Get Fired Up About Wildfire Prep

Scenes of whole towns burned to the ground in areas like Maui and Malibu have been high-profile news stories in recent years. But what if your house could survive a wildfire? It’s not magic – it’s the home ignition zone!

Post-fire investigations and research have popularized attainable changes and recommendations that you can make to your home, yard and property that decrease the risk of total home loss in the event of a wildfire. And luckily for residents, the Wildfire Mitigation staff at Missoula County offer free home risk assessments to help them make a plan to safeguard their properties.

Missoula County Wildfire Mitigation Specialist Olivia Anderson joined the commissioners this week to answer their burning questions about wildfire preparedness.

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Community Wildfire Protection Plan
• How to prepare your home for a wildfire
• How to schedule a free home assessment with Olivia
• National Fire Protection Association tips

 
Thank you to Missoula's Community Media Resource for podcast recording support!

Transcript

Dave Strohmaier: [00:00:10] Welcome back to the agenda with your Missoula County Commissioners. I'm Commissioner Dave Strohmaier. I am joined today by my fellow commissioners and friends, Josh Slotnick and Juanita Vero, and we are delighted to have a special guest with us, Olivia Anderson, our wildfire mitigation specialist for Missoula County. Welcome, Olivia.

Olivia Anderson: [00:00:30] Hi. Thanks for having me.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:00:32] Oh, we are delighted to have you.

Juanita Vero: [00:00:33] Yeah. Well, so tell us, tell us about your background and how you came to work for Missoula County.

Olivia Anderson: [00:00:39] Yeah.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:00:39] A moment of desperation, I don't know.

Olivia Anderson: [00:00:45] I guess going all the way back. I was born and raised in Rochester, New York, went to college in New Hampshire where I studied natural resources.

Josh Slotnick: [00:00:54] Which college did you go to?

Olivia Anderson: [00:00:55] University of New Hampshire.

Josh Slotnick: [00:00:56] All right. It's a great place.

Olivia Anderson: [00:00:57] Go, Wildcats. I mean, love New England, love the East. But then I worked a whole variety of different natural resource positions spanning invasive weed control, lake water testing into some wildlife. And then I found myself working in more of the outreach and communication in natural resources. I did some youth education, things like that, and really found a passion for working with the public in natural resources. And then I wanted to move somewhere different. So I found myself to Idaho for a summer and bopped around before.

Juanita Vero: [00:01:30] Idaho.

Olivia Anderson: [00:01:30] Council. It's like an hour from McCall.

Juanita Vero: [00:01:33] Oh, McCall's beautiful.

Olivia Anderson: [00:01:34] Yeah, it was a really fun summer. And then I moved to Missoula two and a half years ago and got a job with the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation at the Missoula Unit. Here I was, their fire adapted Communities coordinator. So very similar position as to what I'm doing right now. Learned so much about wildfire and community preparedness, how to communicate this stuff with people. And then I saw the position open at the county for the wildfire mitigation specialist, and it just seemed like another new thing. And yeah.

Josh Slotnick: [00:02:07] Awesome.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:02:08] Any surprises so far in in the new in this position?

Olivia Anderson: [00:02:12] Oh.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:02:13] Or is it a good question exactly what you thought it would be?

Olivia Anderson: [00:02:16] No, I feel like nothing is ever exactly what I thought it would be. I mean, changing from the state to the county was interesting. Just like learning the differences there and.

Juanita Vero: [00:02:26] Improvement, I'm sure.

Josh Slotnick: [00:02:28] You got you got to say, the culture just way better.

Olivia Anderson: [00:02:30] Just I mean, it's lovely.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:02:33] And let us put words in your mouth.

Juanita Vero: [00:02:35] Perfect.

Josh Slotnick: [00:02:35] What Olivia means.

Juanita Vero: [00:02:36] To say.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:02:39] We love the DNRC.

Olivia Anderson: [00:02:40] Totally. I mean, well, that's the thing. Like, it's so collaborative. I still work with my DNRC folks, forest service people, city fire, rural fire all the time. But I mean, the county, it is a smaller level of government. So there's like differences in that. And then I definitely went to a much smaller office. I have three other coworkers in my immediate office with the county, so that's been a new dynamic and it's been great. Everyone's really nice.

