BOARD MESSAGE Living with wildfires

The hillside had been grazed all summer to knock down the high grass. Yet once the fire began the flames flared 8 feet high and advanced quickly up the hill toward my house. The sky was black with thick smoke which created a disorienting and surreal reality reminiscent of so many famous depictions of hell.

Like a half-crazed fool, I stood on the ridge next to the house with garden hose in-hand, spraying down the eves of the roof with a miniscule and insignificant stream of water. The flames were now just a few feet away, and a dread came over me because I knew that within minutes the wood house would soon be engulfed in flames.

Suddenly a helicopter appeared overhead and dropped a thousand gallons of water on my head and in an instant the threatening flames were extinguished. I was never so grateful, and once the crisis was over, I found those airborne firefighters to thank them personally for saving my home. Instead, they thanked me for maintaining defensible space around the home and keeping the fuel load down! They declared it had made their job possible. Firefighters prioritize their efforts where they have the best chance of saving structures.

Fire preparation is typically boring to think about, expensive to accomplish, and maintaining defensible space doesn’t always show a visible aesthetic benefit. Yet once the sky is black with smoke suddenly what was once boring, becomes highly emotional.

Somersett stretches over 2,247 acres of rolling hills and steep inclines. There are 3,450 homes and approximately 10,000 residents. While not in a forest, our community is built in grassland and desert scrub which experiences frequent high winds. Somersett has been fortunate and has not been impacted by wildfire since its beginnings 20 years ago. Still there have been fires nearby including Caughlin Ranch in 2020, recognizing that each area is unique for fire risk.

A key concern identified in the Somersett community wildfire protection plan is the location of homes along ridgelines above drainage channels with heavy riparian vegetation. Another concern is locally invasive and highly flammable cheatgrass and medusahead, which add to the fuel loads. That sounds scary, so what can be done?

Quite a lot! With the benefit of a $3.2 million Federal USFS Grant program, our wildfire protection efforts effectively increase by a factor of five. Somersett and Sierra Canyon will each contribute $100K per year in matching fund as a part of grant requirements. This four-year program defines and measures control efforts according to a comprehensive plan that is professionally managed to accomplish specific grant directives which will reduce the highest risks. This involves a combination of mitigation projects to thin and reduce hillside fuels growth, followed by selective application of herbicides and preemergent, and replanting to replace invasive grasses with fire-adapted native bunch grasses. Additionally, the grant provides the means to create a more fire-resilient community through homeowner engagement and community education, including updated evacuation plans. `

A thoughtful progressive approach will net the best results. We can’t clear 2,200 acres without spending $10 million, nor would that produce the best results because it would cause damaging erosion and wildlife issues. Managing risks with carefully designed plans will provide the best protection and lowest risks. When a fire comes, our main objective is to give our firefighters time to respond and save structures. We can thank them for saving our homes, and they may well thank us for helping them do their job because of our prior planning and fuels mitigation.

The first effort of our fuels mitigation will likely be on the western border of Sierra Canyon, because this is one of the highest risks. That effort will clear 60 acres likely late this year, a workload worth over $220K which will provide immediate risk reduction. Clearing and reducing fuel loads will be followed by fuel breaks, herbicide treatment, reseeding, and native brush replacement. Then maintenance in each follow-on year to stay ahead of re-growth as we move the primary effort to other areas of high risk. This optimizes the results and reduces the risks for several years beyond the current season.

By the end of this period, at a minimum in accordance with the requirements of the grant, we will have performed hazardous fuels reduction on over 400 acres, restoration and reseeding of a total of 350 acres, and the creation of six shaded fire breaks covering more than 90 acres. Plus, we will conduct over 100 home defensible space assessments each year and other outreach to homeowners in Somersett.

The Board has selected highly qualified forestry contractors after competitive bidding and analysis. Those contractors will work under the direction of our dedicated administrator and project manager Tray Palmer. Tray served as the Fire Marshall for the City or Reno for many years, and we are fortunate to obtain his expertise leading and managing this effort top-to-bottom. He is intimately familiar with fire grants, and is a resident of Somersett. His oversight ensures not only continuous productivity but keeps the effort on track to deliver the stated results and reporting as required by the Federal grant, as well as adhering to the multi-year master plan.

When it comes to community wildfire protections, we’re all in this together. Homeowners will partner with our efforts to reduce risks and part of this program is to provide education, resources, and formalized plans which will involve you. This does not guarantee that the grass behind each house will be cut, instead it focuses on the community-wide risks where efforts will achieve the greatest benefit in decreasing risk. Homeowners are allowed and encouraged to reduce growth within 30 feet of their property line when they are adjacent to common open areas. For those who own vacant lots, or otherwise need assistance, our fire contractors will also be available to hire for your mitigation efforts.

Wildfire is not to be feared. It’s simply something to prepare for and at this juncture we are in better shape moving forward than ever before.

Onward!

Mark Capalongan

SOA Board Vice President, Community Relations