As Joy Road deteriorates,
residents wonder
'When will it ever get fixed?'
Joy Road is a primary evacuation route for over 600 residents—assuming all other routes are passable, more if any are closed. While full of potholes and crumbling edges, like many West County roads, two winters ago a slide narrowed the road further making two-way traffic impossible. It is also a primary road for Bodega Fire and other emergency resonders. Residents are worried about going into another fire season with the road unfixed and the possiblity of residents evacuating south while emergency vehicles or residents returning to get elderly residents are attempting to go north on Joy Rd.
Your local Fire Safe/Firewise organizations work with Safer West County to lobby for work on evacuation roads in West County—working on roadside fuel reduction as well as pavement improvements. Please reach out to highlight any unsafe roads in your area.
Here is a link to an article on the topic from the
Sebastopol Times Article
Safer West County's member gardens
A few weeks ago, over 200 residents toured the Safer West County's member gardens, Ellie Insley, where they learned how to garden and create a fire-resilient landscape. Homes on this tour demonstrated how beautiful defensible space can be. If you are in Forestville, Monte Rio, Camp Meeker or Occidental you can even get $1000 rebate when you do defensible space work. Read on to learn how.
Ellie's garden was part of the Eco-Friendly Garden Tour, hosted by the Sonoma-Marin Saving Water Program and California Native Plant Society. The garden was designed in collaboration with the Resilient Landscapes Coalition as an educational program to teach people about gardening in the defensible space and beyond.
The garden demonstrates the coalition's principles and shows Ellie's process to create a fire-resilient area surrounding her home. Some of the steps and actions demonstrated were:
“Hardening the home” by installing 1/8” mesh over all vents and around the perimeter of the deck to keep embers from entering,
Installing a 5’ edging of decorative gravel around the home and deck, removing all flammable material.
Adding gravel immediately next to home. Without the traditional “foundation planting”, which can create a fire hazard, Ellies garden proves that gravel edging can still be very attractive.
Ellie's home integrates with the other firewise features, like islands of low native shrubs, perennials, grasses and annual plants in the 5-30’ zone around the home.
The planting islands are separated by non-flammable flagstone and gravel pathways that allow you to meander through, with seating areas to afford different views of the plantings, surrounding valley oak savannah, and distant Atascadero Creek.
To learn more about plant selection, spacing and more visit:
Ellie co-leads SWC's educational programming and has been an active driver of the Resilient Landscape Coalition through her years of work with Sonoma Ecology Center.
To learn more about Defensible Space or apply for a $1000 rebate towards defensible space work visitSaferWestCounty.org. (Rebates available to residents of Camp Meeker, Monte Rio, Forestville, and Occidental.)
Home Insurance Shopping Help Webinar
Recording
United Policyholders is working hard to help California property owners stay financially protected despite unprecedented insurance availability and affordability challenges.
If you missed it, you can still view the recording of UP's Executive Director, Amy Bach, and a panel of agent/broker experts for a Home Insurance Shopping Help Webinar to get the straight scoop and answers to common questions.
This webinar will cover:
What to do if you are “dropped” (non-renewed)
What you can do to keep your insurance affordable
The current California home insurance marketplace
Insuring your home through the CA FAIR Plan
Home improvements that should qualify you for insurance discounts
Hot Dam! Beaver Believer Occidental Arts & Ecology Center
Named North Coast’
2024 Nonprofit Of The Year
Senate President pro Tempore Mike McGuire (D-North Coast) has selected an environmental powerhouse – the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center – as the 2024 California Nonprofit of the Year for California’s North Coast. Congratulations from Safer West County!
Below is an update from the FEMA Grant Team at Permit Sonoma, on SoCo Adapts Program.
SoCo Adapts project Phase 1 provides consultation for defensible space and structure hardening to help Sonoma County property owners create wildfire-wise landscapes and harden homes to be more resilient to ignition from the heat and embers of wildfire. The second phase of the project will provide $10,000 rebates to help property owners complete high priority projects.
Go to www.SoCoAdapts.org to check eligibility and learn more about the program.
Small-Diameter Log Provision for Local Mill
Unmanaged Sonoma County forests tend to be full of small-diameter trees that require thinning to improve habitat, watersheds, fire resilience, and more. Instead of leaving this material in the forest as chips or burning it in piles, Forestree Collective is working to source and process this material and they are now accepting logs at their western Sonoma County mill site.
If you’re a forest landowner or manager and have logs that fit the specifications below and you would like them utilized, please take a moment to fill out this form.
Log Specifications:
Logs must be relatively straight
Length: 8’ - 16’ ft lengths ideal with a minimum of 4’ lengths accepted
Diameter: 6” minimum to 12” maximum diameter butt end
For pick up, a minimum of 10 logs must be limbed, stacked and accessible next to a roadway
Tree tops less than 6” cut off
Trees must be recently cut and not more than 2-years post harvest
No visible rot or bug damage
Any species
Upcoming Events
Jun 27 - Wildfire Preparedness Communications Webinar for Rural Community Leaders
Jul 6 - Monte Rio BBQ
Jul 21 - Occidental Volunteer Fire Dept Association Annual Picnic in the Union Hotel Grove north of town
Rio Nido Radio Training - August 11th - Rio Nido Lodge 11AM
Sebastopol Radio Training- August 18th - Sebastopol Community Center/Youth Annex 11AM
Brunch with Lynda - Russian River Senior Center- August 15th. 10:15AM (RSVP Russian River Senior Center)
Petaluma Radio Training - Luchessi Center - September 8th - 11AM
Monte Rio/Villa Grande Radio Training - September 15, Monte Rio Community Center
Community News
Occidental
Volunteers needed at the Occidental Fire Department BBQ, both to staff the SWC/FSO/FSCM table and to help the OVFD with serving. It is a fun way to get to know your community. Contact info@SaferWestCounty.com for details.
Rio Nido
Congratulations to our newest Firewise Community, Rio Nido. Those who put work into this, are benefiting the entire community.
Rio Nido's first Firewise Community Cleanup Day, was organized by Anne McInerney. The activities included a group cleanup project, assisted by Ryan Osborne from the Sonoma County Fire District, that successfully cleared an overgrown and dangerous intersection that was also a significant ground cover fire hazard. Recology donated its largest Compost Bin, and residents had filled it by the end of the day. Fire Safe Sonoma made the Listos Tool Trailer available, which was widely used; Anne also organized opportunities for residents to utilize the County’s Chipping Program and created the maps for the County to organize the work—many of our residents made good use of this opportunity.
BIG THANKS to Fire Safe Sonoma for the use of and delivery/pick-up of the Listos Tool Trailer; Recology for the donation of the compost bin; Arielle at the County Chipping Program; Ryan Osborne from SCFD for his guidance on vegetation management; Brandon Hart from the county’s Integrated Waste Division, who waived tipping fees for our residents; and to all the volunteers here in Rio Nido who helped make this happen.
Anne was also responsible for Rio Nido being officially Firewise Certified, which included a certificate all Rio Nido residents can now use to hopefully get discounts on their homeowners insurance, and/or help in keeping their insurance in place. If you would like to contact Anne with any questions, she can be reached at [rionidofirewise@gmail.com]
