Supervisors to plan for upcoming wildfire season at meeting

Before the snow has even melted, Carson City Board of Supervisors will be focusing attention on the upcoming fire season.

Three fire-prevention topics will be on the agenda during the meeting.

They will hear a presentation about plans for an early spring fuel-reduction effort and study. Sheep will be used to selectively graze along the western hillsides to protect homes from fires. The animals will forage the cheatgrass, which grows and dries out faster than other vegetation in the area.

Having the sheep graze during a two-to-three-week period when the cheatgrass is green - but before other vegetation matures to the same level - is what fire experts believe will be the best way to reduce fire danger and keep other less-flammable plants and shrubs in place to ward off soil erosion.

Government agencies still are ironing out details.

The board will be asked later to approve a contract of up to $20,000 with Resource Concepts Inc., to oversee the fuels reduction work and produce a report.

Also scheduled:

-- Approval to accept a grant for more than $74,000 to pay for tools, primarily a fire safety trailer and electronic robot, for fire safety education efforts at various public events. Focus will be on educating such segments of the community as seniors, children, people living near wildland areas and the city's growing Latino population.

-- Approval of an agreement to share the cost with the Nevada Fire Safe Council of three dump trailers and three waste containers to carry away potentially flammable vegetation waste. The state council will pay the city to transport the receptacles to neighborhoods for use by residents to get rid of the waste for recycling.

-- Contact reporter Terri Harber at tharber @nevadaappeal.com or 882-2111, ext. 215.