Over the weekend, a passionate group of community members came together at the Manchester Grange. As a contribution to the exciting effort to breathe new life into the Grange, the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council (MCFSC), alongside Fire Safe Point Arena, hosted a lively Neighborhood Work Party. The event aimed to teach wildfire home-hardening techniques and then get everyone working together hands-on to help make the Grange safer from wildfire. 

MCFSC hosted an interdisciplinary fuels reduction training at the Brooktrails Greenbelt. The week-long event brought experts from around Mendocino County and the greater North Coast to discuss the varying perspectives on conducting effective fuels reduction while minimizing negative environmental impacts. Speakers included Mary Mayeda, NRCS Regional Forester, Dr. Mike Jones, UCCE Forestry Advisor, Kathy McCovey, Cultural & Natural Resource Specialist of the Karuk Tribe, Chris Bennet, local Arborist, and Dr. Jen Riddell, local Botanist, among others. Presentations were delivered to the MCFSC Chipper Crew, staffed by members of the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians and filmed to provide an online resource for new crew members moving forward.

Mendocino County Fire Safe Council’s Neighborhood Chipping Days are quickly becoming an essential service.  The program encourages residents to take defensible space into their own hands by offering free service from a chipper & chipper crew to process limbs and brush that residents remove to improve their defensible space. This service, which might cost each neighbor acting individually hundreds of dollars and require many individual disposal trips, makes vegetation management around the county more accessible and has generated thousands of hours of volunteer labor.