Archive for the Golf Category 
Aspen Lakes honored as Firewise Community
Saturday, May 2nd, 2009Please join the Oregon Department of Forestry and Project Wildfire as they welcome and honor Aspen Lakes as Oregon’s newest Firewise Community!
Sunday May 3, 2009
3 PM at the Aspen Lakes Clubhouse
16900 Aspen Lakes Drive, Sisters, Oregon
As one of only five Firewise Communities in Oregon, Aspen Lakes is a 120-home planned community just east of Sisters where quality of life thrives among the majestic ponderosa pines. Quality of life includes much more than a beautiful setting though. From the start, the Cyrus Family envisioned a residential neighborhood where quality of life also means a community safer against the threat of wildfire.
The attention to details such as fire resistant landscaping and non-combustible siding and roofing were a requirement from the start. Aspen Lakes also requires that homeowners must maintain their properties so that shrubs, grasses and other plants must not provide pathways for fire to reach homes or allow fire to reach the tree crowns.
Working with Oregon Department of Forestry, Aspen Lakes continued with their original vision and worked outside the residential areas to create a defensible buffer around the community as well. “Reducing the potential for wildfires has always been a priority in our family long before we knew about Firewise Communities,” recalls Matt Cyrus, CEO of Aspen Lakes.
“Aspen Lakes is a success story from the inside out,” says Stu Otto, the Stewardship Forester for ODF who works with Aspen Lakes. “The fuels reduction already underway and fire resistant building materials made Aspen Lakes a natural fit for the Firewise Communities program,” Otto adds.
Aspen Lakes applied for Firewise Community status in 2008 and the award of national recognition for their efforts is an exceptional achievement. “I hope that our accomplishment inspires other communities across central Oregon to get involved and become more fire safe,” encourages Cyrus.
The Firewise Communities USA program enables communities in America’s fire-prone areas to achieve a high level of protection against wildland urban interface fire as well as sustainable ecosystem balance. Its goal is to encourage and acknowledge action that minimizes home loss to wildfire. For more information about the Firewise Communities USA program, please visit www.firewise.org.
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