Portola Valley Update April 20, 2023

This week's update:

• This Saturday - Don’t miss the PV Wildfire Preparedness Fair
• Woodside Fire Chipper Program Begins in May
• Neighborhood Cleanup Day- April 29
• Portola Valley Trivia Night: Got Brain?? Get Social!!
• Conservation Committee Tip of the Month - Purple Invasive Thistles
• Wildfire Preparedness Committee Tip- What is Defensible Space?
• Sustainability Tip- Gas Powered Leaf Blowers - You Can Help!
• Upcoming Events

Don’t miss the PV Wildfire Preparedness Fair

this Saturday, April 22, from 10am to 2pm

Be ready for the new WFPD wildfire defensible space evaluations!

The WFPD has stepped up its Defensible Space & Home Hardening Evaluations. You can avoid a last minute scramble to have work performed and avoid fines and fees. Attend the fair and discuss with landscape specialists how you can maintain a ember resistant, defensible space around your home by removing flammable vegetation.

Protect your home from ignition during a wildfire. Visit a demonstration house where you can learn how to upgrade and harden your home vents, siding, decks, gutters, and fences, using ignition resistant materials. Talk with vendors, manufacturers, and experts in wildfire preparedness.

Learn how to keep your family safe in a wildfire!

Learn what would happen during a real wildfire event. Attend the 1 p.m.-2 p.m. Emergency Action and Response Presentation by Don Bullard, WFPD Fire Marshal; Selena Brown, WFPD Public Education Officer & Emergency Preparedness Coordinator; Brian Kelly, retired Fire Chief and SMC DEM consultant; and Dave Barnett, retired Battalion Chief and SMC DEM consultant.

Be ready when the evacuation order is given! Visit the Fair’s Be Prepared exhibits to learn how to receive evacuation alerts, how to prepare your family, and how to make you evacuate in time.

Learn about the changing fire insurance market!

Your neighbors on Westridge will tell you how you can become part of a Firewise community and take advantage of upcoming insurance discounts.

Stop by the California Department of Insurance (CDI) exhibit and speak to Representatives from CDI about California’s new fire insurance regulation and what it means to homeowners. Learn how you may be able to obtain discounts for fire mitigation work and receive vital information about your home’s wildfire risk score.

Attend the 10am-11a.m. presentation: The Changing Insurance Market, given by CDI Deputy Commissioner Julia Juarez and Mary Beth Bykowsky. We welcome questions for the speakers ahead of the event. Submit your question.

You can watch our speaker series via Zoom

Portola Valley Wildfire Preparedness Fair

Saturday, April 22, 2023, 10am to 2pm

Portola Valley Town Center, 765 Portola Road, Portola Valley

www.portolavalley.net/WildfirePrepFair

Woodside Fire Chipper Program Begins in May

The Chipper Program is a fuel reduction program to help decrease our community threat from wildfire. With a Woodside-Portola Valley Fire Protection Foundation grant, a chipper and truck were purchased. The program's goal is to assist residents in maintaining defensible space around their homes. The chipper will enable the Fire District to easily dispose of large amounts of fuel.

The chipping will be conducted with FIRE SAFE San Mateo County & CAL FIRE inmate crews. The Fire District asks that you stack your materials by 7:00 a.m. along the roadside no more than 14 days prior to your scheduled chipping day and we will take care of the rest. No signup or registration is required.

Neighborhood Cleanup Day

Saturday, April 29, from 8 to 11 am

Please note: No items will be accepted after 11 am

Get ready for the next Neighborhood Clean-Up Day! This event is free for Portola Valley residents - you will need to bring a copy of your GreenWaste garbage bill or the mailer insert as proof of residency.

Please note -

• There will be NO medication drop off available
• Goodwill will not be at the Clean-Up Day.
• Hazardous materials are not accepted

If you do come early and see a long line please come back later. The lines were a lot shorter after 10 am.

Portola Valley Trivia Night: Got Brain?? Get Social!!

Come join your neighbors and enjoy a fun-filled evening of banter and impractical information!

Saturday, May 13th, from 6pm to 10pm at the Community Hall. (Trivia will start promptly at 7pm.) Snacks and beverages will be available to keep your neurons firing.

SPACE IS LIMITED! Form a team or register yourself individually. For more details and to register, visit www.portolavalley.net/trivianight

Trivia Night is happily brought to you by the Parks & Recreation Committee :-)

Conservation Committee Tip of the Month

Purple Invasive Thistles

Non-native thistles are unsightly, spread aggressively, and many can render land unusable. They also have very annoying spines that can penetrate leather gloves. Now is a great time to get them out while they are small and the soil is wet – but be sure to get the root. Large areas can be managed with mowing, but it needs to be done multiple times to get all the flower heads. Once they blossom they spread their seed to your neighbor’s yard and our open spaces.

Wildfire Preparedness Committee Tip - What is Defensible Space?

The Wildfire Preparedness Committee has created a series of tips to help the community prepare for wildfire season. You can see the current tip and download any past tips on the website.

Gas Powered Leaf Blowers - You Can Help!

Tips from the Sustainability Committee

Gas powered leaf blowers are no longer allowed in the Town as of January 2021. Yet as we all are aware, there are many gardeners who continue to use gas powered blowers. The main reason that I have discovered in speaking with a number of gardeners is the significant cost of switching to a battery powered blower. One of the preferred brands of gardeners is Stihl and these units with portable battery packs can cost over $1000. There are also less expensive options available from other manufacturers in the $250 - $400 range.

Happily, the State of California has a voucher program that will offset up to 70% of the cost of purchasing battery powered blowers for our gardeners to use. The details for this program can be found at the following site: https://californiacore.org/how-to-participate-professional-landscape/

Flyers are available in multiple languages.

Here is how the program works:

A landscaper/gardener chooses a blower/battery combination from the list of approved products and contacts a CORE approved dealer. A voucher form is submitted by the dealer. Once the voucher is approved (which can take up to two months) and applied to the total cost, the landscaper/gardener can pick up the battery powered blower from the dealer and pay the remaining balance - which is typically 30% of the MSRP. This is a very substantial financial incentive!

Currently there is $16.6 million in remaining funding for this program. Two local businesses participating in the program include Los Altos Hardware and Ewing Irrigation in San Carlos. Portola Valley Hardware does not currently participate.

For those of you who have gardeners still using gas powered blowers, PLEASE help your gardener participate in this program. It is a straightforward and relatively simple way to eliminate gas powered blowers from the Town. If your gardener takes care of multiple properties in Portola Valley, the cost could potentially be spread among those homeowners, making it even more affordable.