The second annual Lake Tahoe Basin Wildfire Awareness Week is May 28-June 5. The theme this year is “Get Defensive: We’re Counting on You!” The focus of the week will be to promote community based defensible space activities.

Fire agencies, fire safe chapters and local organizations will collaborate to have community clean up days, including offering free chipping and pine needle pick ups and hosting neighborhood meetings and educational activities.

Check the Living with Fire website to find out about events in your area.

The goal of the Lake Tahoe Basin Wildfire Awareness Week is to encourage individual action to reduce the threat of wildfire to homes and communities. Activities will provide information and resources to create defensible space around homes.

Creating defensible space involves selecting and maintaining vegetation near the home, thereby reducing the risk that homes will be ignited and destroyed during a wildfire. It takes a coordinated effort between individuals and local fire and other agencies to prepare a community to survive wildfire.

For information on how to create defensible space in the Tahoe basin go online, or contact Susie Kocher at (530) 542.2571 or sdkocher@ucdavis.edu.