Firewise Community
OSTA Review 25
Parks have long been overlooked when it comes to fire safety. Due to the impact of past fires, there is a movement to help Parks become a FireWise Community. This is a designation for Parks that have taken part in a special program. This is a collaboration between Federal and State Government offices that created a program to identify problems in advance. More importantly, those findings will trigger work to correct them, involving volunteers and Park involvement.
What does that mean to us? The Associations are forming Committees to work with the project and undertake long-term commitments (estimated 2-3 years) to reduce the risks of fire damage to the Parks. Now is a critical time for this action, as the 5-7 year mark is a key period for fires to recur due to the regrowth of brush and trees in burned areas.
The best part? It will cost you and me nothing to take part. Tenants will be asked for some cooperation and participation. How does it work?
The process begins with a voluntary exterior home inspection to look for potential hazards. The report does NOT go to your insurance company or your landlord. It goes to you. Then an overall condition report is sent to the owners, to work together to address issues such as problem trees and overgrown brush. This is supported by volunteer programs by the US Forest Service and Young Marines, to name a few. Here’s an example;
A local park had 100 feet of Blackberry bushes along the creek. FireWise arranged to have a crew clear the entire creek path at No Cost (an estimated $9-$10,000 project). The park was then asked to spray 3x a year with approved chemicals to keep the brush down and prevent the hazard from regrowing as their contribution.
If you are interested in finding out more for your Park, reach out to FireWise at https://www.nfpa.org/education-and-research/wildfire/firewise-usa
OSTA Forward
“Our mission here at OSTA is to educate and empower our members, so they are capable and equipped to take action in their park when necessary. If you have been a member for some time, then you know OSTA has been somewhat dormant for the past few years. This year, we have seen an explosion of growth. New features and benefits for our members and we ended it all off with a bang at our hugely successful OSTA Conference 2025. Now going forward, OSTA wants to create an army of educated members out there, ready to spring into action to push legislation forward when the time comes. We want to see every park have the opportunity to learn about their rights and about OSTA. Over the next few years, we will be working closely with existing chapters and creating new chapters with the goal of empowering each chapter to act as a “mini-OSTA.” We want to put the power of adding members and managing your Chapter’s membership list into your hands. We want to help fund our Chapters, by offering a rebate check to Chapters, which comes from a percentage of every new member added. Every Chapter leader will have the opportunity to complete our upcoming education course and walk away with pre-planned meeting materials and handouts to take back to their park residents. By putting the power to become educated and in turn educate others, as well as manage your Chapter we hope to develop and recognize, as well as support, the many community leaders we have within OSTA. If you are a member of OSTA, you became so with a purpose. You wanted to see change in what was an unacceptable situation for you and/or your neighbors. We will be starting out with a pilot program. If your Chapter would like to sign up to be one of the first to participate, and have the chance to give your input on this new process, please contact rloveelder@oregontenants.com. By this time next year, we expect to see a tremendous increase in our membership numbers and we can’t wait to introduce you all to those heroic community leaders who put themselves out there to help their neighbors.
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