The section covers two topics: JMFA/Firewise and links to resources for individual homeowners to help in fire preparedness.
Jemez Mountains Firewise Association
Thompson Ridge Estates is a member of the Jemez Mountains Firewise Association (JMFA), previously known as Greater Eastern Jemez Urban/Wildland Interface Corporation. The purpose of this non-profit association is to reduce fuel loads throughout the Jemez Mountains area through education, research, coordination of funding efforts, and thinning projects. Details about the organization can be found at https://jmfa-nm.org. Information about the national Firewise program can also be found at this site.
GEJWUIC was originally founded in the early years of this century to administer two thinning grants obtained through the USDA. Individual homeowners at Thompson Ridge were able to take advantage of this program and thin their property at greatly reduced cost. The program also identified professional arborists to carry out the thinning. In recent years, several individual homeowners have succesfully applied for funding from the National Resource Conservation Service's EQIP program to carry out thinning on their properties. Other projects successfully carried out by GEJWUIC includes a recent thinning of a tract of land belonging to Casa Angelica in Area 3, with subsequent controlled burns to remove fuel piles, and a pilot forest inventory using data from manned and unmanned aircraft.
JMFA, the successor organization to GEJWUIC, is currently expanding its efforts to reach owners in the Jemez Mountains focus area as described on the JMFA home page. Any interested individual may apply for membership in JMFA. Thompson Ridge has two Firewise representatives at this time, Harry Jones (hjonesaz@gmail.com) and Jef Wheeler (j.wheeler1@me.com) who can provide more information about thinning grants.
How to Prepare for Fire at Thompson Ridge
Preparing for fire is a multi-faceted process.
It's important to look over your property and do a risk assessment as an initial step. Does your property contain dead and down trees or other dead vegetation? Do you have burnable material located close to your house? Can the exterior of your house be made more fire resistant by including a buffer area between vegetation and the home or fire-resistant decking? What is your roofing material? Do you have leaves and pine needles in guttering or on your roof or deck? Information at the Firewise website (https://www.nfpa.org/Public-Education/Fire-causes-and-risks/Wildfire/Firewise-USA) will give you suggestions on how to prepare your home or cabin to mitigate the risks of wildfire.
Keep slash on your property to a minimum. The Thompson Ridge slash pit is available during designated times to receive slash loads. Please dump slash into the pit, not on the apron. LCVFD will also bring a chipper (usually in the fall) to chip slash. You can also burn slash if you have a burn permit. Details about this are available at https://sites.google.com/view/jmfa-nm/resources-for-thinning/slash-disposal?authuser=0. Be sure to keep water on hand as well as a shovel and never leave a fire unattended.
Complete a residential preplanning sheet for reference. A copy of the form is available at https://sites.google.com/view/jmfa-nm/wildfire-resources-for-homeowners/residential-preplanning?authuser=0.
During fire season (approximately May-October), keep a hose attached and water turned on at your freezeproof. Do not attempt to burn during hot, dry, windy weather or when the Forest Service or Sandoval County has restrictions on outside burning in place.
Keep your chimney clean. Plan to clean it out after burning approximately one cord of wood. Chimney fires are common in the Jemez.
Consider what you will do to prepare your house for fire.
Have a plan in place before you have to evacuate. One frequent comment from homeowners who had to leave their homes during recent California fires was that they had little time to plan and couldn't think clearly enough to prioritize their needs. Store important papers off site, or better yet, scan them and keep a backup copy of your files on an external hard drive or on a cloud server. Be sure to have a copy of prescriptions (and take pills or crucial medical supplies with you). Remember that Thompson Ridge has only one road for access, so if evacuation seems likely, pack and leave early. See https://drive.google.com/file/d/1V9q6iVj1w1K8QCjePE-mL_eJtzD3sVCi/view for detailed information about how to handle a wildfire emergency.
Know what to do if you have to shelter in place. See https://drive.google.com/file/d/1F7tNr6jXlCG-0DVBX0zhCY9AU3IONtt8/view for information on how to handle this emergency.
For a comprehensive list of resources, see the following page .