Travis County Commissioners Court
March 29, 2005
Item 2
2. Approve proclamation declaring April 2 through April 9, 2005 as "wildfire awareness week" in Travis County.
>> judge, I have a proclamation to read.
>> thank you.
>> thank you. The proclamation reads: whereas fire professionals provide a vital public service; whereas in 2003 the Texas forest service responded to 929 major wild land fires that burned 35,933 acres in the state of Texas. Whereas the Texas forest service, Travis County and the city of Austin jointly recognize the danger posed to lives and property due to wildlife, urban interface issues; whereas wildlife urban interface issues arise when homes are built in a forested wild land environment for poor access, steep slopes and limited water supplies are critical factors in determining the success or failure of firefighting efforts. Whereas the fire professionals in Travis County desire to prevent tragedies like those that occurred in california recently by raising wildfire hazard awareness and by providing [indiscernible] in our community. Whereas it is appropriate to acknowledge that the most important component of this type of prevention is the con ept of defensible space where the structure itself has been modified to separate the fuels on which a wildlife -- wildfire feed from the home. Checklist that is a very valuable tool for homeowners to develop this own safety plans. Now therefore be it resolved that we the Travis County Commissioners court proclaim April the 2nd through April the 9th 2005 as wildfire awareness week in Travis County and encourage all residents of Travis County to learn more about the prevention of wild land urban interface issues and recognize the fire professionals who contribute so much to this county to this state and to this nation. And I move approval.
>> second.
>> good morning.
>> good morning, judge.
>> good morning. Thank you for having us here this morning. We have a brief presentation by the Texas forest service, jan wilkerson and lexy maxwell, also michaelot with west -- mike elliott with west like fire department number 9.
>> I’m lexy maxwell, an urban wild land interface special with the Texas forest service.
>> jan fulkerson also with the Texas forest service.
>> we would like to talk to you for a moment about wildfire in Travis County. A real quick overview of the wildfire history in the county, some past projects that we have done to address the problems here in the can the. Cover some up coming events, ongoing projects that we are working on. The wildfire history in Travis County, we can trace major events all the way back to 1961 when there was a very large extensive fire on the davenport ranch. That one pretty much ran from the saint stephen's school road to the high road in southern Travis County. Where 360 is right now, both sides of the road. In 1992 another really bad wildfire season, that pretty much strapped the reserves and resources here in the county and most of the fire departments were running on grass and brush fires pretty much on a daily basis and they -- these fire departments pretty much banded together in '93 to address these issues and form a cooperative effort on how to prevent being so strapped out in -- the resources so stretched in the future. They started developing an operational plan and by 1994 they published their first wildfire operational plan. This cooperative effort tipped to grow and work successfully together to the point that in 1996 when we had a really severe wildfire problem in north Texas, our agency, the Texas forest service, actually asked for assistance from this group. And Travis County. And they were able to supply us with as many as 20 to 25 individuals and the supporting apparatus to help us fight the situation, for over a six-week period in north Texas and they helped us with that. The -- this later evolved into the capital area fire chiefs association. Formally became that organization in 1998. It continues to grow here in Travis County. They now have three separate wild land task force members groups and they respond to all types of hazards, not just wildfire. A lot of the concerns that we have here in Travis County are spread across the county, but they are most prevalent in west Travis County where we have got some rugged topography, heavy vegetation, limited access and limited water sources. And we have compounded this problem with people that are now moving and building out to these areas and they have homes, residences, businesses, all of the supporting utilities with power lines, yes, sir. We really don't want to see that situation across the county turn into what we saw in kerrville in the year 2000 that this picture represents. This was a home that actually survived a wildfire without fire assistance because it did have sufficient defensible space. The house to the right of it that's not in the picture actually was lost. So it did not have the resources that it needed to survive the fire. Past prongs that we've had here in Travis County include the national fire wise workshop that we held in Lakeway and then in twowp-2002 westlake fire department performed a pretty extensive whims program, wildfire hazard identification and mitigation system. That was a huge task and they pretty much hit all of their high risk and high concern areas. In 2004, last year, we had our very first wildfire awareness week, which ran from March 27th through April 3rd. We a big media kickoff, that has -- was such a success that surrounding counties that are now piggybacking on to our segment. Spanish oaks awarded fire wise communities u.s.a. Status working very closely with hudson bend. That was a brand new community. They went in and changed their master plan to eliminate some of the cul de sacs, shorten some of the others, they heavily reduced a lot of the vegation because they sold their lots. Then in meadow mountain, within the city of Austin, city limit, this was a retrofitted community, harder to work with because the buildings and roads are already in place. They worked very closely with the Austin fire department and our agency, they became a fire wise community u.s.a. Program because they went in and modified some of their building materials, a lot of the heavy vegetation and they have developed an evacuation plan which is -- adds their disabled members, their elderly, even the pets, they can get everybody out in the event of a wildfire. The awareness level has mow been raised, everybody who lives there is now aware of the risk they now live in and they are prepared to react in the event of a wildfire emergency.
>> upcoming events is April 2nd through the 9th, the operation, we are having a wild four awareness week. April 2nd a kickoff event. We have partnered with home depot and bee cave and the event is going to be held there from 10:00 a.m. To 4:00 p.m. On April 4th, wildfire awareness week, we are going to be getting a proclamation from the governor and on April 9th, the fire department's activities include oak hill is having their grand opening at their fire station. Pictured over there on the right. And lexy will be giving presentations there, educational materials. Simultaneously volente is going to be having an open house and has joined up with all of the surrounding neighborhoods and that evening are hosting a barbecue, also. Where therement be also presentations and educational materials offered to the residents. Ongoing projects that we have coming up, on April 14th, hudson bend fire department is hosting a -- appear fire wise developer's seminar. This is going to be a master planning for wildfire preparedness. This will go over the concepts of what developers can do to reduce the risks during the development of the community. This is going to be sponsored, like I said, by hudson bend, Texas forest service, national fire wise and the oasis restaurant, it will be held at the oasis. Another ongoing project is the Barton Creek neighborhood coalition. This is a group of neighborhoods in southwest Travis County that have joined together. It's actually 14 neighborhood, two schools and one country club that are working with the oak hill fire department and the Texas forest service and they as a group are going, they are working towards applying for this fire wise community u.s.a. Status. This is a very big project. The fire department and the communities have really stepped up and are doing a lot to achieve this this status. And to leave you, first of all, I want to thank you again for allowing us to come in and give this presentation, we really are trying to work very hard with the fire departments, doing an excellent job in the county and we are there to support them in their efforts because we don't want anyone to ever lose their home in this county and if they do, the main thing is I don't want them to ever be able to say it's because they didn't know. Thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you all very much.
>> thank you.
>> anything further?
>> close it.
>> one thing that I want to mention, say thank you to the Texas forest service for working very closely with Travis County in the esd's in relation to the preserve land that is out in western Travis County. We are stakeholder in one of those urban interface wildfire areas and with 27,000 acres in the balcones canyonlands, the joint permit holders being the city of Austin and Travis County, there's an amazing investment that has been made in that land and that is also a resource to be protected. Along with all of the property and lives that are out there. Thank you.
>> [indiscernible] kind enough to be at the opening ceremony on April the 2nd. He will be out there representing you, Commissioners, the judge.
>> thank you looking forwards to it, thank you.
>> thank you, judge, Commissioners.
>> thank you all.
>> thank you all very much.
>> all in favor?
>> that passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank you.
>> do you want to come get this proclamation?
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Wednesday, March 30, 2005 12:50 PM