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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 21, 2019)
COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2019 | 7A The Cottage Events Venue presents INTERNATIONAL FOLK MUSIC AWARDS 2017 ARTIST OF THE YEAR IN CONCERT Thursday, August 22 at 7 PM Suggested $15-$20 at the door The Cottage Events Venue 2915 Row River Rd • cottageevents.com EVENTS! FRIDAY AUGUST 23RD – 7:30PM – 10:30PM Dawn Riding - Folk/Americana SATURDAY AUGUST 24TH – 7:00PM – 10:00PM Gumbo Groovem - Gumbo Grass As always no cover charge and 20 and under are welcome until 8:30 p.m. For more information call 541-942-8770. Delve into YOUR past at our library, located in the Cottage Grove Community Center! Our library is open Wed - Sat 11:00-4:00 Cottage Grove Genealogical Society 700 Gibbs Ave. P.O. Box 388 Cottage Grove, OR 97424 541-942-9570 Future from A1 get back together?” Planning for the most likely disaster events would appear a reasonable approach and, for many preparedness strategies, there is some crossover. The American Red Cross, for instance, sug- gests that households keep two food and water sur- vival kits: one three-day kit for evacuations and one two-week supply for a lengthy home stay. Wheth- er it be a snowstorm, fire or earthquake, a stock of certain basic supplies will always ensure at least a modicum of impact miti- gation. Beyond that, intercon- nectedness with one’s community can be an invaluable resource in it- self, easing the burden of self-reliance. Community response teams, amateur radio operation or even just being acquainted with a neighbor are all useful tools in emergency plan- ning. Weaving into this fab- ric of preparedness the knowledge of one’s envi- ronment and perception of future threats, a truly resilient community may emerge. As a community em- bracing both urban and rural identities, the Cot- tage Grove area presents its own brand of emergen- cy preparedness challeng- es. For those leaning more rurally, the annual threat of fire has hung particular- ly heavy in the last several years. “Partners in History” ‘THE BOOHER HOUSE’ FOR WOMEN Now taking applications for interview process “Providing a safe & sober living environment for people who require transitional housing” Call 541-946-3234 Cottage Grove Garden Supply Taking the Heat Alex Rahmlow is the fire planning coordinator with the Oregon Depart- ment of Forestry’s Western Lane District. Rahmlow has seen a steady increase of wildfires in the area, but he doesn’t think Cottage Grove’s surrounding com- munities have it the worst. “We look better than Medford,” he said, “and we look worse than Portland.” Fire severity and fre- quency depend on a myri- ad of factors. Weather, fuel accumulation and popu- lation density are some of the heavier influencers. “If you look at the last 10 years, we’ve had re- cord-breaking fire seasons in and around Cottage Grove,” he said. “Oregon as a state — it’s been re- cord-breaking in both cost and acres burned. But then you take this year, for example, and we’re right back to normal or a little bit below average.” In a January article in the journal Forest Ecolo- gy and Management, re- searchers established that high severity wildfires have been on the rise in the region. “Both the frequency and size of large wildfires have increased in the past 30 years in the western U.S., as has the length of the fire season,” it reads. As climate change pro- vides conditions for the growth of more biomass and fuel due to wetter winters and springs, the drying of those fuels is enhanced by summertime droughts. The article cites estimates that half of ob- served trends in wildfires are due to such climate change. This year to date, the Oregon Department of Forestry reports that there have been 666 fires in the state, 516 of which were human-caused and 150 caused by lightning strikes. “Cottage Grove is kind of right on that transition of coast to cascades,” said Rahmlow. “And cascades typically get a lot of the lightning. So that’s where a lot of our natural starts come from.” The human hand in the rise of fire events, howev- er, is undeniable. “There’s a direct correla- tion to the number of peo- ple that are living in the wildland and the amount of starts that you have,” Rahmlow said. “So, the higher recreation or high- er density of people living out there, in and around forests, you’re going to have more starts.” With the steadily in- creasing human popu- lation showing no signs of slowing down, people may have to get used to the idea of being vigilantly fire-conscious. Fortunate- ly, there are things people can do to prepare. “Wildfires are one of those few natural disasters that you can actually dras- tically reduce the impact of with proper planning and preparation,” said Rahmlow. One way the average citizen can reduce risk to their