We are proud to offer this new event for community members in the Skyline Ridge area, including unincorporated parts of NW Multnomah County and Washington County in the Tualatin Mountains. This day-long event offers 3 hands-on workshops from local experts on how to increase the chance of your family and your home getting through such a disaster unscathed and how to improve the resiliency of your forest. Local community groups and agencies will also be sharing information and resources on wildfire preparedness during tabling sessions throughout the event.

This event is free and lunch will be provided. We’ll have a raffle to give away tools that can help you manage your landscape and remove fuels.

Skyline Ridge Wildfire-Ready Workshop

Saturday, May 3, 8:30am-2:30pm
Skyline Grange #894, 11275 NW Skyline Blvd, Portland, OR 97231

Registration (below) is required.
Please make sure all members of your party have completed a registration if you plan to attend. Capacity of the Grange limits our registration for this event to 100 at this time.

This event is presented by West Multnomah SWCD, Skyline Grange #894, Oregon State Fire Marshal, Portland Fire and Rescue, and Multnomah County Office of Emergency Management.

Accessibility: This event will be held indoors and outdoors at Skyline Grange, with different workshops being held indoors and out, on uneven ground, including on a sloped lawn. Please wear clothes for the weather and uneven terrain. The only bathrooms inside the Grange are downstairs, and there will be an ADA portable toilet on site at ground level (no stairs) for the day.

This event will be hosted in English, but translation services are available if requested in advance. Please note this on your registration if needed.

These workshops are specifically designed for the residents of higher-risk, rural, forested areas, so if you are from a more urban or suburban area of Multnomah County or the surrounding area we encourage you to wait for another event to learn about fire safety and preparedness. Please sign up for our newsletter to hear about future events, or feel free to email info@wmswcd.org to express interest.

Workshops

Offered on rotation, so all will get to attend all sessions.

Your Home Can Survive a Wildfire

with Jen Warren, Fire Risk Reduction Specialist at the Oregon State Fire Marshal, and Kim Kosmas, Senior Public Education Officer with Portland Fire and Rescue.

Participants will learn:

• How homes ignite during wildfires.
• Strategies for hardening the home against ignitions.
• Ideas for creating defensible space.

Plan Your Escape

with Multnomah County Office of Emergency Management and Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue.

Participants will learn:

• How emergency notifications are made during an incident.
• How agencies coordinate evacuations during a wildfire.
• What individuals can do to be prepared to evacuate.
• How they can make good decisions to evacuate by planning ahead.

Sustain Your Effort

with Laura Taylor, Forest Conservationist at West Multnomah SWCD and Rachel Mauch, Community Wildfire Forester at Oregon Dept. of Forestry

Participants will learn:

• Strategies for accomplishing fuels reduction work in their landscape.
• How to prioritize fuels reduction work.
• Strategies to make the work sustainable for the long-haul.

Schedule:

• 8:30am Arrival and check-in
• 9:00am Welcome presentation with host organizations
• 9:30am Begin first rotation session
• 10:30am Break, and move to second rotation location
• 10:45am Begin second rotation session
• 12:00pm Lunch, tabling, and raffle
• 1:15pm Begin third rotation session
• 2:30 Closing comments
• 2:45 Tabling and mingling
• 3:45 Event ends

Info Tables

Offered during lunch and after the workshop sessions. Presenters include:

• American Red Cross
• Division of Financial Regulation (insurance info)
• Firewise Communities
• Metro
• Multnomah County Emergency Management
• Oregon Department of Forestry
• Oregon State Fire Marshal
• Portland Fire & Rescue
• Portland General Electric
• Portland Parks Bureau
• Skyline Neighborhood Emergency Team (NET)
• Tualatin Valey Fire & Rescue
• West Multnomah Soil & Water Conservation District