Chipper Days
In our continuing commitment to emergency preparedness, the Town of Corte Madera is sponsoring wood chipper days in particularly high-risk fire neighborhoods Town-wide on a descending priority basis. This is one of the many ongoing efforts to build community awareness, reduce fuel loads, enhance ingress/egress for first responders, identify and designate evacuation routes, offer resident education on first aid, general emergency preparation guidance, and build community resilience.
This program is being instituted to encourage residents to create defensible space by trimming their trees, clearing dry brush, reducing canopies that provide ladders for fires, removing encroachments into roadways, and removing non-native and invasive species such as French broom, Scotch broom, and acacia---all are extremely volatile and pose a very serious fire risk.
Under this program, residents are responsible for the labor & costs associated with brush removal, cutting & stacking of flammable materials and, staging them in locations deemed suitable by the Town. The Town in turn will utilize contract labor to chip the materials on designated and pre-approved chipper days and dispose of them accordingly.
Corte Madera Chipper Days is a true public-private partnership that provides for more timely and impactful use of resources. It removes a significant impediment to the creation and maintenance of defensible space. It brings the Town closer to its’ residents as the challenges are met together.
We hope that it will become the model for other communities, as well as on public lands, and unincorporated areas. By working together we can make a huge impact for a relatively modest investment.
Scheduled Wood Chipper Days will be publicized on the Town website and via social media.
UPCOMING CHIPPER DAYS
Corte Madera Residents Only : June 8 th , 2019
Central Marin Fire Department & the Town of Corte Madera have partnered to sponsor a free chipper day. Dispose of your brush, branches, and dead vegetation.
WHERE: The Cove School Parking Lot
(330 Golden Hind Passage)
WHEN: 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Saturday June 8 th , 2019
WHY: To provide a more “fire-safe” community.
This is also an opportunity to clear primary and secondary evacuations routes and roadways. Vegetation encroaching into the roadway or limiting visibility from driveways
is more than a nuisance, it's a hazard.
For the safety of our workers, please follow these guidleines:
- Vegetation for disposal should be fire-hazardous - any dead vegetation, fallen limbs, or fire-hazardous species put your property at risk (see www.firesafemarin.org/plants).
- Collection is for “vegetation” waste only. No lumber, appliances, trash, metal objects, batteries, hazardous waste, etc. will be accepted.
- Stumps and poison oak will not be accepted.
- Any small plant material that has been pulled out by the roots must be free of rocks and dirt or it will not be accepted.
- No wire or metal of any kind may be mixed with the yard waste.
- Proof of Corte Madera residency is required.