A large cottonwood fell across the maintenance road in this commons area, the tree is actually suspended in the air above the road. For safety do not walk under the tree, please use the temporary walking path that has been brushed around the tree. The tree will be removed from the road between the 17th and 19th of next week.
G.Castellane for the CVHA Board of Directors
DNR PROTECTED LANDS: Effective July 6, 2018 at 12:01 A.M. The fire danger rating for Pierce County is a Moderate. Fire restrictions are enacted on all DNR protected lands within the county. All debris burning is suspended. Campfires are allowed on DNR protected lands, however you must have the landowners permission. Fires can be no larger that 3 feet in diameter and 2 feet in height. Incendiary devices such as fireworks, exploding targets, sky lanterns, or tracer ammunition are illegal on all DNR lands. Check with your local fire district and the county website for any further restrictions. These restrictions will remain in effect until further notice.
PIERCE COUNTY: A countywide burn ban is in effective Thursday, July 12 at 8 a.m., until further notice.
The burn ban applies to all land clearing and yard debris outdoor burning. The ban does not apply to small recreational fires in established fire pits at approved campgrounds or on private property with the owners permission. The use of gas and propane self-contained stoves and barbecues are allowed under the ban.
Recreational fires must: Be built-in a metal or concrete fire pit and not be used for garbage disposal. Grow no larger than 3 feet in diameter. Be located in a clear spot free from any vegetation for at least 10 feet in a horizontal direction, including at least 25 feet away from any structure and allow for 20-foot vertical clearance from overhanging branches. Be attended at all times by an alert individual and equipment capable of extinguishing the fire, such as hand tools and a charged garden hose or not less than two 5-gallon buckets of water. No burning when winds exceed 5 miles per hour.
The above is taken from the official fire restriction documents from DNR and Pierce County.
Posted for the CVHA Board of Directors by Gary Castellane.
Expect the new poles to be dropped in CV1 in the next week or so and work on replacing the poles to begin about the first week of July. At this time we are going to either use a locator service to locate our water line at each pole site or use an approximate method of location. PSE plans on using a Vactor truck to make the holes for the poles (15 each), this will greatly reduce any possibility of damage to our water system. Even with the Vactor truck we may have intermittent water outages during the vactor part of the project. These outages will be confined mainly to Crystal Drive East and Rainbow lane. Homeowners will be informed as soon as possible of any interruption to their water service. A big thanks to our water manager Chet Mowbray for heading this project up.
G.Castellane for CVHA Board of Directors.
Re: Facebook Post from Ashley Doerr Peterson:
GREENWATER FOLKS, please be alert and careful if using the power line trail that goes from CV1 to FS73.
There has been tons of shooting from the campsite at the washout with evidence of people putting targets on barricade that goes back towards trail to CV1.
This morning I was running by and there were paper bullseye targets on the barricade. I told the folks that this trail is very popular and a neighborhood is only about a half mile away in the direction they were shooting!!!
Please be alert and careful!!!
GCastellane
Our CVHA Annual Meeting is scheduled for January 20, 2018 at the Greenwater Community Center with a start time of 6:00 p.m.
The addition to the Agenda is as follows:
6:00-6:20: Charley Burns, Fire Manager for the Washington State Department of Natural Resources will discuss fire management activities in our local area. Charley started his Wildland fire career with the United States Forest Service on the White River Ranger District (now the Snoqualmie District) in Enumclaw. The Firewise program will be discussed along with other pertinent fire related items.
G.Castellane
From Wendy School:
Good News!
Perhaps you are aware of the new constructed Verizon tower at the WSDOT Maintenance Yard across from the Hwy 410 Community Center. Cell signal coverage might happen by end of this year. The underground power connection is in and mounted physically is Microwave equipment which will provide cell signal “backhaul” coverage. Using Microwave backhaul is more expensive but provides a medium instead of fiber or copper.
The survey stakes show the Right of Way boundaries around the power poles. They are in place because Puget Sound Energy is going to replace the overhead wires with specially coated wires and insulators. These will resist power outages if a limb or branch falls on the power lines. The projects is now scheduled for the spring of 2018.
posted by G.Castellane
Posted by Pierce County:
Effective immediately: Pierce County has dropped the level 3 evacuation for Greenwater Area 4, FS 7160 eastbound on SR 410 to Crystal Mountain Blvd, to fire danger advisory level 1. All other awareness and evacuation levels in the Greenwater area, to include Gold Hills and Crystal Mountain Resort, have been lifted. Level 1 means be alert. Be aware. Danger exists in your area. Monitor local media for information.
Paul Sower’s post: Community fire information meeting
There will be a community meeting at the Greenwater Community Center on Friday, September 22nd at 6 pm. This will give you all a chance to meet the folks from PNW Team 3. We will be discussing future management of the fire, and the process of ramping down the response and rehabbing areas affected by the fire.
Below are a couple of posts forwarded by Diane Gebenini. Both contain useful information regarding the Norse Peak Fire.
Here’s an update from tonight’s informal community meeting about the Norse Peak and Sawmill Creek fires. Please keep in mind this meeting came together at the very last minute as a way to update and inform residents. It wasn’t a planned meeting with representatives from each agency available to answer every question. Most available personnel were working on the first priority: protecting lives and property from the fires.
