Working Together to Keep the DeBorgia Community Safe from Wildfire

By Matthew Koehler, New West Unfiltered 5-07-07

DEBORGIA, MT - The WildWest Institute and DeBorgia's West End Volunteer Fire Department will join forces again for the second annual DeBorgia Community Wildfire Protection Work Week May 12-15. The goal of the work week is to bring people together to create defensible space on private land around the DeBorgia community through education, action and fellowship. Special emphasis will be placed on improving defensible space around the homes of elderly members of the community and along key roads in the community.

In addition to lots of volunteer help, the community work week is being supported by a $14,700 grant the WildWest Institute secured through the National Forest Foundation and the Liz Claiborne Art Ortenberg Foundation. The grant money has been used to hire a local fuel reduction crew through Wildland Conservation Services.

In addition to the fuel reduction component of the community work week, there will be a community potluck barbecue Saturday evening starting at 5 pm at the West End Volunteer Fire Department's Fire Hall. All are welcome and encouraged to bring a dish to pass.

"The best wildfire protection for an individual's home is common sense preparation by the homeowner. Such basic things as keeping flammable items at least 30 feet from your house, and removing any brush or low tree branches out to about 100 feet from you house will greatly increase the chance of surviving a wildfire. Additionally, and very important, this basic homeowner preparation will give your volunteer firefighters a much better opportunity to help save your home when wildfire does strike," explained Bruce Charles, Chief of the West End Volunteer Fire Department.

"Given the historical role of fire in shaping both the forest communities and the human communities out on the west end of Mineral County, this work week is vital to ensuring that home and property owners are putting 'firewise' principles into practice," stated Jake Kreilick, Restoration Coordinator with the WildWest Institute.

Those interested in volunteering for the DeBorgia Community Wildfire Protection Work Week should call 406.542.7343. Volunteer opportunities include: collecting brush, pruning trees and bushes, feeding the chipper, helping with the community potluck on Saturday night, and more.

Since February 2005 the WildWest Institute has been working closely with DeBorgia's West End Volunteer Fire Department, local community members and business owners to get some good fuel reduction work completed around this small Montana community, which sits approximately 85 miles west of Missoula along I-90.

The WildWest Institute, West End Volunteer Fire Department and others local residents, businesses and conservation groups are currently engaged in a collaborative process through the Healthy Forests Restoration Act with the Superior District of the Lolo National Forest to develop a common sense plan for fuel reduction work on Forest Service land directly around the greater DeBorgia area.

These collaborative meetings and field trips have brought together upwards of 75 people, demonstrating a great
deal of public interest. The Forest Service has informed the collaborative group that fuel reduction work on the Forest Service lands around the DeBorgia area will not be implemented until at least 2009 due to the HFRA process and Forest Service budget issues, making the upcoming DeBorgia Community Wildfire Protection Work Weekend all the more important for keeping the community safe from wildfire.

The WildWest Institute works to protect and restore the forests, wildlands, watersheds and wildlife of the Northern Rockies. Learn more at http://www.wildwestinstitute.org. [End of article]