Neighbors helping neighbors
I live in Englewood, Colorado but have undeveloped property in Florissant. I have been with this group since its inception in 2019/2020. I drive 100 miles one way to help neighbors helping neighbors with fire mitigation. I met my girlfriend of the last 3 years on one of these projects and we see each other when we can. With a grant from the state of Colorado we, along with several others, have received training with a certificate for S-130 Fire Fighter Training, S-190 Introduction to Wildland Fire Behavior AND l-180 Human factors in the Wildland Fire Service.
I don‘t understand the issue with neighbors helping neighbors doing mitigation of their property at a time when it is so needed. When this country and even this area was developed there was a standard of everyone helping each other, and luckily some of that pioneering train of thought carries on. Not everyone can afford to pay someone else to do their mitigation for them but with us helping each other make this a safer place and the education of what we are getting about the behavior of fires it is, I feel, essential to all of us in that area to help prevent a fire such as the one the Hayman fire became.
For those who are not sure of what we do , they are more than welcome to come, observe and yes even actually help out so they can get first hand experience on what is being done. Teller County putting a ban on mitigation does not make sense.
Pat Pansini, Englewood
Disappointing
Your article regarding the NoFloCo volunteer group by the Teller County sheriff was disappointing. The items presented as facts by the sheriff were fake news. The sheriff has been invited to project(s) but never showed up to see this volunteer effort.
I lived in Woodland Park and attended a fire mitigation display in 2021. Interested in the mitigation efforts of this group, I showed up a month later where a 3 acre homeowner lot was mitigated. The project had 60 people volunteering 4 hours to mitigate the property. Before moving, I assisted with most of the projects over the next 1 1/2 yr. All of the projects I participated in were well organized, had a plan to mitigate the owners’ lot, and were accomplished safely. Don and Toni organized chain saw, overall safety and training classes that were attended by several dozen.
This great volunteer group, which I estimate totals 200 with usually 60 people showing up for each project, may accomplish 4–7 acres of mitigation each project. In a year’s time, they remove a lot of brush and timber. Additionally, the cords of firewood are given away to people in need.
The sheriff should show up and assist this group with possible suggestions on how to improve their effort. If people worked together, they would accomplish greater things than maybe areas like California, which have not allowed mitigation in the forest areas for decades, would have a little better outcome in some wildfires.
Bob Heinze, McKinney, Texas