- Editor: Sophie Kolding
- Author: Susie Kocher
Most people planning home improvement projects take into account how improvements will affect the home’s ability to withstand rain and weathering. In California we should also consider the threat of wildfire when planning home improvement projects this spring
Most homes that burn during wildfires are ignited by flying embers landing on combustible material on or near homes. A wildfire passes by a home quickly, usually in a few minutes, while the exposure to flying embers can last for an hour or more. Therefore, activities homeowners undertake to make their home less ignitable from embers do the most to ensure its survival.
The most important home upgrade homeowners can do to reduce wildfire risk is to replace wood...
- Editor: Sophie Kolding
- Contributor: Max Moritz
Although wildland fires are a natural part of forest ecosystems, they can interefere with the planning of land-management activities and may have an array of anthropogenic factors. The article, Spatial variability in wildfire probability across the western United States from the International Journal of Wildland Fire, uses fire obsertvations to produce detailed estimates of wildfire probability, of both natural and anthropogenic factors. The International Journal of Wildland Fire publishes papers that advance basic and applied research concerning wildland fire. The Journal wishes to attract papers on a broad range of wildland fire issues that may include subjects beyond the range of papers published in recent issues. The...
- Posted By: Jaime Adler
- Written by: Susie Kocher, UCCE Advisor
Wildfire Summit pulls together Tahoe basin residents and agencies on the fourth anniversary of the 2007 Angora fire to improve implementation of defensible space
The Lake Tahoe Wildfire Summit was held in Tahoe City on June 24th, 2011, four years after the Angora fire which started on June 24th, 2007 in South Lake Tahoe. The summit drew together over 100 basin residents, agency staff and policy makers to focus on ways to reduce wildfire risks to Tahoe homes and communities. Presentations centered on wildfire issues in the Tahoe Basin and how to reduce risk to homes and communities by creating defensible space, improving building materials and design, and implementing forest fuels reduction...
- Posted By: Jaime Adler
- Written by: Steve Quarles, UCCE Forest Specialist
The ASTM E05.14 Subcommittee on Exterior Fire met today. Task groups that are developing standard test methods to evaluate vents and decking products updated the subcommittee on progress made since the last meeting (these committees meeting every six months, in early December and early June). All of these draft standards are in some stage of balloting at the subcommittee or main committee level.
Professor Joe Urbas, University of North Carolina-Charlotte, gave a presentation to the subcommittee on a research project that he has been working on. Professor Urbas has been evaluating the effectiveness of wetting agents applied to vegetation and building components in resisting radiant heat exposures. The wetting agents he evaluated...
- Posted By: Jaime Adler
- Written by: Gareth J Mayhead
I attended the “Wildfire 2” (AKA Building on Science to Implement Landscape Level Treatments for Fire Resilience) conference in McClellan last week. The conference, organized by UC Cooperative Extension and the Forest Service, was a follow-up to the Pre- and Post-Wildfire Forest Management Conference held in February 2010. Wildfire 2 built on the foundations of knowledge presented at the first conference and aimed to look at some of the broader social sustainability impacts of collaboratively based forest management.
