Borough begins wildland fire risk reduction

MAT-SU — Fire Departments all across the Mat-Su will be hosting demonstrations on how to be ‘Fire Wise’ and protect property in the Mat-Su Borough from fire hazards on May 8.

Mat-Su Borough Department of Emergency Services Director Ken Barkley briefed the Mat-Su Borough Assembly on May 4 about wildfire risk reduction measures being undertaken by the borough. Barkley reported that all Mat-Su Borough Fire Departments have received their ‘Red Card’ certifications for wildland firefighting, which has already begun at numerous fires around the Valley.

“As you’re driving north mile 71 to 77 is evidence of the Sockeye wildfire and 86 to 91 is the McKinley wildfire, just some incredible devastation that’s still visible even years later so I think thus speaks to the importance of the fire wise program and I want to thank the various departments and directors who have been working to do the outreach on this,” said Deputy Mayor Tam Boeve.

Barkley spoke about additional firewood cutting permits available for beetle-kill spruce, a fuel that has fueled wildfires in the Valley in recent years.

“There’s free beetle kill spruce firewood permits that are available in the area that you can get the spruce beetle kill on the Parks Highway between miles 100 and 137,” said Barkley. “So far 780 cords of dead spruce beetle kill permits have been issued for 780 cords of dead spruce from that area so there is interest in that.”

At various Fire Department stations across the Mat-Su on May 8, a joint effort between the Red Cross, Community Emergency Response Teams and fire departments will provide demonstration and education on safely protecting homes of residents from wildfire. The demonstrations will take place between 10 a.m., and 3 p.m., on Saturday.

“Just to let you know what we’re doing, we’ve already had over 20 escapement burns this season already. We’ve lost no structures. We have lost sheds and outbuildings but no actual homes so far.The last one we had was in central, the one before that was in the Butte, the one before that was in Lakes, so the grass is dry. Fire’s moving fast, so everyone of these, they were doing a burn barrel or trying to burn their yard,” said Barkley.

Borough Manager Mike Brown said that he wanted to continue to follow Assembly direction to make wildland fire protection a priority.

“I’m really pleased with the fact that we’ll have folks out there at fire stations this weekend doing public education, raising the level of awareness and helping people to understand what firewise is and how they can help to create some of that defensible space around their homes and help protect their homes,” said Brown. “We are going to continue to look for opportunities where we might be able to get some funding that would allow folks to actually make those improvements, so they may be able to identify where they need that defensible space but may not have the ability to actually firewise. So we are looking at different opportunities where we could potentially get some funding, maybe work that through a contractor and actually help those folks that are unable to help themselves.”

The Borough hired a contractor that recently completed work felling dangerous trees along public trails. At the Alcantra Sports Complex and Crevasse Moraine trail system, 750 trees were taken down that would have fallen on trails. Barkley also said that saw crews would be working over the winter to fell hazard trees at urban wildland interface locations in coordination with the state Department of Forestry for regional fuel breaks in high hazard areas.

“We suspect that there will be some great success in reducing the fire hazards for the Mat-Su Borough,” said Barkley.

Along with the 37 miles along the Parks Highway with firewood cutting permits for beetle kill spruce, five new firewood harvest areas will be open for free permits to harvest damaged spruce trees.

“We’re working on a new commercial timber salvage permit, this was to reduce the cost and paperwork for a commercial logger that wants to harvest beetle kill and old birch from borough property,” said Barkley. “We’re trying to make the process simpler so that those that do want to harvest the spruce beetle kill don’t have to go through a long process, so that’s what we’re working on to make it easier for the contractors.”