UW website offers suggestions to help reduce wildfire risks

Landowners can reduce wildfire risks to houses, cabins and outbuildings by creating defensible spaces around them, according to wildfire experts.

Information about how to create defensible spaces and reduce wildfire risks to property is at www.uwyo.edu/barnbackyard/resources/wildfire.html .

"With this spring's unusually dry conditions, we are asking people to be especially careful with all types of fires around their property, and we urge them to implement defensible space practices around their homes and outbuildings," says Bill Crapser, state forester with the Wyoming State Forestry Division (WSFD).

The website is part of Barnyards & Backyards, Rural Living in Wyoming by the Small Acreage Issue Team, which is a collaborative effort of the University of Wyoming Extension, WSFD and other land resource organizations in Wyoming.

Subjects in how-to articles and videos include creating defensible space around a house, cabin or outbuilding, firewise plants that can be used in landscapes and other steps to prepare for wildfire. There also is information about what to do after a wildfire. Other resource information also is available.

"The Barnyards & Backyards website is one of the best sites out there for practical information of interest to rural residents in our state," says Jennifer Thompson, small-acreage outreach coordinator with UW Extension.

"Visitors can find information on a host of subjects including vegetable gardening, weed control, water-wise landscaping, tree care, windbreaks, pine beetle management, grazing management and more. The rich and useful content is the result of the efforts of resource professionals across the state."