Josh Slotnick: [00:03:06] Olivia. I'm sorry. A lot of people listening will wonder, wow, I didn't know the county was into wildfire. Yeah, I think the DNRC or the Forest Service and there's private contractors. So what does a wildfire mitigation specialist do? Yeah, works for Missoula County.

Olivia Anderson: [00:03:21] Totally. And I'm gonna yeah, I guess like background the program and you guys jump in if you know more, but we are under the Office of Emergency Management. And before my office grew, there was one person, Max Roberts. He was doing a lot of this community outreach, which is a lot of work. And then the county was able to get and apply for a community wildfire defense grant C, W, D, G. And with that money, they've been able to expand the program, which I think is awesome because, I mean, living in Missoula County is we're right in the wildland urban interface, that intersection of wildfire and people. And, you know, both those things are true. So having a dedicated county department, I think it's pretty unique from my understanding, especially having four of us doing this kind of work focused just on community preparedness and preparing people for fires in the county.

Josh Slotnick: [00:04:12] What does that mean you do.

Olivia Anderson: [00:04:13] Day to day? It changes, but I'm usually out meeting with homeowners and we walk around their house. I go over different things they can do to mitigate for fire, which I'm sure I'll get into those details in this podcast. And then, you know, we can look at their broader property. I do a lot of event planning. So like outreach events. We just had an event up in Seeley Lake working with the fire department up there, Forest Service, DNRC, and other collaboratives, just trying to find ways to engage the community, try to meet them where they are. I really enjoy the one on one home assessments. They're completely free and they're really educational.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:04:49] And how do people find you? Are they? I was going to say, looking through the Yellow Pages, but nobody knows what those are anymore. But, uh, someone has a property in and wants a risk assessment.

Olivia Anderson: [00:05:00] Yeah.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:05:00] Yeah.

Juanita Vero: [00:05:01] She meets them where they're at? Yeah. Literally.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:05:03] Yeah. Are you.

Juanita Vero: [00:05:04] Just.

Olivia Anderson: [00:05:05] Fortunately.

Juanita Vero: [00:05:06] Not.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:05:07] Scouring the county for potential.

Olivia Anderson: [00:05:09] Folks.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:05:09] To do this for?

Olivia Anderson: [00:05:10] That's a good question. Um, it seems like there's a variety of ways that people find out about us. I mean, to sign up for an assessment, they can just email wildfire mitigation at Missoula county.us or go to the Missoula County website. I think you just type in Office of Emergency Management or wildfire preparedness probably lead you there.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:05:29] Is that how people are finding you or are they word of mouth?

Juanita Vero: [00:05:31] Word of mouth?

Olivia Anderson: [00:05:32] So yeah, that's the other one. A lot of like, if we do one home assessment, their neighbor will do one. And then the other neighbor, we've done like community wide assessments before. So if you can get like a whole group of homeowners together, that's pretty neat. Really word of mouth finding out about us or at an event if we're able to reach them that way.

Juanita Vero: [00:05:50] But it's not like you're driving around the county and seeing who has firewood on their porch, and you're like, oh no, we're not.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:05:57] Oh, the Burrell ranch.

Juanita Vero: [00:05:58] I might think it, but I'm not.

Josh Slotnick: [00:06:01] So, Olivia, if, say, you do an assessment.

Olivia Anderson: [00:06:04] Yeah.

Josh Slotnick: [00:06:04] And you finish up and you have a list of things they could do that could improve the likelihood of less damage if there's a fire. Yeah. And they look at that list and be like, yeah, like, how am I going to what am I going to do? I don't have any money to buy all this stuff. What can you how can you help them out?

