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A few weeks back I wrote that the aging process has affected our ability to maintain our property in the Rolling Hills Estates subdivision.  While our 13-acre parcel provides us peace, quiet, and tranquility, it requires a level of upkeep commensurate with its size.

Our home sits on top of a hill, surrounded on three sides by steep gullies full of native grasses, manzanita, poison oak, and a plethora of black oak trees, both big and small.  So, too, do most of the three or four dozen other homes that dot the Rolling Hills landscape.

When we moved into our home 17 years ago, I was almost young at 60 years of age.  Keeping up with 10,000 square feet of lawn was a piece of cake, as was weed-eating the native grasses that would otherwise have their way.   Boy, how things have changed.

Our home is large enough that when Billie is at one end and I’m at the other end, we sometimes go hours and even days without seeing each other, which can be a good thing unless it is time for dinner and Mrs. Cleaver is nowhere to be found.

We also put in a swimming pool, primarily for our grandchildren, when we built our home 17 years ago.  They are now busy becoming adults with commitments other than lounging in grandma’s pool.   Boy, how things have changed.

As you likely know utility costs have skyrocketed.  In an effort to mitigate the cost of heating, cooling, watering, maintaining a pool, and so on and so forth, we installed solar, abandoned half our lawn, and turned up and/or turned down our thermostat depending on the season.

Perhaps the biggest change affecting the financial and physical cost of living on our little piece of Heaven can be summed up in one word, FIRE.  When we moved in 2006, while wildfire was a concern, it had yet to dominate not only our summer months but also now every month of the year.

As a result of such fires as the Camp Fire, Zogg Fire, Dixie Fire, Carr Fire and so many others, insurance rates have spiked, if you can find insurance at all.  Most importantly, stringent mitigation efforts in the form of fire-safe fuel reduction efforts are now required.

While I fully understand the requirement to clear my property of grasses, brush and trees that pose a wildfire threat to my home, as a broken-down 77-year-old former exceptional athlete, there was no possible way for me to physically remove or eradicate every fire hazard, not in my lifetime, anyway. Fortunately, my neighbor and friend Jean Moran told me about the TinderSmart Tehama program.   Let me tell you about it, as well.

TinderSmart Tehama is but one of several programs administered by the 501-c3 non-profit, Resource Conservation District of Tehama County whose mission is, “As a nonregulatory public agency, the Resource Conservation District of Tehama County works with the community to manage, conserve, improve, and enjoy the natural resources of Tehama County.”

As a non-profit entity, the Resource Conservation District operates without the benefit of public tax dollars and is largely dependent on grants and donations from the local community.  The governing board is made up of local resource stakeholders, including Michael Vasey, Ann Read, Tom Stroing, Trisha Hamelberg, and new board members Tom Amundson and Vic Williams who replace long-term board members Walt Williams and Jack Bramhall, who recently stepped down after several years of dedicated service.

While the Resource Conservation District offers a wide range of programs and services, it is the TinderSmart Tehama program that I would like to highlight today.

Defensible Space Assistance: “Creating and maintaining 100 feet of defensible space around habitable structures is a wildfire preventative practice.  Landowners within State Responsibility Areas are required to create and maintain defensible space and those within the wildland-urban interface zone are encouraged to do so”.

There is an application process, and the bottom line is that if you are like me (older than 65 with trees, brush, or other vegetation within 100 feet of your residence or other structures) you likely qualify to have the crew at the Resource Conservation District come out and remove or limb trees, remove brush, and otherwise clear and make your structure fire safe within 100 feet of your structure, at no cost or at 25% of the cost depending on the circumstances.

We have lived in our home for 17 years and have attempted to keep our property fire safe.  That said, just this last week the crew from the TinderSmart crew came to our property and over two full days removed six or eight smallish oak trees that had posed a fire threat to my home. They also limbed several other trees and pulled out invasive brush as well.  In addition to chainsaws and hand tools the crew brought an industrial chipper that quickly made sawdust of tree branches and brush.

From Project Coordinator Stephanie Dickerson to the entire hand crew, the staff was responsive, polite, efficient, and productive in every way.  In addition to being fire safe, our home and property has never looked better.  We thank the folks at the Resource Conservation District for providing this valuable service to folks who are otherwise physically unable to complete the job.

If you are reading this column, you are likely an older person yourself.  After all, what young person in their right mind would waste their time reading what I’ve got to say? If you are over 65 years of age or have physical limitations and live in a State Responsibility area where trees, grasses, and/or other invasive vegetation is encroaching on your home or other outbuildings, take my advice, check out their programs at www.tehamacountyrcd.org or pick up the phone and call 530-727-1280 and ask for more information about the TinderSmart Tehama program.  Make that call today.

Have a great Wednesday, everyone.

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