The Bend lifestyle has it all–stunning Cascade peaks, meandering rivers and clear, blue lakes. A thriving arts and culture scene, world-class dining, even a brewery or twenty. It’s no wonder we’ve found ourselves at the top of lists on everything from Outside Magazine to Forbes.
But to live in Bend is also to live in a community susceptible to wildfire. It’s an inevitable part of our ecosystem and a healthy and natural way for forests to regenerate. It can’t be 100% prevented, and integrating prescribed burns in strategic areas is a tool in mitigating fire fuels and wildfire spread. We can collectively be smart about protecting ourselves and our community to reduce the potential effects of wildfire.
Local, state, and regional policy makers need to drive the tactical measures that would help protect communities from fire. Unfortunately, the policy hasn’t kept up with the increasing number of devastating wildfires that have swept through areas of the Pacific Northwest, California, and other locales around the country.
As a real estate developer striving to design and build healthy communities in areas susceptible to wildfire danger, we’ve made the conscious decision to step up and take a more aggressive approach to wildfire safety. In recent years, we’ve worked with local, regional, and national wildfire experts to become more educated about the ways in which people can build more fire resilient homes and communities.
When we began planning The Tree Farm in 2013, we knew we had to take measures to make the community, and its residents, as safe as possible. Located in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI), The Tree Farm had experienced wildfire decades before. The devastating 1990 Awbrey Hall fire traveled through the property when it was privately owned by the Miller family. Responsible stewards of the land, the Millers actually managed fire fuel so that if another fire were to come through, it would not be devastating.
An even greater sense of responsibility was shared by the development team, knowing families would eventually be moving into the neighborhood. Before sales even began, we worked with local fire management authorities to conduct a prescribed burn through about 20% of the existing open space in The Tree Farm. It was a great private/public partnership that further reduced fire fuels, making the area more fire resilient.
But we didn’t end there. Our governing documents and design guidelines required owners to construct their homes and incorporate landscaping principles that made them more resilient to fire. In fact, to our knowledge, The Tree Farm was built from ground up with more voluntary National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards than any other community in Central Oregon. Subsequent county development is now held to the higher standard we have adopted. Once residents started living there, The Tree Farm became a Firewise-recognized community.
We’ve taken lengths to make Discovery West, our most recent neighborhood we developed with the same development team as NorthWest Crossing, a Firewise community as well. The design guidelines include many of the same standards we applied at The Tree Farm. As we learn more about wildfire mitigation, in and around our neighborhoods, we work diligently through Firewise Committees to make sure our residents stay abreast of our knowledge and any new research that has been documented.
We encourage all homeowners to think about the steps they can take to help mitigate fire fuels around their own home. No matter where we live in town, fire is a constant natural peril Central Oregon residents must cope with. It is up to all of us to do our part to make our communities as fire resilient as possible.