Olivia Anderson: [00:06:21] Yeah. Walking through the assessment process, usually what happens is you walk around, I'll take notes, get back to the office. And then I put it all into this online mapping system called Situation Analyst Montana. And different government agencies and first responders have access to that. And that person's house is a dot on the map. And when I put in all the different risk factors, it develops a rapport and a rating, a low, moderate, high risk. I mean, it's all this is all voluntary and it's all, um, just for the homeowner doesn't go anywhere else. [00:06:51] But with those recommendations, it's educational. I try to help people. Let's say like, okay, your siding is wood shingles or it's wooden. That's high risk, but I mean, to retrofit your whole siding can be incredibly expensive. Same goes for wooden porches. So there's other recommendations I can give that are less costly. Like what? So with wood siding painting regularly sealing any cracks, about 90% of homes are lost in a wildfire due to embers. So like having those little cracks and crevices and things like that exposed increases your risk greatly. So there's ways you can mitigate that without, you know, maybe replacing the whole material. Same with a wooden porch, painting it, not storing combustible materials on top, firewood underneath, [00:07:35] but financially in order to assist for home hardening and like home retrofits. We don't have any finances right now to assist with.

Josh Slotnick: [00:07:44] That cost share.

Olivia Anderson: [00:07:45] Programs.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:07:46] How about the home ignition zone beyond the home itself?

Olivia Anderson: [00:07:50] Yeah, moving out from the house and into more wildfire fuels into the trees and the landscape. We do have a cost share available for that in Missoula County.

Josh Slotnick: [00:08:01] What percentage is.

Olivia Anderson: [00:08:02] It? The county covers 75% and the homeowners responsible for 25%.

Josh Slotnick: [00:08:07] Sounds like a great deal.

Olivia Anderson: [00:08:08] It's a great.

Juanita Vero: [00:08:08] Deal.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:08:09] For you. Josh, you have to pay 100%.

Juanita Vero: [00:08:12] Yeah.

Josh Slotnick: [00:08:13] And you said you're working in the woods nearby a person's house.

Olivia Anderson: [00:08:16] Pretty much. Yeah.

Josh Slotnick: [00:08:17] It's that sort of thing. Would you do.

Olivia Anderson: [00:08:19] Yeah. You know, we have a whole list of contractors. And with that contractor and then our county prescription based on our wildfire risk mitigation specs, usually it's things like removing small diameter trees eight inches and less removing ladder fuels. So like small vegetation, small trees that act like a ladder into the crowns of trees. And it's just trying to slow down the path of fire. Ideally, keep it on the ground or, you know, stop it all together as it gets closer to the home. And in that home ignition zone, I will say the cost share does not cover the Frenchtown area or the Lolo area right now. I did not apply for the grant, but those areas were deemed there was an income requirement in those areas were deemed more high income. We're trying to apply for another round of CWG and hopefully have our cost share expand to that part of the county.

Josh Slotnick: [00:09:10] So what are the areas where you're working.

Juanita Vero: [00:09:12] In.

Olivia Anderson: [00:09:12] A lot of work up in Seeley Lake right now? All throughout the other parts of the county. We have a lot of one way in, one way out drainages that can be pretty high risk. So like, you know, Brian Creek, Grant Creek, rattlesnake, Miller Creek, all of those Patty Canyon that actually was that cost share was through a Forest action plan grant with the DNRC. So there's been a lot of work done up there. Yeah. And then another program that our department does is chip days. So we have a chipper that we bought with the grant. So we're able to drive around and help. If, you know, homeowners put their debris out on the side of the road, we can come by and grab that stuff.

Juanita Vero: [00:09:51] Oh, the county you guys will do the chipping.

Olivia Anderson: [00:09:53] Yeah.

Juanita Vero: [00:09:53] Yeah. Okay. And then what do you do with the chips?

Olivia Anderson: [00:09:55] We haul it to Garden City.

Juanita Vero: [00:09:57] Garden city? Yeah.

Olivia Anderson: [00:09:58] Yeah.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:09:59] Is there.

Juanita Vero: [00:09:59] Is. That's a free service.

Olivia Anderson: [00:10:01] Yeah.

Juanita Vero: [00:10:01] And we. How much is fuel these days?

Josh Slotnick: [00:10:04] Yeah.

Juanita Vero: [00:10:04] Do you guys know how much Missoula County is doing for you?

Dave Strohmaier: [00:10:10] So, Olivia, from a public education standpoint, have you found any messages to land better than others? I think back to a number of years ago. If you remember the Rice Ridge fire up in the Seeley area. I was up there and there's a doggone smoke column like 300 zero foot tall. And and there's someone still with a pile of firewood taking up their whole deck. And you would think that there was a smoke column right there from a very large fire. This should maybe, uh, kick me into action, but maybe not so much with some folks. And.

