NFPA Journal - September/October 2012 - (Page 67)

property on a regular basis, but adds that there will always be naysayers. “Trying to get people to do this for the long term is a challenge,” he says. “There are those that still equate mitigation with clear-cutting, or they say, ‘I like my privacy.’ But there are enough people in this community who’ve bought into it.” Another challenging task was the mitigation in Solitude Park. The community received the 300-acre (121-hectare) parcel following a settlement agreement in 2000, and it is now protected through a conservation easement with a local land trust, according to resident Dick Standaert, who took the lead in initiating the mitigation. To the land trust’s trustees, he says, “setting a piece of land aside in perpetuity meant that you didn’t touch it.” With help from the CSFD, though, he initiated what he describes as a “mitigation demo” on a three-acre (one-hectare) section of the park. The demonstration was a success, Standaert says—it proved that mitigation can be effective without drastically altering landscapes—and paved the way for a much larger fuels mitigation project in the park. Solitude Park is also an example of how FAC principles aim to protect not just residences but all aspects of a community, including green space and utilities. Fulks of The Nature Conservancy is an advocate for the U.S. Fire Learning Network, a joint project of TNC and other organizations, and helps communities consider projects that depend on what she calls “good fire” to restore natural habitats. Her hope is that the Colorado Springs fact-finding project won’t lose sight of fire’s importance, particularly in these settings. “We’re interested in the built environment, but I believe FAC principles also extend beyond communities,” she says, while snapping photos in Solitude Park. “If we had healthier forests, the wildfires we have would be more benign.” Eric Howell, watershed and forest management specialist with Colorado gency ordinances that will address fireSprings Utilities, says that utilities have resistant roofing and building designs a key role to play, too. “Within the last for new construction. few years, we’ve developed a real good FAC members, determined to make partnership with the CSFD,” he says. sure that the Waldo Canyon Fire doesn’t “We knew mitigation was something become just another historical footnote, we needed to address.” He and his team say that their report on the fire will adare conducting assessments of the dress in detail the extent of mitigation nearly 30 tank sites and pump stations in Colorado Springs before the fire, the around Colorado Springs, and he says effect it had on the damage, and how the the utility plans to move forward on various mitigation efforts mesh with the projects to mitigate fire hazards. overall FAC initiative. They hope others Lewis credits such progress to the can benefit from what occurred here. community’s multi-faceted rapport While CSFD’s Notbohm is happy to with the CSFD but believes that mitigation only goes so far. “I honestly believe that there is no amount of mitigation that would have helped Mountain Shadows, or us, if the [wind shifted the fire] in our direction,” he says. [See “In Harm’s Way,” page 63.] “But what you can do is prepare the best you possibly can.” Preparation seems to be on Mitigation in Solitude Park (pictured) was credited with helping keep the fire out of Cedar Heights. the minds of many residents since the Waldo Canyon Fire; Notbohm says the volume of calls he’s help spread the word, it doesn’t alter been receiving has been “tremendous.” the fact that it was his town that was But Prudhomme tempers that with hit, or that his town has become the latan observation from her own experiest example of our ongoing struggle ence. “Following the Hayman Fire, the with the wildland/urban interface. As phones at the fire department rang off we gaze at a pile of rubble that was the hook. The next year, we had to beat once a Mountain Shadows home the bushes to find people interested in topped by a cedar shake roof, I ask him mitigation,” she says, adding that studif sites like this make him feel helpless ies show that this top-of-mind awareagainst fire. “I’m doing my job if I’m ness lasts three to 12 months before telling the story. You can take action or people revert to their old ways. “It fades not, but if residents understand the that quickly,” she says. threat and potential, I’m doing my job,” he says. He moves toward a wooden Rebirth and rebuilding swing-set that appears mostly undamIn Solitude Park, new green scrub aged, except for its green plastic slide, oaks and clusters of flowering plants which has partially melted. “Maybe we are already sprouting from the burnt didn’t get to everyone. Maybe everyone ground, a sign of nature’s resiliency. didn’t want to listen. But I feel good The built environment, say the people that I reached out to everyone who who call Colorado Springs home, will wanted to listen.” undergo a similar rebirth. Discussions are underway about creating emerFred durso, Jr. is staff writer for NFPA Journal. Photograph: Kenyon Jordan/Westside Pioneer SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2012 NFPA JOURNAL 67

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - September/October 2012

NFPA Journal - September/October 2012
Contents
First Word
Mail Call
In a Flash
Perspectives
Firewatch
Research
Heads Up
Structural Ops
In Compliance
Buzzwords
Outreach
Electrical Safety
Wildfire Watch
Lessons of Comayagua
After Waldo Canyon
Catastrophic Multiple-Death Fires in 2011
Fire Loss in the United States in 2011
Section Spotlight
Research + Analysis
What’s Hot
Looking Back

NFPA Journal - September/October 2012