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MINUTES
BTCSD Greenbelt Stewardship Plan
Page 9 of 10
PUBLIC MEETING - August 27, 2005
Brooktrails Community Center - 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Presented by the Recreation, Greenbelt & Conservation Committee
Facilitated by Brian Weller
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CDF Chief Tolbert said if it were up to him, he would suggest contacting your neighbor before contacting the Fire Chief, and ask them to clear the lot. He said skipping going to the neighbor would burden the Chief. Even absentee owners have probably been notified in the past by the District about needing to clear the lots. The Fire Department or County Assessor should be able to help you identify who owns the lot. An audience member said you can look at the map at the Brooktrails office and get the parcel number and can get the owner's name from the County.
An audience member asked about standards that leave some things for the wildlife. Someone responded that some species like forest openings and others don't; she said you can't provide dense habitat on the fuel break and still make it effective. An audience member asked what Chair Ziady had meant by the term making your house "fire hardy." Chief Tolbert responded that PRC 4291 requires clearing vegetation within 100 feet of your house or to the property line, whichever is closer. That is not a nothing-growing 100 feet zone, but is most of the grasses and light flammable material, separating out bushes, limbing trees up 10 feet to prevent laddering up to the canopy, eliminating limbs overhanging the roof line, putting 1/2" screening vertically on your chimney, and other things. One of the most important things is not having shake roofs. These are 3/4" thick wooden shingles and wood siding. Asphalt and concrete shingles are both rated Class A for fire resistance. He cited a recent local fire where a house not even in the fire house was the only one that caught fire, because embers traveled to its shake roof. Chair Ziady mentioned enclosing eaves and under decks. Some people use a concrete-mix siding which is more fire resistant. An audience member said that when he built, wood siding was required.
An audience member asked if large trees removed to create a 30% canopy reduction would be sold. Chair Ziady said she wouldn't sell it. Tara Shannon commented this would be difficult to fund and that maybe principles could be devised whereby a timber operator might not pay revenues but the transaction would come out neutral. Chair Ziady said she did not believe there was enough trust in the community to allow this arrangement and she did not believe we could viably sell anything. Ms. Shannon wondered if everyone really felt this way. She asked if they would allow an operator to take the trees they have cut to the mill in return for doing the clearing.
Mr. Weller conducted an informal straw poll of the room on this question. He asked how many people agreed with this proposal; about 60% raised their hands. Mr. Weller asked how many opposed it and about 40% raised their hands. Mr. Weller asked how many were undecided; one person raised his hand.
Sara Skyler suggested keeping and milling large trees cut and using them for District purposes, such as in recreation projects. Ms. Shannon said that most times there is a trade when someone comes in specifically to mill a tree: they take half the lumber, you get half the lumber. If there is oversight to enforce not having commercial economic influence as the main driver, we have the responsibility as a community, she said the polarization between commercial logging interests and the back-to-the-land interests have become polarized the whole educational process obviously the fire abatement is a years-long process, and through those educational efforts (classes and pamphlets), the more people realize that they're personally responsible and are empowered to participate in the decision, the more the possibility opens up with negotiating an exchange with local mills, so we don't have to pay excessive funds for the firebreaks, and the person doing the work also benefits. All of this requires trust and an elimination of the polarization, and that's going to take some education time. She said she felt everyone, from the most radical concepts to the most conservative concepts, is invested, and she felt if we stopped being polarized, we will come to something that may not make everybody happy, but will satisfy the needs of the forest. Mr. Weller summarized her points as the need to get out of the polarized situation into a middle ground, and she agreed.
Ms. Tunstall referred to replanting as mentioned in an earlier meeting. Chair Ziady said this would be covered in the next meeting.
Chair Ziady asked how many of the audience had attended the CFIP meetings. She said she felt there had been a growth in trust of the District since that process. She said she had to move as the community moved, and would rather have some interesting convolutions that were responsive to the community. An audience member commented that the first priority should be fuel breaks. Ms. Skyler said she felt fuel breaks aren't normally attractive, and it is hard for the general public to get behind that. She said she had been impressed at an earlier meeting by a forester's report of fire histories here, as coming over that ridge, and this made a lot of sense to her as one of our main areas of defense.
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