Posted: Sun, 13 Nov 2011 09:27 AM - 11,356 Readers

By: Melissa Ayala

Two days after wildfires damaged Steiner Ranch in September, residents began clearing fire hazards from wooded areas behind their properties. But they soon ran into a problem.

They had to stop working when they found out the land just behind their houses near Lake Travis was part of the federally protected area known as the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve, operated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to conserve habitat for endangered golden-cheeked warblers.

The tract is one in a series of preserves totaling more than 30,000 acres in western Travis County. The preserve section nearest the Savannah Point area of Steiner Ranch was set aside by the community in a trade-off for housing development.

Since the Labor Day fire, which destroyed 23 homes in Steiner Ranch, residents and the homeowners association have joined with the Travis County Natural Resources Department, Lake Travis Fire Rescue, Travis County Precinct 2 and the City of Austin to form the Steiner Ranch Wildfire Planning Group.

The group met over two months and planned how to clear areas without destroying the bird's habitat. Cleanup is now under way and officially began Saturday morning with a community workday at Savannah Point.

About 40 residents, 12 Vandegrift High School football players and three National Honor Society members joined with Lake Travis Fire Rescue and Travis County Natural Resources workers to pick up dead brush and branches in the preserve land behind the backyard fences.

John Durham, Lake Travis Fire Rescue assistant fire chief, said the danger with that type of debris is that during a fire, it fuels flames from the ground and feeds upward toward tree canopies.

By clearing the brush and debris, residents hope to get closer to the 30-foot "defensible clearance" around their homes that fire officials suggest to sufficiently buffer, slow or halt wildfires from spreading to a structure.

The workday "is a first-step pilot project," Durham said. "Eventually what we want to do is some more of this in other areas, neighborhoods and communities adjoined to the preserve area. We hope this work can ease into more comprehensive work later on down the road."

Since the September wildfires, cities and counties have begun working on larger wildfire prevention plans and are considering such things as passing new regulations on brush piles, building emergency access roads and continuing burn bans.

Savannah Point resident Nathasha Collmann said she has been trying to get changes like those in Steiner Ranch since 2009, but it wasn't until days after the Labor Day fire that residents joined to form a Firewise Committee, which is involved in the larger wildfire planning group and organized the pilot program.

"The whole idea kind of fizzled at that time, and unfortunately 23 homes burned down, and then that started conversation," Collmann said. "Now, everyone's concerned about what's going on behind their fences, and being able to go back there and do cleanup — it's been amazing."

*  Story Contributed by: Melissa Ayala