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Agendas and Minutes

Wildfire Safety Management Advisory Committee (View All)

Regular Meeting Minutes

Agenda
Wednesday, January 18, 2017

MINUTES FOR A MEETING OF THE
WILDFIRE MITIGATION COMMISSION
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
11:00AM to 1:00PM
Training Room, Ashland Fire Station #1
455 Siskiyou Blvd

CALL TO ORDER: 11:07am

IN ATTENDANCE: Tracy Peddicord, Stef Seffinger, Stephen Gagne, Vicky Sturtevant, Bruce Moats, Chris Chambers, Alison Lerch

NOT IN ATTENDANCE: Tim Bewley, Doug Kay

INTRODUCTIONS

APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Stephen moved to approve, Tracy 2nd, all in favor.

ACTION ITEM: Tim, Vicky and Alison will meet after January 16th to create a plan of work for the CWPP.

ACTION ITEM: Create a live fire exercise in Ashland during a community event
This is possible if we created something at the airport or at a large parking lot. Vicky went to a similar demonstration where kids built model structures. This is a great way to engage children. The airport may not be the right location since there is limited parking. How can we bring in the schools? Is there a middle school science teacher that we can work with? What about an event at North Mountain Park? Or tie into Earth Day? Tracy will talk to the Principal at Ashland Middle School.

ACTION ITEM: Follow up on the Paul Hessberg Video
The North 40 productions has copyright issues with the filming of Paul Hessburg’s “Era of Megafires” presentation. Chris asked how much it would cost for the use of the photo/video content. We have a copy of the Leavenworth presentation. We could show the video the first 2 weeks of May. Chris will ask for a higher quality video from the producer in Leavenworth. (Stephen mentioned that there are fair use laws for the use of materials for educational purposes.) Since we do not have the data, we could try and do a free streaming in the 2 weeks of May. FOLLOW UP: Chris will talk with Paul Hessburg at a meeting next week about this issue.

ACTION ITEM: Update email addresses on the Wildfire Mitigation Commission website
Barbara Christensen asked for Alison to send the updated email addresses to her.

PUBLIC FORUM

ADJUSTMENTS TO THE AGENDA

BUSINESS
1. New Business
  1. Commission Vacancy
    1. A General Contractor or Realtor would greatly enhance the Commission Board. We can ask Marie Donovan about a Realtor in town that may be interested. Alison will send a message to Marie Donovan. Stephen will contact Steve Asher, a General Contractor and Judith McBride, the former Willow Wind Director. Tracy will contact a couple of people as well.
  2. 2016 Accomplishments
    1. Vicky will work with Alison to put together a list of 2016 accomplishments for the February WMC meeting. Alison/Vicky/Tim will meet in the next week.
  3. 2017 Commission Priorities
    1. Alison will revamp the list and bring it to the February Meeting

Ongoing Business
1. AF&R Update:
  1. AFR: The helicopter is moving in by the end of January for 400 acres. This work is in the 4 Corners area. All log trucks will come down Tolman Creek Rd. If weather allows we will be done by the end of April. In addition, getting ready for burn season, but the piles are under snow. The 2^nd TREX event is scheduled for the first two weeks of May.
  2. AFAR: Last leg of funding from NRCS ($3mil to date, $1mil needs to be obligated). Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB) funding includes City land and private landowners, including burning in the spring.
  3. Firewise: Meadowhawk HOA is our 25^th Firewise Community.
2. Community Wildfire Protection Plan update
  1. Community Outreach Plan: Landscapers/Nursery
  2. Alison is working on pulling information into the outline. Chris is working on the Risk Assessment with Community Planning Assistance for Wildfire (CPAW) and Rickey from the City of Ashland. Researchers from the Rocky Mountain Research Station are working to support communities doing Risk Assessments adjacent to National Forest land. They will give state of the art data. Chris will bring a product to the February meeting.

Parking Lot Issues
1. Wildfire Mitigation Ordinance
  1. CPAW made recommendations to the current ordinance and produced a memo for the 1/20/17 WMO meeting.
2. Flammable Plant List/Landscaper-Nursery Update (Did we meet, what is the update)
  1. Doug, Tracy, Alison and Bruce met yesterday to review the flammable plant list. Tracy created a three tiered reference sheet for plants to install within 30 feet of a structure.
    - How do we coordinate the lists of pollinator/drought tolerant? The City Council has a lot of priorities such as bee, drought, etc.
    - SG: A codified flammable plant list should still be incorporated into the Ordinance. This list of the Green/Yellow/Red plants is a great start.
    - VS: See a list of approved professional landscapers that can draw up a plan
  2. Moving forward, Tracy will work on adding plants to the plant list. The subcommittee will meet before the February meeting.
3. CWPP Engagement Outreach (Chamber/Firewise Communities)
  1. The next Wildfire Task Force meeting with the Chamber of Commerce is scheduled for February 1^st. We will discuss the results of the Smoke Communications Workshop held this Friday, 1/20/2017. We will also be moving forward with ideas for an Evacuation/Communications group.
4. Branding the WMC
5. Wildfire Commission Collateral
  1. Create an annual plan of work for the WMC
6. Firewise Website

COMMISSIONER COMMENTS

REVIEW AND SET COMMISSION CALENDAR / NEXT MEETING
1. Mayors Brown Bag Lunch: January 27, 2016, 12:00pm (ComDev)
2. Chamber WTF Meeting: February 1, 2016, 10:30pm (Station 1)
3. Next WMC Meeting: February 15, 2016, 11:00am (Station 1)

AGENDA ITEMS FOR February 16

ADJOURN: 12:57pm

In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, if you need special assistance to participate in this meeting, please contact the Public Works Office at 488-5587 (TTY phone number 1 800 735 2900). Notification 48 hours prior to the meeting will enable the City to make reasonable arrangements to ensure accessibility to the meeting (28 CFR 35.102-35.104 ADA Title I).