[ Florida ] Woodland Estates residents wanted to do something to reduce the threat of wildfire engulfing their rural community. Last week, Woodland Estates became the first neighborhood in Charlotte, DeSoto, Hardee, Manatee and Sarasota counties to become a Firewise Community. The national program encourages residents in wildfire-prone areas to reduce fire-feeding vegetation and build buffers that can help slow down a fire’s advance. Several other communities in the region are moving in that direction — a trend that could make a difference for the increasing number of neighborhoods that have been chiseled into prime wildfire breeding grounds. those types of neighborhoods — surrounded by scrubland or slash pine forests — are in wildfire habitat. The problem is growing in Florida , where growth is increasingly pushing into areas where wildfires are a seasonal part of the natural cycle.

News notes are courtesy of Southern Forests Network News Notes www.southernsustainableforests.org