Follow-up survey marks success for fire safety campaign

More residents and property owners in the San Bernardino County Mountains have taken action to protect their homes and businesses from wildfire than two years ago.  This has been confirmed by a follow-up survey conducted at the conclusion of the Mountain Area Safety Taskforce’s (MAST) two-year public outreach campaign. In terms of documented behavior change, the survey found that 96 percent of residents had taken steps to protect their homes from wildfire.

Cook & Schmid, a San Diego public relations firm, designed and implemented the program to educate mountain residents about the removal of dead and dying trees, as well as thinning green fuel on the residents’ properties to prevent against additional catastrophic wildfires.

The results of the 2008 survey found that respondents reported greater awareness of wildfire prevention measures, were more prepared for a natural disaster, and had taken more steps to prevent the spread of wildfires and potential danger to their property. The survey also found that awareness and knowledge about fire safety measures increased significantly since San Bernardino County and the Mountain Area Safety Taskforce (MAST) launched the public outreach campaign.

“We were very pleased to see these results,” said Jon Schmid, partner at Cook & Schmid. “Overturning the idea that more trees in a forest meant that it was a healthier forest was challenging though the outcome speaks to the residents’ understanding of the bigger picture.”

Due to years of fire suppression, the forest had become overstocked, with some 100 to 200 trees per acre, where a healthy forest has 40 to 60 trees per acre. Thinning live trees is a key component of MAST’s healthy forest initiative. Moreover, the survey tabulated a 9.2 percent drop in residents who had not taken steps to reduce fire risk because they didn't know what to do. Compared with the 2007 study, the 2008 survey indicated that respondents were more proactive in taking steps to protect their property:

•    10.9 percent increase in residents who had thinned and/or removed live trees from their
property
•    More than 80 percent of residents had taken most of the nine possible steps to reduce fire risk
•    At least 75 percent of business property owners/managers took steps to protect their property 

The overall majority of residents (78 percent) as well as non-residents (80 percent) surveyed in 2008 believe they are adequately prepared for a natural disaster.

Complete results of the 2007 and 2008 surveys can be found on the MAST Web site, http://calmast.org/sbc/html/public_outreach_program.asp