February 9, 2022 - You can learn about the activities of the Fire Safe Council from their Executive Director Barbara Cone on Saturday, February 12, 2022, at 10:00 A.M. via a Zoom meeting.

Since 1998 the Fire Safe Council, a non-profit, has been working to help create defensible space from wildfires throughout Mariposa County. They collaborate with citizens, landowners, private businesses, and government agencies. Through success in receiving grants and in some years, small amounts of money from Mariposa County government, they have been able to make great achievements and have many more on tap in the near future.

The organization is very barebones and is not even paying for office space. The two employees work from their homes to cut overhead. They have an all-volunteer board of directors.

 Cone has been the Executive Director of the Mariposa Fire Safe Council since 2019, writing and managing grant funded projects and programs for wildfire safety. Previously she spent 26 years as an educator in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and Mariposa with her last position being at the Sierra Foothills Charter School. Many years ago she also walked across America.

The Fire Safe Council been able to help many people with chipping and some years there is grant funding to help people with their 100-foot clearance. They have a couple of big projects in the works for 2022 to create large swaths of defensible space in a couple areas of the county and Cone will be speaking about them. These include the Stumpfield Mountain Fuel Break, Foran Road Fuel Reduction, Wagner Ridge Fuel Break, and the newest grant funded Alta Vista Fuel Break.

This program is free and open to the public and is presented by the Mariposa Democratic Club. Members will receive an invitation to sign up for the program via an email. All others can send an email to Mariposademclub@gmail.com and ask for an invitation to the Zoom link. Special programs are planned each month by the club and always open to the public. At some point during the year the club expects to return to in person meetings.

Source: Mariposa Democratic Club