By John Mellana
Our planet is in the early stages of a wildfire pandemic with no end in sight, while forest health debates habitually flare over fuels treatments and thinning. There are receding prospects that we can realize even a rough approximation of landscapes that were the norm 150 years ago before federal, state and private practices extinguished better informed indigenous stewardship.
Despite the dire forecast, there are credible options for addressing threats to our forests as well as to human life and property. For residential communities, organizations such as FireWise USA offer proactive measures with on-site volunteers ideally placed to help neighbors survive a fire season. Many counties also have conservation districts offering homesite assessments, educational seminars, field trips and links to cost-share initiatives for the disposal of hazardous woody debris.
For communities as well as homeowners who live in more isolated locations closer to fire-prone public lands, another tool has recently arrived in our state. This year the Institute of Business and Home Safety (IBHS) was green-lighted by the state’s Insurance Commissioner to offer its expertise. An insurance industry-affiliated 501(c)(3) nonprofit, IBHS has been a leader in rigorously field-testing architectural designs, building materials and hardscaping practices that are proven to resist a wildfire pounding at the door.
The IBHS research center realistically simulates the effects of wind-driven embers on structures built with a variety of materials. The sobering results of these tests are viewable online. The Wildfire Prepared Home certificate offered by IBHS is at last available for those who can demonstrate their property’s resilience on its worst possible day in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI).
Some challenges
For all of their virtues, there can be numerous challenges in trying to enact IBHS standards. The cost can be steep regardless of the size of a house, even for those who would prefer to partially retrofit an otherwise perfectly acceptable residence rather than start from scratch with new construction. The expense particularly for homeowners who are either on a fixed income or are first-time buyers is an equity issue which has caught the attention of an increasing number of legislators from both major parties.
Key features of the ideal IBHS home such as steel roofs with reduced venting and non-combustible siding and decking are becoming a WUI standard. So too is the adoption of non-combustible landscaping for at least 5 feet of depth and 6 inches in height on all residential perimeters. The overall vibe can be arguably austere, but it reduces sleepless nights of worry.
The proximity of adjacent structures and nearby trees –- particularly those straddling a property line or belonging outright to a neighbor — is another potential wrinkle for many. We have all seen the ruins of the most destructive fires in a growing list of states far beyond our region that will surely continue to consume more densely settled areas. The salutary impacts of neighbors who are ready to act for the greater good along with their own self-interest cannot be minimized.
Cancellations, denials
A growing political challenge is securing affordable homeowner’s insurance amidst policy cancellations or denials, simultaneous with skyrocketing premiums for inferior coverage. Too many insurance underwriters operate with little accountability for the accuracy of their risk determination metrics.
In our own case last year, an insurance company underwriter merely had to declare the presence of smoke and burnable fuels in the general area to cancel our policy without ever ground-truthing its Cub Creek location. A quarter century of our reducing “ladder fuels” from trees, shrubs and weeds went unnoticed, as were the millions of tax dollars that have been expended by public lands agencies throughout our drainages via thinning and brushing operations. The silence about the benefits of burn scars from megafires on every point of the compass (the nearest but a mile away) was equally deafening.
Among more positive developments in our state is the advocacy of Insurance Commissioner Patty Kuderer and her staff for genuine insurance transparency, as well as grants to homeowners to ease the adoption of IBHS prescriptions. In the last legislative session there was strong bipartisan state senate support for two related bills, SB 5928 and 6079. Despite the senate passage of both bills (one by a vote of 47 to 1), two Puget Sound representatives managed to suffocate them in an executive committee with next to no explanation. An effort to revive each bill is expected during the next session.
In the meantime, our region faces devastating risks to residences and municipalities which are ill-served by denial, delay and self-centered legislative games. To paraphrase the peerless conservationist Theodore Roosevelt, we must do what we can, with what we have, right now.
Methow Valley resident John Mellana and his spouse now live in a “Wildfire Prepared Home” following 25 years of seasonal residence in an Airstream trailer and bunkhouse.
