**For Immediate Release**

Re: Junk the Junipers 2019

From: Lt. Tim Weaver- Rapid City Fire Department

Office: (605)-394-4180

Cell: (605)-390-4114

tim.weaver@rcgov.org

Date: 04/30/2019

Junk the Junipers Set to Begin in May

The Rapid City Fire Departments annual “Junk the Junipers Program” is happening in May as part of Wildfire Awareness Month.  Homeowners are encouraged Lt. Tim Weaver at tim.weaver@rcgov.org to sign up for this great program as well as several others aimed at Wildfire risk mitigation. The Rapid City Veteran Wildfire Mitigation Crew will be helping with the “Junk the Junipers” program which helps reduce hazardous fuels and assists homeowners in getting highly flammable junipers and cedars removed from around their homes for free.  Neighborhoods eligible for this event include:

-Carriage Hills/Wildwood

-Pinedale Heights/Kingswood

-Chapel Valley/Chapel Lane

-Skyline Drive/Woodridge

Springbrook Acres/Sheridan Lake Road

-Red Rocks/Countryside

This event is important because of the role that it plays in reducing fire risk in our communities. The Rapid City Fire Department assists homeowners through the Survivable Space Initiative with several grant programs to assist with fuel reduction and education. The educational component of this initiative focuses on what homeowners and communities can do to become Fire Adapted Communities.  Lieutenant Tim Weaver, Wildfire mitigation program coordinator for the Rapid City Fire Department commented; “A significant wildland fire in Rapid City is not a matter of if.  It is a matter of when. This event helps homeowners create fire resilient landscapes that can lessen the effects of how fire will impact their neighborhoods”.  Weaver went on to explain that homeowners and neighborhoods living in our Primary Wildland Hazard zone need to be adapted to fire, and learn how to coexist with fire in a landscape that wants to burn.

For more information, comment or clarification regarding this release, please contact Lt. Tim Weaver of the Rapid City Fire Department Fire and Life Safety Division at the information provided above.

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