Bennett Ridge is a tight knit community of property owners which was devastated by the Nun's Fire in 2017-- 90+ out of 130 homes were lost. The community has become proactive in finding solutions to living in a fire-prone zone. In the September issue we looked at the grazing project--this time we are investigating the Bennett Ridge Fire Safety Organization.

By Pete Parkinson

Driving through the Bennett Ridge neighborhood before October 2017, you would not have imagined that 130 homes were tucked away in the trees. That was, after all, part of Walter Benson’s guiding vision when he developed Bennett Ridge in the 1960s and 70s. The new neighborhood had limits on tree removal and design standards ensuring that homes would be screened from the road. The result was a truly lovely neighborhood, close to nature but only 12 minutes from town.

Everything changed in the wee hours of October 9, 2017. A wildfire raced through the dense Douglas fir forest in Trione-Annadel State Park and roared into Bennett Ridge with the fury of a speeding freight train. By the next day, more than 90 homes were gone, one resident lost his life, and the Ridge was literally a disaster area.

Amidst the grief and initial recovery efforts that followed, some residents sought to understand what had happened, and why. It turns out that the dense pre-fire forest was not a natural ecological condition in this part of eastern Sonoma County. Instead of the fire-adapted oak woodland of centuries past, the landscape had become dominated by large Doug firs and bay trees that crowded out the oaks. The hazardous wildfire conditions in Bennett Ridge were partly the result of forest management (or, more precisely, lack of management) and development decisions from the past 50-plus years.

Coming to that understanding is one thing; doing something about it is another. A year after the fire, trees were dying everywhere in the neighborhood and residents were tapped out financially, emotionally and energetically. Except, that is, for a small group of women who recognized the need and turned tragedy into action. This group—Suni Levi, Helen Sedwick and Marilee Jensen—decided to organize and form an entity that could compete for grants to help make Bennett Ridge safer for the residents who remained and those who were now starting to rebuild. As Suni commented, “we didn’t want anyone else to experience what we had gone through.” Thus, the Bennett Ridge Fire Safety Organization, or BRFSO, was born in the spring of 2019. A month or so later, PG&E announced its first round of vegetation management grants, and we were off to the races.

Forming the BRFSO as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization qualified us for grants not only from PG&E but ultimately from CalFire and Sonoma County as well. But getting the grants is just the beginning: How do we get this work done? What are our priorities? Who’s going to manage this on the ground? Enter another talented Bennett Ridge resident, Kathie Schmid. Although not trained as a forester or firefighter, Kathie is a voracious researcher who understood the conditions that brought our neighborhood to the point where we suffered a catastrophic fire. She and Suni already had a long-term working relationship with a tree service professional and certified arborist, Arcangel Martinez of Ultimate Tree Service. Working with Arcangel and his crews, Kathie was able to identify the priority areas for hazard reduction. Nor does she shy away from the demanding physical work; on Ultimate Tree Service workdays, you’ll see Kathie out there in her hardhat directing traffic, hauling limbs and rolling logs!

The BRFSO focuses on projects that benefit the whole community. Our first priority was to improve the safety of the only access road in and out of Bennett Ridge. The steep section of Old Bennett Ridge Road just off Bennett Valley Road had many overhanging trees, some of which fell during the fire and those remaining were a fall hazard that could block the only evacuation route during an emergency. This work has been a multi-year (and multi-grant) effort that is wrapping up this Fall. Another high-priority project was the “Rollo Meadow” that runs straight downhill from Annadel adjacent to several dozen homes, nearly all of which burned in 2017. Overgrown brush was cleared, and trees were removed or limbed up to help slow the spread of any future fire. Last year, the BRFSO removed large eucalyptus trees at the top of Bennett Ridge to protect the community’s water infrastructure, create a shelter-in-place location for residents and a staging area for first responders.

The BRFSO was also instrumental in designating Bennett Ridge as a “Firewise Community.” This connects us to other communities and helps our neighborhood stay focused on assessing and reducing risk as an ongoing effort, not a one-time project. Being a Firewise Community also improves our grant eligibility and, in some cases, lowers homeowners’ insurance rates. Becoming a Firewise Community has been part of the “culture change” that BRFSO has fostered here on the Ridge, including providing educational workshops and demonstrations with information on home hardening, defensible space and firewise landscaping.

This work is not without challenges. You need people who are willing to roll up their sleeves and do the work that will get results. Forming the non-profit was tedious but not technically difficult; as an attorney, Helen Sedwick had the detail-orientation to get it done. Suni Levi has been amazing, doing so much grant writing (also tedious) and nearly all the Firewise certification work. And Kathie Schmid is out in the field managing the physical work. We also faced challenges educating residents about the need to remove or trim trees to improve fire safety; folks were understandably attached to the way our neighborhood had looked before the fire. On the other hand, nearly everyone is grateful for the significant hazard reduction work funded by grants rather than their own stretched pocketbooks.

Another key to the BRFSO’s success has been to keep the organization itself relatively simple. It has a 3-member board and no voting membership, making it very agile. Relationships are also essential for success. Kathie’s working relationship with Arcangel and Ultimate Tree Service has been invaluable, as well as the relationships she has established with individual owners. We are proud of what our little neighborhood has accomplished!

Pete Parkinson is a 22-year resident of Bennett Ridge and the current president of the BRFSO.