STEP 10: ORGANIZE A CLEAN-UP

Organize a Community-Wide Clean-Up
The FireFree program culminates with a community-wide Clean-Up. During the Clean-Up weekends, home and property owners are encouraged to create defensible space around their homes and property and reduce the risk of wildfire. During the designated Clean-Up weekends, residents are able to dispose of recyclable yard debris free of charge at the local landfill. The free disposal greatly increases participation, so we encourage you to try to form a partnership with your landfill.

Develop Partnership with Local Landfill
In order to be able to offer free disposal of yard debris during the Clean-Up weekends, you must get your local landfill on board. This may involve doing a presentation to your county commissioners or other managers. Contact the landfill and find out who you need to talk to for sponsorship of the FireFree Clean-Up weekend.

Set a Clean-Up Date
Once you have your landfill on board, figure out the best dates for the Clean-Ups. In Deschutes County, we have the Clean-Ups on two consecutive weekends in the latter part of April or the beginning of May. This timing has been ideal because the weather is starting to warm up, but it’s not quite fire season. It seems to be the time when fire agency personnel are able to volunteer and residents are beginning to think about cleaning up their property and beginning their spring yard work.

Getting Media Coverage Before, During and After Clean-Ups
Because the Clean-Up is the primary event for FireFree, be sure to concentrate on getting as much media coverage before, during and after the Clean-Ups. The more media coverage you can get, the more participants you will have!

Participant Survey Cards at Landfill
In order to evaluate the success of your FireFree program, we recommend handing out evaluation cards at the landfill during the Clean-Up. These cards simply ask participants which of the ten steps to wildfire defense they completed and how they heard about the program. Click here to view the sample letters section with evaluation card information ideas.

The survey cards are inexpensive to print. We recommend approaching a local business and asking them to cover the cost of printing. In turn, you should agree to put their logo on the survey card.

Post Clean-Up
After the Clean-Up you will probably be ready to take a break for a little while until it’s time to start planning next year’s Clean-Up. Before you do, there are a few more details we recommend completing.

1. “Good News” news release
Announce amount of yard debris and number of participants to local media.

2. Thank You Print Ad
This print ad template is provided to you on CD in the starter kit or can be downloaded here. There is ample space in the ad to list all program partners. It is essential to thank your Program Partners – it gives them recognition in the community and also increases the chances that they will agree to be program partners next year!

3. Evaluation
In order to measure your success of the program this year, an evaluation is necessary. Compile landfill participant survey cards and Team Leader evaluation sheets. The information will be helpful in planning next year’s program.

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