PB Agenda Packet - June 4 2025 - Laserfiche WebLink

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11 276 Kirby Saunders: Yeah, I would,just to answer your question first of all,yes, I care about you, and I care about 277 those landowners. Unfortunately,that would be the forest service really does that outreach, and 278 I'm not sure if you spoke fire department locally or the forest service. 279 280 Charity Kirk: Through the forest service. 281 282 Kirby Saunders: Okay. That would really be more a question to ask them about how can we reengage what that, 283 and you're welcome to contact me or AK, and I'm willing to help support that and advocate for you. 284 1 don't have answer. It's not something we do in emergency services. The forest service does 285 that outreach and assessment, as well as the forest management plans, and they can work with 286 you. And if you're having struggles there,we can definitely, I would love to hear about it how we 287 can support that and advocate for you. 288 289 Charity Kirk: Me and my partner are proactive, and I imagine that there's a lot of not proactive people out there. 290 291 Kirby Saunders: Certainly. 292 293 Charity Kirk: And so, if we fell off then I can imagine people who don't even think about it are going to 294 not even pursue it. 295 296 Kirby Saunders: I agree with you. 297 298 Charity Kirk: So, is that saying that is a priority for outreach and trying to get communities to do that? 299 300 Kirby Saunders: I can't answer specifically again about the forest management. That's forestry. I can't answer 301 what their priorities are as far as where they invest forest management practices, and I don't have 302 the answer that, and I can't speak about how they do engagement or outreach related to forest 303 management and reducing the fuel loads and vegetative fuels in unmanaged forest. I can't 304 answer that. Generally, on our end, our focus is more on the home in the immediate vicinity, so 305 we focus a lot of our efforts on fire prevention within the home, basic exterior maintenance. How 306 do you prevent a fire from escaping your home or impacting your home? The forest service will 307 be the most appropriate to answer about forest management concerns, management of fuels, 308 vegetative fuels like the pine straw you mentioned in your tract. 309 310 Charity Kirk: So, even though we are attached to two other, one low-income neighborhood of people of color 311 and one sort of middle-income neighborhood,the threat to those neighborhoods, as well as our 312 house is not necessarily your concern, it's the forestry department. You sort of separate 313 yourselves. 314 315 Kirby Saunders: No,that's not necessarily what I would mean by that. What I say is we are going to put priority on 316 those people that are in the homes that are at greatest risk of losing their life over managing the 317 risk per se. We leave the risk management to the forest service-to manage the fuel risk. We 318 focus our efforts on making sure those residents who are close by at risk of losing their life or their 319 property are prepared, and that's our focus. I hope that makes a little bit more sense. 320 321 Whitney Watson: Charity, there is another alternative or another way to go. There's the Triangle Prescribed Burn 322 Association,which is run out of Orange County. If you talk to them,they can help get you get 323 signed up to be a part of the support team, and that also includes having somebody come out and 324 help do an assessment and say yes,this area really would benefit from a prescribed burn or 325 there's really not the fuel load to make it worthwhile. 326 327 Kirby Saunders: And the forest service and cooperative extension are in the same office, so those are great 328 resources. Thank you. Again, I'm happy, you're welcome to contact me if you're having 329 challenges and I can help you make the connection. 330