Local and federal wildfire agencies warned that this summer, the western United States would face an active wildfire season.
Roaring Fork Valley nonprofit, Age Friendly Carbondale, took action.
The group applied for an AARP Challenge Grant, which gave them funds to create a wildfire preparedness poster to display at Farmers Markets booths and present at local government meetings.
Age Friendly Carbondale also bought starter items for go bags to give away for free at these events.
Ted Zislis is the nonprofit’s treasurer and project lead.
He spoke with Aspen Public Radio’s Regan Mertz about the work the group is doing and what still needs to be done.
The conversation below has been edited for clarity and length.
Regan Mertz: Carbondale is the only age-friendly community in the Roaring Fork Valley. So, what does that mean?
Ted Zislis: Age Friendly Carbondale originally was an organization, a nonprofit, that focused on catering to the needs of our growing elderly population, specifically in Carbondale, which is getting to be a significant population. So, we do a variety of public service projects over the years.
We've put in benches along walkways where people might want to sit and take a rest near a park or something like that. We've put in small pocket parks throughout the community. We have engaged in a major renovation of Highway 133, going out to Redstone from Highway 82 this year.
Beginning in the spring, everybody was talking about how dry our winter was, and we're just sitting and waiting for wildfires to explode, and lo and behold, they did. And there was all of a sudden a lot of discussion about wildfires and wildfire prevention throughout our communities. And we thought that this was a good project for us to get involved with this year, to help bring this educational focus to the community on how to prepare for keeping your house from burning down.
Mertz: And the challenge grant provides some money to Age Friendly Carbondale to do this sort of wildfire initiative.
So, could you talk to me about what that initiative is?
Zislis: I had attended several of the presentations that have gone on up and down the valley, coordinated through one of our collaborators, Roaring Fork Wildfire Collaborative, who coordinates with the fire departments up and down the valley, and attended several of those presentations. And what I saw being demonstrated were particularly two publications that stood out to me.
One was put together by the fire departments up and down the valley from Aspen to Glenwood, called "Living with Wildfire,” and the other is a brochure put together by Colorado State University in collaboration with the Colorado State Forestry Service. Those are the scientists who study wildfires and study why houses burn down.
So, I took apart these brochures and I turned them into a great big, very complicated-looking poster display. And so the poster talks about what they need to do to prepare their building if they're able to, and their surrounding environment, depending on how much land they have, and then it goes on to talk about how to get your emergency alert information.
Mertz: At these community events that you're going to, have you heard someone taking your advice and going home and applying what they learn?
Zislis: So, the interesting thing when I started the project was trying to figure out. Well, it's a cute idea that I have to do this project and give out this education, but do people really need it? Are they really interested in it?
And so, I wrote up a little survey that I was trying to ask people basic questions, just as a starter to get going into the conversation to find out where people are in their heads, in terms of first question is no matter where you go, there's an article about wildfires. Do you think that wildfires are being overhyped? And I'm trying to find out-you know-what are people's attitudes?
And it's kind of amazing the number of people who either feel like “I live in Carbondale, we're a safe community, nothing ever happens bad in Carbondale, I'm not worried about it,” to “I live out in the country, but I'm surrounded by irrigation fields, and therefore my house will never burn down. I don't know if that's true or not,” to some people who said, "Yeah, I've experienced, we had a fire up in Missouri Heights, blah blah, and I had to evacuate for a few hours or whatever, but my house is fine.” You know, to other people who are intensely concerned.
Mertz: Is there anything you'd like to add that I didn't get to ask you about?
Zislis: Many of the folks, I mean, most of the folks who tend to live here consider themselves pretty active and pretty healthy folks. But I see my fair share of folks that get into the older age range, and as we get older, we all start to lose our abilities, and so they become more reliant on who their friends and family and neighbors are, and so getting this information to that group of people, in particular, becomes increasingly important.
Support for this Nonprofit Spotlight series comes from the Aspen Community Foundation.