Olivia Anderson: [00:10:46] And sometimes it does. [00:10:48] We've noticed when there's smoke in the air and visible, our phone starts to ring a little bit more. But how we think of it is it takes time to change behavior. It's like a culture change. Thinking about, you know, your responsibility as a homeowner living in the wildland urban interface, taking care of your property and the immediate things you can do to mitigate for fire. And I've noticed if one neighbor does the work, sometimes the next neighbor does the work, it might take three years, but then they'll be like, okay, who did you get that home assessment from? I want that too. So I think that and then trying to get the message out through different voices, like some people want to hear it from me, but some people would rather hear it from their neighbor. So I always encourage neighbor to neighbor communication communities working on this within their own neighborhood, I think goes a world further than just me, myself going out to one person's house in that neighborhood. Like [00:11:41] it really needs to be a whole neighborhood working together. They're able to do so much more, help each other out, whether it's evacuation planning or helping their neighbor clean their gutters, getting on a ladder, all that type of stuff, I think needs to be from within the neighborhood, and I've found that to be pretty useful in helping get people who are maybe more hesitant.

Josh Slotnick: [00:12:00] So what are some common recommendations you often make?

Olivia Anderson: [00:12:03] Well, I think the biggest recommendation I usually have for folks is their immediate zone. So 0 to 5ft, the home ignition zone or his is broken up into three different zones. And the first zone is the house itself. So like that home hardening stuff I was talking about like physically changing the home to be more wildfire resistant. But then the 0 to 5ft is usually where folks could do some mitigation. And it's one.

Juanita Vero: [00:12:29] Of ripping out all their juniper bushes.

Olivia Anderson: [00:12:31] Exactly. Perfect. I say that a lot. And then replacing wood mulch with rock, removing juniper or other fuels up against the house. And this we always tell homeowners to start with the house and work out from there, because that's going to be the biggest change you could do to prepare your home for fire. So like even just screening off an attic vent with a one eighth inch metal mesh to keep embers out. Screening off the underside of a deck with some sort of metal mesh, or closing it off altogether to keep embers from getting in under there. And I would say, yeah, that five foot zone is usually the area that I have the most recommendations for folks. And it's also really critical. So that's why I focus so much time there. They've found in a lot of post-fire research that that 0 to 5 foot zone has shown to be one of the biggest reasons of why a home burns and why it doesn't. And a lot of that research is like home to right here in Missoula. Dr. Jack Cohen and a team of researchers were some of the founders in this home ignition zone work, which is pretty neat because it's right here in Missoula.

Juanita Vero: [00:13:34] And also that five foot. I mean, that's where a homeowner can actually do that work themselves. I mean, and they don't have to hire a contractor. They're not rebuilding the roof. They're not like doing timber management on.

Olivia Anderson: [00:13:46] Exactly.

Juanita Vero: [00:13:46] Outside their property. You want you can really do.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:13:50] You wonder if, uh, some of these local nurseries should put a warning sign on those juniper bushes? Yeah.

Juanita Vero: [00:13:56] Yeah.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:13:57] Do not plant right next to your house.

Juanita Vero: [00:13:59] Conversations go with local nurseries. Like what?

Olivia Anderson: [00:14:01] Yeah. I mean, those are very early stages. I think it'd be really cool to see, like, if you were walking through a nursery in town and you're about to buy a juniper. If there could be some sort of. Have you thought about this? Um, I don't know if that's something they're interested in.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:14:15] A smokey Bear costume jumps out.

Olivia Anderson: [00:14:18] Yeah.

Juanita Vero: [00:14:18] Um, but have you talked to landscape architects and designers or, and nursery owners and how do those conversations go?

Olivia Anderson: [00:14:25] I think the landscape partnership hasn't been dived into as much as we could. We've been working with our contractors that do a lot of the fuel mitigation with the cost share to help them kind of motivate homeowners when they're out there. If there's a juniper up against the house, maybe they can take that with them as they go. We have started talking to realtors a bit more.

Josh Slotnick: [00:14:47] Good idea.

