The Disaster Recovery Team would like your input on the Redwood Complex Fire Recovery Project Work Plan. Please send comments to the email posted in the draft. Thanks!
Recap from May 9, 2018 Fire Recovery Meeting:
The Mendocino-ROC were asked by the Norther California Grantmakers to write an article to be featured on their Equity and Recovery Series Blog. An article was published last week and offers a view to outsiders on what we are facing locally. Take a look!
FEBRUARY 23, 2019: At the April 11, 2018 RVMAC meeting, Bob Rogers of the local Rotary Clubs announced that Rotary had raised funding to offer FREE TREE SEEDLINGS for the Redwood and Potter Valley burn areas. These were 50,000 Douglas and Ponderosa pine seedlings. By Winter 2019, all seedlings have been planted in and around the Redwood Valley and Willits. These native-growing seedlings are adapted to our area, and have been spaced appropriately so as not to crowd each other. These types of trees, as they grow, support local fauna and tend to “self-limb”—that is, lower branches drop off in support of the upper branches or canopy of the trees. Such growth pattern doesn’t tend to support “crown fires” since lower branches are removed naturally. Spacing needs to be sufficiently wide (30 feet or so) that trees won’t get overly dense—another propagator of fires. A forester spoke at another recent RVMAC meeting to explain how seedlings of these native trees should be planted for maximum fire protection (spacing; planting in shadier or cooler slopes; plant before winter rains to maximize root growth and seedling survivability; etc). The efforts by this tremendous group of local Rotary volunteers funded the project, and over time, we will see the tiny seedlings grow to enhance our local hills with a green canopy once again. Thank you for all you do, Rotarians!
Mendocino-Rebuilding Our Community (M-ROC) Press Releases:
FIRE RECOVERY GRANTS OFFERED BY ROTARY CLUB!! Did you know that the good people at the local Rotary Clubs can offer up to $5,000 for business recovery grants for losses from the wildfires? That includes home-based and storefront businesses. Several have already been awarded in Mendocino County--and the application form is pretty easy to complete!! Find it at: larca5130.org (that's their website). Rotary also offers General grants for other kinds of losses, apparently with $2,500 limits. These are not LOANS; they are GRANTS. The applicant must document how they use the funds, both in the application and as the funds are used--but this is a great deal. For more information, go to the website. Need help completing the application? Contact the RV MAC using the contact form in the menu list at the top of this page.
ARE YOU STILL REGISTERED TO VOTE? If you have relocated due to losing your home in the fire, please ensure you remain registered to vote in Mendocino County (or your new county of residence if you have moved). The Secretary of State’s office said the normal process for registration applies. If resident address hasn’t changed (and you aren’t moving) you don’t need to re-register. If you are planning on moving elsewhere you will need to re-register with the new address. Here is a helpful link, courtesy of Taylor Morrison from the local office of Senator Mike McGuire::
http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/frequently-asked-questions/
FIRE DEBRIS CLEANUP--
REMEMBER: if you no longer live in your home, you need to contact county staff and GIVE THEM INFORMATION ABOUT HOW YOU MAY be contacted (phone, cell, email, address). For example, if the Army Corps identifies when they may send contractors to clear debris at your property, they will try to notify you in advance.
Mendocino County Fire Safe Council
The Mendocino County Fire Safe Council is a coalition of individuals, businesses,and public and private agencies who share the goal of preventing loss of life, destruction of property, and damage to the environment caused by wildfire. Currently, Redwood Valley does not have its own Fire Safe Council. The RV MAC will be looking into joining forces with the MCFSC (see below) in the near future to begin developing projects for local volunteers around the goal of improving the fire safety of Redwood Valley and its environs. Feel free to contact the MCFSC independently, and to share your information with the RV MAC so that we can advance fire safety on all fronts in our community.
The fire problem in California has been researched for many years and numerous books have been published and websites developed so that we don't have to reinvent the wheel. Want to do your part to make our County safer? Get this book and apply its principles to your own property: "FIRESCAPING: Creating Fire-resistant Landscapes, Gardens, and Properties in California's Diverse Environments" by Douglas Kent (Wilderness Press, 2005). Use this book to defend your home and property against fire, while maintaining beauty in your garden. For more detailed steps to help "harden" your location against fire, many online sites are available, such as:
www.ocfa.org/Uploads/CommunityRiskReduction
and review the Fuel Modification and other handbooks. {If above link doesn't work, copy it down and go to the website outside this webpage--we are volunteers and some of us are all thumbs when it comes to website technicalities!-cb]
_______________________________________________________________________
Welcome to the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council (MCFSC). Our mission is to help the citizens of Mendocino County survive and thrive in a fire-prone environment.
Look through our resources—you’ll find lots of information about preparing defensible space around your home, hardening your home to resist fire, and to help you and your neighbors develop a neighborhood Fire Safe Council.
Since 2004, your Fire Safe Council has been working helping people, property, and resources survive and thrive in a fire-prone wild land environment.
We aren’t funded for a chipping program this year, but contact us for assistance and information to help you and your prepare for fire.
The Mendocino County Fire Safe Council encourages all interested persons to become Members (dues are $30/year or $50 for two years) and to participate in its work! Join HERE