Hi FAC Members,
By making incremental progress toward adapting our communities and forests to the natural process of wildfire we can make the celebration of Earth Day last year round!
This week we are excited to share:
An interview with a Forest Service Fire Management Officer about how we can all support first responders during the 2020 fire season.
Go-Bag essentials to prepare your family for the event of any evacuation.
An interactive wildfire risk viewer to start conversations with your community about the potential effects of wildfire.
Stay safe,
Gabe
Jon Boe – Fire Management Officer, Santa Fe National Forest
Meet one of the many people that go to work every day to manage fire on and around our National Forest lands! In our interview with Jon Boe, we gained a unique perspective about how the 2020 fire season may look differently than in previous years.
Click here to read the entire profile.
You can help keep our first responders safe by following Jon’s recommendations for this year:
To be prepared for wildfire during the 2020 fire season:
Be engaged and alert to receive messages about wildfires. The sooner you know about a fire the more prepared you can be.
Have a plan for evacuating your family and all your animals.
Be cautious with ditch burning and pile burning. When these fires get out of hand, you’re putting firefighters at unnecessary risk.
To help prevent wildfires:
Be aware of and respect current burn bans, restrictions and closures to protect firefighters. Visit https://firerestrictions.us.nm/ for more information.
Leave-no-trace on national forests while public-use facilities are closed and trash collection is suspended. https://lnt.org/why/7-principles/
Follow state-ordered social distancing measures while on national forests https://cv.nmhealth.org/
Create a Go-Bag
Previously in this blog we’ve talked about alerts and ways to receive notice of an evacuation but when the notice comes what will you take with you? A Go-Bag is an evacuation bag that contains a three-day supply of items you would need to safely evacuate your home. These bags are prepared in advance, before an emergency, and are kept in an easily accessible place.
When creating your Go-Bag add these essentials:
Cash and extra credit cards,
Medications and prescription glasses,
Water and non-perishable food,
Personal toiletries and clothing,
Flashlight and batteries,
First-Aid kit, and
Pet necessities.
Visit this page for details about how to prepare https://facnm.org/evac
Interactive Risk Viewer
Wildfire Risk to Communities is a new free, easy-to-use website with interactive maps, charts, and resources to help communities understand, explore, and reduce wildfire risk. This website serves as a starting point to help community leaders be able to assess and reduce risk to homes, businesses, and other valued resources. Use this website to start conversations with friends, neighbors, family members, and anyone else in your community about wildfire.
Check it out: https://wildfirerisk.org/
Upcoming Webinars
SWFSC: Fire season review for 2019 and a 2020 outlook
Apr 29, 2020 01:00 PM Mountain Time
The purpose of this webinar is to review 2019 fires and look ahead toward conditions for 2020. Dr. Zander Evans presented an overview of the largest fires in the Southwest during 2019. He will share summaries of forest types and burn severities for each of the fires. In addition, Rich Naden, Fire Weather Meteorologist with the Southwest Coordination Center, will discuss the fire season outlook for 2020 in the Southwest, and Terrance Gallegos and Brent Davidson of the US Forest Service will discuss the impacts of COVID-19 on the upcoming fire season.
Preparing your home for wildfire and addressing the Home Ignition Zone
Mid-May TBD
Stay tuned fore more details