As of tonight, a crew including people from the Crystal department is working ahead of the Norse Peak fire in the Silver Springs cabin area alongside a Type 2 hand crew of 20 people. They have ordered some protective wrap and it’s available. They also have plans in place for other protective measures including laying protective plumbing for sprinklers and pumping water from the creek. Winds have shifted favorably in that area so the fire is burning back on itself, moving away from the cabins as of 6:00 pm. No heavy rain is forecast, but tomorrow’s projected cooling and slight moisture should help the responders’ efforts.
This fire is currently 1/2 mile from Goat Creek and is backing up slowly due to the favorable wind. Crews and lookouts are there and despite quick movement in the past 48 hours,, fire moves sober in these smoky conditions, hasn’t progressed much in goat creek, still well above those structures. Assessing everything, as make progress will move from there forward.
The Sawmill Creek fire has a team called from a fire last night. While waiting for equipment and access, they were able to go out with the local district today, scout the fire and plan for mobilizing resources as soon as they arrive. More information about this fire is available at 253.666.8841 in addition to the websites/Facebook pages referenced on this page.
Plans are being developed to stay ahead of both these fires with a priority on responder safety, and areas where people and property are concentrated. Should any areas go under an evacuation order, the Sheriff’s department will notify all residents, including door-to-door notification. Evacuation decisions are made by that department.
Community members have offered a lot of resources including money, volunteer hands and equipment. In a critical scenario, like this one, it can be a false economy to manage and mobilize those resources, impeding what the folks professionally trained to fight fires need to do. All offers are appreciated and will be accepted when/if they’re appropriate to the situation. Please keep in mind a “no” or “not now” response might feel counterintuitive, but is there for good reasons. Similarly, this isn’t a situation where an “all call” for anyone with fire training is necessarily appropriate. Regional fire crews are responding to needs like mapping and assessing properties for defensibility, but wildland fire crews need to be experienced working together. Throwing together 20 folks who may all have experience but don’t work as a coordinated team isn’t a feasible approach.
Both fires present three particular challenges, which limit the responding strategies:
1) Terrain, trail access and fire behavior limit where crews on the ground can go and what they’re able to do. Responders are engaging local loggers and other qualified folks to create better access/egress, but generally there isn’t a feasible way to get to the fire itself. Using the best strategy available, crews are working in front of the fire—watching the behavior, anticipating direction, and moving crews to stop its progress at a manageable distance for responder safety.
2) Limited visibility due to smoke has inhibited air operations. Pilots haven’t been able to see the appropriate targets to locate effective drops. They also need visibility to make sure their long lines aren’t caught in the trees. At this point in time any drops would be water (not fire repellent) due to regulations governing this particular forest. The crews managing the incident are in continuous conversation with the forest service about whether a waiver could be secured; however, repellent isn’t necessarily an effective option in a forest with the kind of dense canopy we have here. The weather forecast looks hopeful for aerial operations in the next day or two, but clearer/less smoky weather also means fire activity may increase, as smoky conditions suppress that behavior somewhat.
3) With extreme fires throughout Washington State, Oregon, Montana and other areas, including heavily populated areas, trained personnel and equipment are severely limited. Funding and political influence to get more crews here are not in shortage, but resources nationally are maxed out not only by wildfires but by the hurricanes in Houston and anticipated catastrophic landfall in Florida. The people managing these fires are summoning as many resources as they can, beg-borrow-steal style. They have daily update calls with folks who coordinate resources at the national level, based on priority.
Community members whose businesses or homes have already been under Level 3 evacuation may be able to access their properties if escorted by law enforcement, but never alone at this time. Contact the Pierce County Sheriff’s department but please think carefully first about whether retrieving your belongings is a high enough priority to divert resources from other fire-related activities.
Most importantly, don’t do anything to impede or delay the responders working on the fire. Working on your structures, you can clear the property of debris, move cars out of garages, clear gutters, block vents with fireproof material, move propane tanks away from the house and deal with any other flammable material.
Fire Information links for the Norse Peak/Sawmill Creek Fires 2017 White River Valley, Crystal Mountain and Greenwater
Norse Peak Fire-INCIWEB https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5509/
Norse Peak Fire-Facebook https://www.facebook.com/NorsePeakFire/
Sawmill Creek Fire-INCIWEB https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5594/#
Sawmill Creek Fire-Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SawmillCreekFire2017/
Forest Service https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/mbs/about-forest/offices/?cid=fsbdev7_001660
Forest Service- Mount Baker Snoqualmie National Forest-Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MtBakerSnoqualmieNF/
Washington Department of Natural Resources- http://www.dnr.wa.gov/ https://www.facebook.com/Washington-State-Department-of-Natural-Resources-273352136518/
Washington Department of Transportation https://www.facebook.com/WSDOT/posts/10154781492526975
Mount Rainier National Park https://www.nps.gov/mora/index.htm
Crystal Mountain Ski Resort https://www.crystalmountainresort.com/
Crystal Mountain Webcams https://www.crystalmountainresort.com/the-mountain/mountain-report/webcams/
White River Recreation Association https://www.facebook.com/groups/116924811846669
Greenwater Fire Fighters Association https://www.facebook.com/groups/173630809344132/
Buckley Fire Department https://www.facebook.com/City-of-Buckley-Fire-Department-2…/
Enumclaw Fire Department https://www.facebook.com/EnumclawFire/
NOAA- WEATHER AND HAZARDS DATA VIEWER http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/map/?obs=true&wfo=sew