Olivia Anderson: [00:14:47] Yeah. You know, if you're selling a house in the upper rattlesnake and it has a wood shingle roof. Could that be something the realtor, whether they point him to our office for education or, I don't know, work with the seller or the buyer?

Josh Slotnick: [00:15:01] Or do you guys have like a little handbook that a realtor could give a prospective buyer? Like you're going to live in the wUI? Here are ten things you should know.

Olivia Anderson: [00:15:09] Yeah. We have, um, community preparedness guides that we, we did a talk to a bunch of realtors that we had. They should hand out.

Josh Slotnick: [00:15:16] Those around with them.

Olivia Anderson: [00:15:17] That would be really cool if we could get realtors.

Juanita Vero: [00:15:19] Say.

Josh Slotnick: [00:15:20] When, why wouldn't and why wouldn't they?

Olivia Anderson: [00:15:21] There were quite a bit of them at this training that were interested in this topic. A lot of them seem like they want to convey the message, but yeah.

Juanita Vero: [00:15:30] What do they run up against? Like what's the resistance? Or I'm just trying to understand how this conversation happens out in the real world. And if we're trying to like make a cultural change, how do we.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:15:39] Well, is there a difference between a buyer and a seller? Yeah. In terms of representation, I mean, if if you're trying to unload this juniper ridden parcel, it's like, uh, yeah, you're not going to say, well, you're gonna get this and you're gonna have to spend a bunch of money to rip this stuff out. Versus the buyer. Yeah. I don't want to pay for that. Yeah.

Josh Slotnick: [00:15:58] So, Olivia, we are obviously about to head into wildfire season. What are some things people should be thinking about?

Olivia Anderson: [00:16:04] Yeah, there's a couple of things here. So, you know, mitigating that home ignition zone. So looking at where your firewood is located, moving that 30ft away from the house, looking at screening off vents, raking, taking a leaf blower from around the five feet of your house, limbing up tree branches on the property so they're not touching the ground, reaching out to us for a wildfire risk assessment. So all that mitigation work and there's so many resources online about the home ignition zone, I could go into it and break it all down, but like going to NFPA home ignition zone, they have a lot of great research insurance, Institute of Business and Home Safety. Ihs has a ton of really great reading. I mean, landscaping, so we call it like fire smart landscaping, choosing plant species that are more fire resistant, more resistant to embers, and planting those around your home are all things you can do. And then the other side of it is preparing for the other parts of wildfire, which is potentially evacuating, as well as smoke preparedness, evacuation planning. Make sure you're signed up for Smart 911. That's Missoula County's emergency alert system. Really important to be signed up for that. I mean, it's for anyone, but for especially folks living in one way in and one way out communities where it's really going to be critical to leave early, listen to the emergency responders and have the materials you need ready to go before the fires there. So food, water, passports, sentimental photos. Think about your pets. Oh.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:17:33] Tell us about pets and livestock with pets.

Olivia Anderson: [00:17:36] I always encourage homeowners to, you know, make a plan for, let's say you're in town, so you're at work, but your dog's at your house way up in one of the drainages. If there's an Some evacuation. There's a chance where since first responders are accessing that area, they may close traffic from going in. So maybe you have a neighbor that's home that would be willing to grab your dog or your cat or your parrot or whatever on their way out. And then Natalie Sullivan, she is doing a lot of great work in helping homeowners who have livestock be prepared to, to evacuate. So she would be at Ecology and Extension. She would be the go to there.

Josh Slotnick: [00:18:15] The horses take forever to pack their go bags.

Juanita Vero: [00:18:17] I know their go bags are so much stuff difficult.

Olivia Anderson: [00:18:21] And then for smoke preparedness, I always like to point people towards, you know, our own Missoula public health Carrie Mueller. She's done a lot of really awesome work in smoke preparedness as well as climate smart, tons of resources on that, getting a clean air filter.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:18:36] And that's, I think, worth underscoring because regardless of whether fire impacts your, your home, it is likely that every single year there will be smoke. There always has been smoke. There always will be in the future. So that is one thing that all of us should probably think about.

Olivia Anderson: [00:18:54] Totally, no matter where you are.