own home is with a “defensible space” strat- egy. As the severity of a fire is largely dependent on available fuel, manip- ulating the arrangement of that fuel can reduce the likelihood of a severe fire event. “If you can separate the canopy from the ground, then you’ve effectively re- duced the potential sever- ity of a fire in that area,” Rahmlow said. This means pruning tree limbs to eight feet and keeping ground veg- etation short in order to create a vertical separa- tion between fuel sourc- es. Likewise, thinning out crowded trees by spacing conifers about eight feet apart can break up the horizontal continuity. Rahmlow also recom- mends a defensible space of at least 30 feet around a home. “Your 30-foot space should be lean, clean and green, so 30 feet around your home is essentially a no-burn area,” he said. “Defensible space usually goes up to 150 feet.” California’s Camp Fire in 2018 was the deadliest and most destructive in the state’s history, leveling the town of Paradise. “Part of the issue was … you have houses that are built next to each other that are within that initial fuel break,” said Rahmlow, creating what he called “a forest of homes.” California passed a landmark building code in 2008 requiring fire safe- guards for homes, which included 100 feet of de- fensible space. According to The Sacramento Bee, “about 51 percent of the 350 single-family homes built after 2008 in the path of the Camp Fire were un- damaged.” With the prospect of more frequent and intense fires in the future, making defensible space could be in homeowners’ best inter- ests, even if not required by the State of Oregon’s building code. Rural residents may have other options as well. As mentioned previous- ly in this series, Dorena residents Dan Holt and Cal Swanson have taken it upon themselves to pro- vide fire safeguards to the area with the purchase of their own fire engines. While finding volun- teers to be on call for emergency responses is its own challenge, perhaps the hardest will be keeping the volunteers trained on how to operate the vehi- cles, pumps and hoses. “If I haven’t seen some- one in six months, they won’t remember how to do it,” said Swanson. “You need a cadre of volunteers that practice occasionally.” On top of training and gathering the manpower, an additional catch is lia- bility. “That’s the challenge, is if you form a fire district or a fire department, all this equipment has to be certified,” said Swanson. Because they have no plan to start their own dis- trict, Holt and Swanson cannot provide insurance to volunteers — any emer- gency response would have to be done at a volun- teer’s own risk. Swanson, who spent 20 years in the Navy, was trained to fight shipboard fires and, although ac- knowledging the equip- ment differed, “I feel like I know how to handle a hose,” he said. Legal recourse from others is a thorny issue as well. “I would rely on the Good Samaritan Law of, ‘I was rendering aid,’” said Swanson. Though Oregon does indeed have Good Sa- maritan Law under ORS 30.800, the statute pro- vides protection for “med- ically trained persons” and may not protect people from legal liability result- ing from a victim’s inju- ry if the aid provider is rendering care outside of their level of training. Despite these hurdles, some Dorena residents have expressed comfort in knowing that neigh- bors may be able to come to their rescue should the situation arise. Issues like this, though, are not always on county or state agency radar. To address this, Lane County is currently con- ducting a survey of resi- dents’ perceptions of wild- fire risk for its Community Wildfire Protection Plan. Not only will the survey provide agencies a sense of where to focus, but an up- dated plan may allow the county to receive federal funds to reduce wildfire risk. Residents can take the survey by visiting www. lanecounty.org/fireplan. At Fault Just as people in the Pacific Northwest are be- coming accustomed to more wildfires, another impending disaster rests invariably in the back of their minds: Cascadia. See FAULT 9A facebook@cottagegrovegardensupply CottageGrovegardensupply @gmail.com M-F 8-6 • Sat 8-4 Sun closed If we are closed and you have a plant emergency call 541-232-1125 541.933.4419 2895 Mosby Creek Road Bring your surfboard and Sunglasses! Join the Carousel Group for the Men from S.U.R.F. August 25th - 4pm Calvary Chapel - $5 6 Cubic FT. wheel barrow steel handle no flat tire Reg. $119 25-45% OFF Appliances Up to 30% OFF Power Lawn & Garden SALE $99 LANDSCAPE AND BUILDING MATERIALS Open 7 days a week! 79149 N. River Road 541-942-4664 GREAT FOOD Daily Specials 40+ Craft Beers To-Go Orders Welcome Suite Deals Extra Savings on eligible kitchen suites Samsung – LG – GE Ask us about additional savings and fi nancing. 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