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Wednesday, June 1, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Create a circle of safety at home
Sisters Country birds
Before summer arrives,
create a circle of safety
around your home to protect
it from wildfire.
The Oregon Department
of Forestry, Keep Oregon
Green Association, Oregon
State Fire Marshal and fire
educators statewide are
spreading the word on ways
to help prevent human-caused
wildfires, as well as how to
protect a home in case a fire
encroaches.
“In a large fire event,
firefighters may not have
the capacity or resources to
defend every house. Just as
you lock the doors to keep
your home and family safe,
think of creating a fuel-free
defensible space, a ‘circle of
safety,’ around your home to
reduce fire danger and pro-
vide safe access to firefight-
ers so they can protect it,”
said Kristin Babbs, president
of Keep Oregon Green.
The main culprits are a
wildfire’s hot embers. They
can waft through the air a
mile or more ahead of the
actual flame front and come
to rest in leaves and needles
accumulated on the roof, or
in flammable plants in the
landscaping. In a matter of
By Douglas Beall
minutes the embers can ignite
the surrounding fuel. In some
instances, house fires started
by embers on the roof and
in rain gutters have smol-
dered without smoke for
days, creeping into the roof’s
underlayment, before burst-
ing into open flames.
“You can’t control where
these embers land, but you
can control what happens
when they do,” she said.
To create a circle of safety
around your property, start
with the house and the first 30
feet extending from the out-
ermost part of the structure,
including detached garages
and sheds. The roof is the
most vulnerable part of the
home. Regularly clear leaves
and needles from the roof and
gutters, and cut back any tree
limbs that overhang the roof.
Landscaping should con-
sist of low-growing, fire-
resistant plants that are
spaced carefully so as not
to draw a fire to the struc-
ture with surrounding fuel.
Rake leaves and debris from
the yard, mow grass, prune
trees six to 10 feet up from
the ground, and keep plants
well-watered to prevent a sur-
face fire from climbing into
the tree crowns and carrying
flames to the house. Properly
placed deciduous trees can
actually protect a home by
blocking a wildfire’s intense
heat.
Fuel breaks, such as drive-
ways, gravel walkways, and
green lawns can halt the
advance of a fire by starving
it of fuel.
In the zone 100 to 200 feet
from the home, trees may
need to be thinned, though
less intensively than those
closer in, so that canopies are
not touching.
It is not inevitable that a
wildfire will consume every-
thing in its path. The more
defensible-space work a
homeowner can accomplish
before fire season, the better
a home’s chances of surviv-
ing a wildfire.
“It’s peace of mind know-
ing that if you leave your
home for a stretch of time this
summer, it will still be stand-
ing when you return,” Babbs
said.
More tips on how to cre-
ate defensible space around
your home and protect it
from wildfire can be found at
www.firewise.org and www.
keeporegongreen.org.
Correspondent
Dropping from a perch
to feed on ground insects
or consuming many ber-
ries including poison oak,
our Western bluebirds are
beginning to build their
nests in tree cavities or
bird houses. The male will
begin singing before dawn
to mark his breeding terri-
tory. The female gathers fine
grasses, needles, feathers,
and horsehair and constructs
a loose nest where she lays
2-8 pale blue to white eggs.
Bluebirds may raise 2-3
broods using the same nest
or build another nest.
After incubating for
12-17 days the nestlings
will be fed for 18-25 days
before leaving their home.
Often the parents have help-
ers who help in attending
the young, and up to 45
percent of the nests contain
young that are not the resi-
dent male’s offspring.
On their wintering
grounds the Western blue-
bird will sometimes form
flocks of up to 100 with
robins and mountain blue-
birds mixed within the
flocks.
A collection of Western
bluebirds is called a “her-
mitage.” For more blue-
bird photos visit http://
abirdsingsbecauseithasa
song.com/recent-journeys.
photo by douGlas beall
The Western bluebirds (Sialia mexicana) have returned to Oregon after
wintering in California and Mexico.
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Sisters’ own Gary Cundiff manages I&J Carpets
in Bend, which has been in business for 45 years, by
far the longest run of any floor-covering operation
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Gary grew up in the floor covering business and
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quality comes first.
