Constellation Trail Hike

On October 29, 2011, a large group of Villager people and dogs hiked the Constellation Trail in the Dells.  Shown below are a couple of pictures, thanks to Connie B.

Goats for Fire Fuels Mitigation

 

In the spring of 2011 Manzanita Village was awarded a grant by the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors for fire fuels mitigation in our ravine. This grant is part of a larger effort that eventuated in the community being awarded a FireWise Community designation by FireWise/USA (http://www.firewise.org/). Becoming a FireWise community is an important effort in western and southwestern areas that are yearly ravaged by wildfires. Just this year the nation watched as 538,049 acres were destroyed by the Wallow Fire in eastern Arizona.

A major portion of our fire fuels mitigation grant was earmarked to hire a local herd of goats to help clear the four acres closest to community homes. Using goats instead human beings for this initial clearing effort means we not only can clear away fire fuels and underbrush but also enhance groundwater penetration and ultimately provide a healthier environment fro both the plants and animals living in this area.

After a period of preparation on the part of both the Village and the staff of Settler Valley Ranch, including the installation of a solar-powered electric fence to protect the goats from our resident coyotes and other predators, a herd of 25 goats, three males and 22 females, was delivered on Sunday October 23, 2011. It will take this herd about 40 days to clear the designated area.

National Survey of Cohousing

The Cohousing Association of the United States (Coho/US) recently conducted a national survey of cohousing communities around the country. Manzanita Village participated in this survey. The results have been published on-line in a downloadable PDF report that can be found here.

Firewise Recognition!

Manzanita Village Cohousing Earns National Recognition For Wildfire Preparedness

Because of its efforts to reduce the vulnerability of homes and landscapes to wildfire, Manzanita Village Cohousing has earned Firewise Communities/USA® recognition from the National Firewise Communities Program. The community worked with representatives of the Prescott Area Wildland/Urban Interface Council (PAWUIC), and the Prescott Fire Department to conduct a wildfire hazard assessment and develop a plan to address safety concerns. Residents then worked together to implement the plan.

Manzanita Village joins several other communities in the Prescott area to be recognized as Firewise Communities/USA, joining many other communities nationwide that have been recognized since the program’s inception in 2002.

To receive Firewise Communities/USA recognition, Manzanita Village met a rigorous set of requirements. The community completed the several activities, including conducting vegetation and fuel mitigation at various points around the perimeter of the community, working with local fire department to remove flammable vegetation from around their homes and other neighborhood structures, holding a community day during which Firewise information was distributed. In September, the community will host a small herd of goats that will continue the fire fuels mitigation process in their common-area ravine.

“Achieving Firewise recognition is not a quick or easy process. Manzanita Village Cohousing has done an outstanding job of creating a local Firewise Task Force and implementing Firewise principles,” said Michele Steinberg, support manager of the Firewise Communities program. “By preparing homes, structures, and landscapes before a wildfire occurs, Manzanita Village has dramatically increased the chance that homes and structures will be protected when a wildfire occurs.”

Working through the National Association of State Foresters (NASF), state forestry agencies support the Firewise Communities/USA recognition effort. The program is a nationwide initiative that recognizes communities for taking action to protect people and properties from the risk of fire in the wildland/urban interface. This program is of special interest to small communities and neighborhood associations that are willing to mitigate against wildfire by adopting and implementing programs tailored to their needs. The communities create the programs themselves with cooperative assistance from state forestry agencies and local fire staff.

Firewise Communities/USA® Recognition Program is part of the National Fire Protection Association, 1 Batterymarch Park, Quincy, MA 02169. For more information visit www.firewise.org.

"Arizona We Want" Semi-finalist!

 

Good News! Manzanita Village has been chosen as one of 33 semi-finalists in the Arizona We Want ((http://www.thearizonawewant.or​g/) program. We are the only co-housing group that has been chosen. In this state-wide competition, we are one of three semi-finalists in Yavapai County and, it appears, the smallest group chosen. Our proposal is to create a working demonstration project that captures rainwater runoff for gardening and landscaping usage, which reduces domestic water usage and erosion, and builds citizen engagement. The next step in the process is to complete a feasibility assessment including identifying and getting letters of support from potential collaborating partners and determining “the way [the] community does things that will never be the same again.”

Important to the whole Arizona We Want effort are actions that build community. According to a survey cited on their webpage only 12% of citizens in Arizona believe that people in their community care about one another. Only 25% believe it’s easy to meet people and make friends in their community, and only 37% believe they are treated with respect at all times. The low sense of connectedness to one another that Arizonans express is confirmed by the findings of the 2010 Arizona Civic Health Index. Arizona ranks 48th in the nation for exchanging favors with neighbors regularly and 45th for eating dinner with family/household members almost daily. We feel that cohousing provides an exciting and innovative model for building communities and modeling ways our neighbors can grow an Arizona where people care about their communities and each other.

Here are two more links about the grant:

“Into the Mind of Lattie Coor”:

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/2011/07/23/20110723lattie-coor-into-the-mind.html

Building Community in Arizona:

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/2011/07/22/20110722community-editorial.html