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Winchester residents will find something new in their Aug. 1 water bills. Nope, not a break in their water rates. A brochure.
Entitled a “Brief Guide to Backyard Burning and Preventing Wildfires,” the brochure is being sent to 8,000 households, courtesy of the Climate Action Advisory Committee and a $4,000 grant from the En Ka Society.
The tri-fold brochure will be printed in English, Chinese and in large font. It will also be available at the Winchester Public Library, Town Hall, the Jenks Center and the Farmers Market.
The brochure was written by the Fire Department, in cooperation with the Climate Action Advisory Committee, and it is expected 6,000 more will be printed for the department to use in the future.
Ruth Trimarchi, chair of the Climate Action Advisory Committee, said the town has been doing a resiliency plan for the past decade.
What’s a resiliency plan?
Trimarchi said the plan helps identify what the town needs to pay more attention to in terms of climate change and points out what action needs to be taken in accordance with the Climate Action Plan.
She said the town has taken on many different resiliency projects, such as flood mitigation and putting together the Permanent Street Tree Committee, which is also part of the Climate Action Plan.
But what exactly is resiliency?
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines resiliency as “The ability of a community to prepare for and recover from the impacts of climate change.”
The IPCC is a United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. Trimarchi calls the IPCC “the gold standard for strategies.”
Finding the priority
How did the Climate Action Advisory Committee come up with fire/heat/drought as its priority for the year?
Trimarchi said one thing Winchester really doesn’t have to worry about is how rising sea levels immediately impact the community.
However, she added extreme temperatures, like those experienced earlier this summer, drought, wildfires, wind, ice storms, poor air quality and pest-borne illnesses are definitely climate change effects everyone in Winchester has experienced.
“It’s not a crisis, but tomorrow is too late to plan for tomorrow,” Trimarchi said. “There are low-cost actions we can take today to better protect Winchester from the local impacts of climate change.”
Trimarchi said so far, Winchester hasn’t had to face wildfires like many other parts of the country. However, she added Winchester residents could smell the smoke from last October’s wildfire on the North Shore.
Trimarchi said the committee spoke to dozens of staff members in other communities over the past six months to talk about how fire/heat/drought is impacting them.
And, the group reviewed nine Winchester municipal plans, such as the master plan and the all hazards mitigation plan, to gather every one of the town’s resiliency actions and put them into a spreadsheet.
Spreading the word
Once the group had its priority set for the year, Trimarchi said the next move was to figure out how educate the community.
“Climate Action has no external authority,” Trimarchi said. “We have no budget and our only tool is education.”
The Climate Action Advisory Committee is a town-appointed committee of nine people who advise the Select Board on climate change.
So she went to Fire Chief Steve Osborne, who collaborated with the committee to come up with the brochure.
Osborne said the brochure was done by the department’s Fire Prevention Office.
But should Winchester residents be worried about wildfires or backyard burning?
“Winchester is prepared for such emergencies,” Osborne said. “Our water sources are fantastic and the Water Department does a great job.”
Trimarchi added other folks were instrumental in getting the brochure done. She credited residents Wei Han and his daughter for translating the brochure into Chinese, as well as town staff for “their work in processing the necessary paperwork, obtaining quotes, and working to get the brochure out to the community.”
On this, the fifth anniversary of the town’s Climate Action Plan, Trimarchi said the Climate Action Advisory Committee is celebrating what it’s accomplished so far and what it can accomplish in the future.
“Wildfires, heat and drought are becoming greater risks in Winchester at this time and the Fire Department and En Ka are working with the Climate Action Advisory Committee to get these tips out to help the public understand their role in reducing fire risks,” Trimarchi said.
