January 2025 Newsletter

Hello Neighbors, and Happy 2025!

 

While every year is different, there is still a rhythm to the year—especially when you live on the land. So if you’ve been on our newsletter email list for a while, you will see familiar topics—always good reminders! But we’ll also add timely information based on weather and what’s happening in the county and our neighborhood. And if you’re new to the neighborhood—or just to the newsletters, welcome--and we hope this information will be helpful to you.

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Over the course of the year, we’ll send along information about topics ranging from home hardening, defensible space, evacuation planning, go bags, and more. As a reminder, we have the year divided into quarters, with three newsletters per quarter:

 

• November-January: General Knowledge and Planning

• February-April: Preparing Your Home and Surrounding Property

• May-July: Readiness for Fire Season

• August-October: Situational Awareness and Safety

 

There is always work to be done, and with the holidays behind us, this is a good time to assess your current situation and begin to plan and prepare for the coming year. And our hearts go out to those fleeing and fighting the fires in Southern California.

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For now, we want to connect you with local resources that you can tap into all year round for expert information, and a couple of things you can work on while the threat of fire is very low.

 

Fundraising Update

Our fall 2024 fundraiser was a big success! With the help of so many of you and an extremely generous $10,000 match donation from a local couple, it appears that we have enough to do the planned project on Lost Lake Rd. We’re finalizing our donation records and getting an updated bid for the work (which was originally bid in 2023), but will have more news in the next newsletter.

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Free Prescribed Burning Classes in January and Beyond

It's too wet to do much prescribed burning now, but you can learn more about this useful defensible space tool with free courses offered by the Nevada County Resource Conservation District (NCRCD).

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Even if you have taken it in the past, there is always something new to learn and new people to network with! Including people that might help you prepare to do a burn at your place. This month:

• Prescribed Burning 101: Saturday, January 11, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Register here.

• Prepare to Burn: Saturday, January 18, 9 a.m.-12 p.m. Register here.

 

Learn more about prescribed burning, free site visits, and upcoming free courses at the NCRCD’s Prescribed Fire Education website.

 

Local Community Resources

Below are the best overall resources to plan and prepare for fire season. These organizations and their websites gather much of the most important information for you, so that you can readily find it.

• The Greenhorn Firewise Community (GFC) is your most local, grassroots volunteer organization. Our website mostly links you out to other organizations, such as the ones listed below, and provides information relevant to our community along the Greenhorn Road corridor. We also have a Facebook page that focuses on local events and opportunities.

• The Nevada County Coalition of Firewise Communities is another volunteer organization that supports the representatives and residents of more than 100 Firewise Communities in Nevada County (the most of any county in California!). They have an excellent educational website. (Note: At the time this newsletter was written, the site was down, but Coalition volunteers said they are working on the issue.

• Ready Nevada County has information on emergency preparedness, signing up for alerts, evacuation planning and zones, defensible space, and other topics related to emergencies of all kinds—not just fire, but flooding, winter storms, etc.

• The Fire Safe Council of Nevada County is a local nonprofit organization dedicated to making Nevada County safer from destructive wildfire through fire safety projects and education. Their website is also excellent for local and general resources, and they fund programs such as green waste disposal, defensible space advice, address signs, and assistance for low income and disabled residents.

 

Winter Projects

Here are a couple of areas you might want to look at if you have a bit of down time during winter weather…

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Project Planning. Explore the online resources above and create a checklist of things you can do to improve the safety of your home and property, and to plan for emergencies. Don’t try to tackle everything at once, but prioritize and start to take action. Some things are quick and easy (like signing up for CodeRed and finding your “Zone” number). Others take time, but can be worked on over the winter (like creating a family emergency plan). Others need to be done later in the year (like taking down tall grass and clearing needles from your roof), but it’s good to have a plan you can work from.

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Home Inventory. In the unfortunate event that you lose your home to fire, have flood damage, or are robbed, an accurate home inventory is crucial to getting a fair and prompt settlement from your insurance company. Your phone is a great tool for this—you can use photos and/or video, or a home inventory app. Make sure to save it in the cloud or on a thumb drive kept somewhere besides your house. Here are a few links with more information:

• Forbes Advisor: You Really Need a Home Inventory

• California Department of Insurance: Home Inventory Guide

• Insurance Information Institute: How to Create a Home Inventory

 

Important Papers. Ideally you should also have important papers digitized and saved to the cloud or a thumb drive. You could also make paper copies and store them somewhere away from your home. Make sure to revisit and update them at least annually.

• “Safeguard Critical Documents and Valuables” (Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA)

• “Important Documents for Emergency Preparedness” (Just Great Lawyers)