Josh Slotnick: [00:18:55] Yeah. Could you speak to the community Wildfire Protection Plan? What is it? And here we're updating it.

Olivia Anderson: [00:19:02] Yeah. 2018 was the last update of the Community Wildfire Protection Plan or CWPP. And that's counties ways they're across the country. It's how a county comes together with all of its collaborators to be prepared for wildfire. You know, whether it's looking at like the landscape, but also having a big emphasis on home ignition zone and like homeowner resources that they can access for help and responsibility. So that process has just started. It's going to be for the next like year and a half. So keep your ears open for that. There'll be a lot of outreach from the county. A huge part of the CWPP are having public input because it's a community wildfire protection plan. So having, you know, the people that live here have their concerns voiced and shown within the sweep. And to do that, you can go to a Missoula County Voice and then there will be a survey on that. So it's, you know, represented in the CWPP. So that'll be pretty neat as that process gets further along. And we're going to be doing some outreach events come the first week of June.

Josh Slotnick: [00:20:08] So where are those going.

Olivia Anderson: [00:20:09] To be Mondays in Missoula at the butterfly House. And then there'll be some in Frenchtown, Seeley and then Lolo.

Josh Slotnick: [00:20:17] And all that's on Missoula County Voice.

Olivia Anderson: [00:20:19] Yes.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:20:20] And I believe there will be refreshments. They'll be serving little smokies.

Juanita Vero: [00:20:24] Yeah.

Josh Slotnick: [00:20:26] Smoldering ember sandwiches. So, Olivia, how do issues related to fire cross different departments? And we have 30 some odd departments. And often their concerns are really specific and they don't have much interaction with each other. But wildfire seems to cross over a whole bunch of those different departments. Can you describe what some of those departments are and how that crossover happens.

Olivia Anderson: [00:20:47] Yeah, that's a great question. Wildfire. It affects everyday way of life. Like Dave was saying, even if you live in the middle of the city, you still are impacted by fire. So we work a lot with Missoula Public Health on smoke readiness. Another part of what they do, they manage the burn permits in Missoula County. So we work a lot with them on messaging, on how to get your burn permit. What are the seasons? How to burn a pile, how to make it less smoky. That's an awesome collaboration there. And then with parks, trails and open lands, we work with Marshall Mountain. We've used some of our we use Forest Action plan to do some fuel mitigation over there, and then ecology and extension. That's another office that I've worked with, Kelly Foster over there. We've done some collaboration on talking about home resiliency and then also home ignition zone. Oh yeah. With the planning department, they are working on hiring two wildfire specific planners to help prepare and think about Missoula County building in the future and what that will look like.

Josh Slotnick: [00:21:50] Great. Yeah, thanks.

Olivia Anderson: [00:21:51] One thing I always like to highlight is I've talked a lot about the home ignition zone in this.

Josh Slotnick: [00:21:56] Well, Dave never talks about it.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:21:58] I know I've never heard of it.

Juanita Vero: [00:22:00] Yeah.

Olivia Anderson: [00:22:01] But the reason.

Josh Slotnick: [00:22:02] Jack Cohen came by, he just wants to talk about the NBA. That's it. This NBA the MVP debate. He's all about SGA. I think he's overrated.

Olivia Anderson: [00:22:11] No, [00:22:11] but the reason why we talk about it so much, and it's across all of our different agencies, not just the county. Preparing your home ignition zone helps first responders as well. There's not a firefighter for every home in this county or anywhere. Homeowners need to take responsibility of preparing their home and property for fire. You make it safer for first responders as well. When they do go into a community to fight off a wildfire and acknowledge that fire is a part of living here in Montana. We love the forest here, but our forests also, they need fire. And that's sometimes what happens. We get wildfires. So taking accountability for preparing your home ignition zone, and then also knowing you're not alone because there are departments within the county that can do these home assessments for you and answer any questions. [00:22:55]

Josh Slotnick: [00:22:55] So I question just jumped into.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:22:57] The bonus round.

Josh Slotnick: [00:22:58] Bonus round. Yeah. So thinking about the fire in California last year, the Palisades fire or the camp fire or that fire that basically burned all of talent. Oregon. What would prevent such a thing from happening in Missoula, where you have the ember shower that becomes an urban conflagration?

