On National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation program this week the host, Ari Shapiro, interviewed Grist staff writer Susie Cagle about living in wildfire country, and took calls from listeners. Reading the transcript or listening to the recording is interesting. The “saw and slaw” described below could be a model that would work in other communities.
Below is a excerpt. We’re taking a call from Dave who lives in Colorado between Boulder and Golden.
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(DAVE IS SPEAKING:) …”So we decided in our canyon here to do something about it as far as fire mitigation, and we started a program called saws and slaws.
(LAUGHTER)
SHAPIRO: What does that involve?
DAVE: And we have – we get together as a community and we work in the morning. And then everybody brings a potluck…
SHAPIRO: So you saw down the trees and then you eat coleslaw?
DAVE: Exactly. That’s the idea. Everybody brings a potluck lunch and we just have a great time. But we have – we offer chainsaw safety training classes. And this is our third season. And we’ve done I don’t know how many acres total, but it’s made a significant difference in our canyon and just helped to build community also (unintelligible).
SHAPIRO: Are you specifically trying to get rid of the invasive trees, or are you just clear-cutting whatever you can so there’s not much more to burn?
DAVE: Well, we have a forester that comes out to the property, and usually there’s a few households that get together, a few property owners. And then we have a forester come out and mark the trees. We do have pine beetle effects here…”
Thanks go out to Dick
Here’s the web site: http://sawsandslaws.com
Clyde, thanks. Those folks appear to be really well organized. The program perhaps could be a template for other communities.