Thanks to All Those That Attended the First Lecture on April 17th 2012

Post date: Apr 23, 2012 5:54:50 PM

We really want to thank you for sharing your evening the last week with the North Topanga Canyon Fire Safe Council by attending the first lecture in our four-part Lecture Series. This lecture was videotaped and will be available online here at ntcfsc.org at some point in the future, after post-production work is completed.

The first lecture, "Wildfire Risk in our Unique Ecosystem". presented by Kathryn Kirkpatrick and Robert Taylor from the National Park Service, was about the ecology of the Santa Monica Mountains, fire behavior, and what we can do to become a more Fire Adapted Community*.

We learned about:

The uniqueness of our Mediterranean ecosystem

The structure of our geography, and rain, temperature and wind patterns and what they mean to our fire risk

The characteristics of different fuel loads and how they affect fire behavior

The fire triangle (geography, weather and fuel) and the reality that we can only influence fuel

The beginning introduction to the role of our homes as fuel for wildfires

We hope you found the first lecture informative and a worthwhile use of your time.

Beth Burnam and Ryan Ulyate

Co-Presidents, NTCFSC

* A Fire Adapted Community is one where its members understand and accept their wildfire risk and have taken proactive steps to improve the safety and resilience of their homes, landscapes, infrastructure and community assets to withstand a wildfire. The more actions the community takes, the more fire adapted it becomes.