have moved swiftly to protect their own property said it can be frustrating when federal land-management agencies are not as quick. Archie Hanson, the president of Indian Camp homeowners association, last fall asked why his group is working to control the fire danger when the monument is not.

"When is the government going to thin out a buffer zone along the border? It is real thick in there and presents a real danger," Hanson said at a public fire meeting.

The Fuller residence is also adjacent to BLM property near the Anasazi Heritage Center, and now that the Fuller's property has been thinned, it's easy to identify the thickly wooded BLM property. LouAnn Jacobson, manager of the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, said the center doesn't have the funding to do a thinning project in that area yet, but the BLM is trying to clear away dead pinon pines.

Jacobson also said she is trying to get funding to complete an analysis of fire risks and the impacts to cultural resources in the 164,000-acre monument. The project would look at vegetation types, Jacobson said, in combination with what the BLM knows about cultural resources, and then analyze the potential damage to cultural resources from wildfire.

"Overall it would be a document that would help us begin some long-term fire management," said Jacobson.

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