[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 159 (Wednesday, November 5, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2243-E2244]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    THINNING ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH TO PROTECT HOMES FROM FOREST FIRES

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. MARK UDALL

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 5, 2003

  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, the Senate recently passed a 
revised version of H.R. 1904, the ``Healthy Forests'' bill and the 
administration has made plain its desire that action on this 
legislation be completed soon.
  The bill deals with several other matters, but most attention has 
been focused on Title I, which deals with forest-thinning projects on 
federal lands.
  I support well-designed thinning projects that are focused where they 
will do the most good--but I do not think such projects, alone, will be 
enough.
  To illustrate what I have in mind, I want to bring to the attention 
of our colleagues a story from the Boulder, Colorado Daily Camera.
  The story focuses on the efforts of homeowners in Boulder County to 
protect their homes and the way that their efforts paid off during 
wildfires. Such ``defensible space'' measures, based on common sense 
can be readily adopted by homeowners, and there are many available 
sources of assistance. For example, in our state the Colorado State 
Forest Service has a program to help private property owners assess 
their property for fire and develop a plan to help reduce risks. These 
and other programs--such as actions by local government to require the 
use of fire-resistant materials and other steps to reduce fire risks--
can go a long way to help prevent and reduce the losses from wildfires. 
It would also be desirable for the nation's insurance industry to lend 
its assistance to encourage people whose insured property is in 
forested areas to take some responsible steps to make their homes more 
defensible from fire.

[[Page E2244]]

  We cannot stop all fires--nor should we, because fire is a natural 
part of many forested ecosystems. But we can work together to reduce 
the risks to lives and property. We need to look beyond jurisdictional 
boundaries and help encourage all techniques--such as defensible 
space--that will make homes, communities and watersheds more resistant 
to the more catastrophic and damaging effects from fire when it 
inevitably does come.

                 [From the Daily Camera, Nov. 4, 2003]

                      Fire Precautions Save Homes


            fire-resistant materials, thinned trees credited

                            (By Mary Butler)

       All his neighbors told David Mitchell that they thought his 
     house had burned in last week's Overland Fire outside of 
     Jamestown.
       ``But when I drove up to the place the next morning,'' he 
     said, ``about a 2-foot ring around the house wasn't burnt.''
       The 2,800-square-foot home on County Road 87, where several 
     other homes burned to the ground, was unscathed.
       Mitchell credits efforts made to create ``defensible 
     space,'' such as thinning trees, how his home was positioned 
     and his driveway's alignment, for helping to spare the house 
     from the fast-moving fire's path Wednesday.
       Even if flames came close enough to lick the home's 
     exterior, he said, fire-resistant materials such as Rastra 
     concrete, Styrofoam blocks and steel roofing used to build 
     the house would have delayed its ignition.
       ``The fire was so hot, if we had made the building from 
     wood, it would have caught fire anyway,'' he said.
       Since the early 1990s, Boulder County has required new 
     homes and large additions to homes in unincorporated mountain 
     communities to be built with wildfires in mind.
       ``When you build a new house, you're required to have a 
     fire mitigation plan,'' said Eric Philips, county wildfire 
     mitigation coordinator.
       For instance, cedar shake shingles are banned from use on 
     mountain homes. In some areas, ``noncombustible'' materials 
     such as stucco, stone and cement siding are required. Tree 
     thinning is also a must.
       A site-by-site evaluation is made to determine what 
     mitigation efforts ought to be made, Philips said.
       Taking such precautions is thought to have saved at least 
     one neighborhood in Southern California, where wildfires 
     ravaged thousands of homes in recent weeks.
       The New York Times on Sunday dedicated a front-page story 
     to the Stevenson Ranch neighborhood. The story described the 
     neighborhood's streets as wide, the homes' roofs as fire 
     retardant, the landscaping as moist and the surrounding 
     hillsides as irrigated and cleared of brush.
       Some of the homes' features include double-glazed window 
     panes that resist heat and breakage, stucco-sealed eaves to 
     keep sparks from getting into attics and oversized address 
     numbers for easy identification. Even some of the swimming 
     pools are equipped with valves that allow firefighters to 
     draw the water, the article said.
       Whether homeowners' fire-prevention measures made a 
     difference in the Overland Fire, Philips said, has yet to be 
     assessed.
       But many Lefthand Canyon-area homeowners, including 
     Mitchell, say they did.
       ``Thinning trees gives us a fighting chance,'' said Nolan 
     Farmer, whose Overland Road home was within 40 yards of the 
     3,500-acre blaze.
       He credits tree thinning a team of Boulder County inmates 
     did on his property seven years ago for saving his property. 
     The work was well worth the $50 he paid then, Farmer said.
       Farmer also built his house with a metal roof, sealed 
     redwood siding and without decks in the event that flames 
     might come up against his home of 12 years.
       John and Susan Bernart's Overland Road home, which 
     overlooks the hillside blackened in the blaze, wasn't 
     directly threatened by the fire.
       But John Bernart says he had peace of mind knowing that its 
     straw-bale and stucco construction could hold its own against 
     wildfire. Besides being energy efficient, the insulating 
     materials are also extremely fire resistant.
       ``There are straw-bale houses that are 500 years old in 
     Europe,'' Bernart said. Still, he said, ``We're hopeful we 
     won't have to face this kind of threat again. Our strike of 
     lightning has come and gone.''

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