Olivia Anderson: [00:23:14] Yeah, the urban conflagration. That's like. Yeah, the sheer distance of homes to homes. And we do have really tight housing.

Josh Slotnick: [00:23:22] In urban areas here. Yeah, we do infill development.

Olivia Anderson: [00:23:25] It's devastating what happened there and taking responsibility for, you know, if you are planning on building a home build with home hardening materials in mind.

Josh Slotnick: [00:23:33] I'm just wondering. So let's say somebody's building a house in the heart of Missoula. Should they consider using the same home hardening materials in case that sort of ember shower happens?

Olivia Anderson: [00:23:43] Yeah, definitely. Screen off your vents. Embers can travel really far ahead of a fire. Sometimes, you know, mile, mile and a half. I've heard even further on really extremely windy days. And then being mindful of like those junipers, those highly combustible plants, being up against those.

Juanita Vero: [00:23:58] Fireworks from your, your, those degenerate neighborhood kids.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:24:03] Well, yeah, if you're, if you're.

Juanita Vero: [00:24:04] Don't.

Olivia Anderson: [00:24:04] Start the fire.

Josh Slotnick: [00:24:06] Always a good idea.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:24:08] If your neighbor's house starts on fire, these same, same precautions would, uh, would be at play. Totally. If your neighbor's duplex is blazing and you've got those junipers right up against your house, well, there's a good chance they're gonna ignite and burn your place down, too.

Olivia Anderson: [00:24:24] Yeah. I think all of us being responsible recreators pivoting to the fire prevention side of it, but 70% of wildfires in Montana are started by people. So being responsible throughout fire season. So we avoid something like that happening around here.

Juanita Vero: [00:24:38] What are the top three things that a human can do to prevent catastrophic fire?

Olivia Anderson: [00:24:43] Yeah. The number one cause of wildfires started by people in Missoula County are escape piles. So having enough water don't burn more than you can handle. Start smaller. Don't build your pile around a ton of overhanging branches and tall grasses. Don't burn on super warm, windy days and always get a permit.

Juanita Vero: [00:25:03] Okay. That's one.

Olivia Anderson: [00:25:04] Oh yeah. And then campfires, I believe, come in second. So extinguishing your campfire completely, that includes in the fall warming fires, those that can be.

Juanita Vero: [00:25:13] And what is extinguished completely mean.

Olivia Anderson: [00:25:15] Water. And then also stir it. So don't just put the water.

Juanita Vero: [00:25:19] Bare hand with a stick.

Olivia Anderson: [00:25:22] Preferably a tool of sorts, but you do want to check before you.

Juanita Vero: [00:25:26] You gotta feel it safely.

Olivia Anderson: [00:25:28] Yep.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:25:28] And number four is deep fat frying turkeys.

Juanita Vero: [00:25:31] Yes, yes.

Olivia Anderson: [00:25:32] Yeah. The fire department. Yeah. Would appreciate that. Shout out.

Juanita Vero: [00:25:37] What about like lawn mowers trailer chains.

Olivia Anderson: [00:25:39] I think that would be that would be my other one is sparks tying your chains up on your trailers as you hit the highway, sparks from lawn mowers, listening to any restrictions that might happen this summer.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:25:50] Yeah. Are we ready for the grand finale? Yeah.

Olivia Anderson: [00:25:53] Guys, I was thinking about this one.

Josh Slotnick: [00:25:55] We gotta let us ask it.

Juanita Vero: [00:25:56] Okay.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:25:59] What do you think?

Juanita Vero: [00:26:01] Yeah. Yeah yeah. Yeah. So.

Josh Slotnick: [00:26:02] Okay. Favorite bird species.

Juanita Vero: [00:26:04] Oh, I have one. What is it...?

Olivia Anderson: [00:26:06] A sandhill crane?

Dave Strohmaier: [00:26:07] Oh. That's good.

Juanita Vero: [00:26:09] That's good. And so delicious. I mean, rib eye of the sky. Come on. Rib eye of the sky.

Josh Slotnick: [00:26:18] Oh my God.

Juanita Vero: [00:26:19] Oh, the.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:26:20] Neck meat is to die.

