The Nebraska Forest Service is coordinating a workshop for Friday, June 27th that will help homeowners with recommendations and actions to help protect their homes from wildfires. The workshop will focus on homes located in heavily wooded areas like the location along Lewis and Clark Lake. “With more home development happening among the wooded locations in north Cedar and Knox counties, there is an associated growing chance of the loss of property and life to wildfire” says Steve Rasmussen, District Forester with the UN-L Nebraska Forest Service. “We want to raise the awareness of the risks of building amongst flammable landscapes and provide help in making the ownerships as safe as possible”.

Topics that will be addressed by presentations will include information and examples on what the town of Valentine is doing after a wildlife nearly burned into that community in 2012; recommendations from the national FireWise Communities program on how to make an ownership less of a fire risk; how thinning projects at Chadron State Park helped save that area from wildfires; creating a “defendable space from fire” around a home; and other fire prevention information.

The workshop will start at 3:00pm at 109 Main Street in Crofton, Nebraska. The Crofton Volunteer Fire Department and City of Crofton will host the workshop and provide refreshments. The Nebraska Forest Service will have the mobile Fire Prevention trailer with handouts. For more information, contact Steve Rasmussen, NFS District Forester at phone number 402.375.0101 or through e-mail at srasmussen2@unl.edu.