Juanita Vero: [00:26:22] For.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:26:24] First name of a person whose last name was Pulaski.

Juanita Vero: [00:26:27] Oh.

Olivia Anderson: [00:26:28] Oh, Ed Pulaski.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:26:29] Yes!

Juanita Vero: [00:26:30] Yes, I could not get that one right. 

Olivia Anderson: [00:26:31] This is trivia!

Josh Slotnick: [00:26:33] Okay. What's farther north? Uruguay or Paraguay?

Olivia Anderson: [00:26:36] What?

Josh Slotnick: [00:26:37] I knew I could just. No, no, we'll put all this.

Juanita Vero: [00:26:41] What is it? Is it.

Josh Slotnick: [00:26:44] Uruguay? Uruguay. Okay, that's what I'm saying.

Juanita Vero: [00:26:47] Someone checked that so quick. Yeah. So, yeah. Tell us another wisdom. You've come across a good book. Yeah.

Josh Slotnick: [00:26:56] And you get.

Juanita Vero: [00:26:56] To choose from.

Josh Slotnick: [00:26:57] The whole world of culture doesn't even have to be a book. Anything you've heard run across it you thought was repeatable.

Olivia Anderson: [00:27:03] Okay, okay.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:27:04] And even if it's not repeatable, you can repeat it.

Josh Slotnick: [00:27:06] The 16 people listening will be offended, but it's a small group.

Olivia Anderson: [00:27:11] Oh my gosh. Well, I know my coworkers will be listening, so. Oh. Okay. So I thought about these questions of good book I read recently. I just read The Women by Kristin Hannah. It's historical fiction about the Vietnam War and nurses over there. Really cool. Cool ending. Highly recommend. And then Nugget of Wisdom. I FaceTimed my mom for Mother's Day yesterday.

Josh Slotnick: [00:27:39] Good job Olivia.

Olivia Anderson: [00:27:41] Of course.

Josh Slotnick: [00:27:41] Where is she?

Olivia Anderson: [00:27:42] She's in Rochester, New York. So. Yeah, but I asked her for a nugget of wisdom, and she said it was. Don't be the oppressor of your own joy. So she was getting at. I know. She's so smart. That's good. She was getting at, you know, enjoying who you are, where you are right now. And if sometimes I feel like when you're like resting or not doing something that you might think is productive, that that's okay. And to not squash your own joy. Well done.

Juanita Vero: [00:28:11] Way to go, mom. Stephanie Anderson. Nicely done.

Olivia Anderson: [00:28:15] Yeah.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:28:16] Well, thanks so much for joining us, Olivia.

Juanita Vero: [00:28:18] Thank you.

Josh Slotnick: [00:28:19] Yeah. Thanks for joining the county.

Juanita Vero: [00:28:21] Oh, thank you for having me.

Josh Slotnick: [00:28:24] We've told the DNRC to stop their whining. Grow up. Olivia's come to.

Juanita Vero: [00:28:29] Us.

Josh Slotnick: [00:28:29] It's time to move on.

Juanita Vero: [00:28:32] Paraguay is further north.

Josh Slotnick: [00:28:33] Paraguay. Sorry. Not Uruguay. We stand corrected.

Olivia Anderson: [00:28:38] We stand corrected.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:28:40] See you all next time.

Juanita Vero: [00:28:41] Thanks, everyone.

Olivia Anderson: [00:28:42] Thank you.

Josh Slotnick: [00:28:43] Thanks for listening to the agenda. If you enjoy these conversations, it would mean a lot if you would rate and review the show on whichever podcast app you use.

Juanita Vero: [00:28:51] And if you know a friend who would like to keep up with what's happening in local government, be sure to recommend this podcast to them.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:28:57] The agenda with the Missoula County Commissioners is made possible with support from Missoula Community Access Television, better known as MCAT, and our staff in the Missoula County Communications Division.

Josh Slotnick: [00:29:09] If you have a question or a topic you'd like us to discuss on a future episode, email it to Communications@missoulacounty.us.

Juanita Vero: [00:29:17] To find out other ways to stay up to date with what's happening in Missoula County, go to missoula.com/updates.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:29:24] Thanks for listening.