The Cannonball Express

Storyboard Sketches by:

Alex Mizuno
650-758-3009

and

Alison Jeffs
801-360-2817
www.alisonjeffs.com
ali_jeffs@hotmail.com

Special Thanks to Ruth Wilson who created a web site containing a list of plants for fire safe landscaping which was compiled by F.C. Dennis, a Wildfire Hazard Mitigation Coordinator with the Colorado State Forest Service.

Synopsis A docudrama, The Cannonball Express is the story of Jessie and Helen, their dream house in the Front Range and how they learned to protect it from fire.

Beginning of Script

The Cannonbal acoustic guitar theme
was composed by Gerald McMullin...
mp3 file

Prologue-Scene Four (Introducing the protagonist)

(Jessie-scowling) Ahh, waiter! What was that?

Sketch by Alex Mizuno

(Waiter-beaming) That was The Cannonball Express, an historic steam engine, Sir. Wasn't she beautiful? Did you miss our announcement?

(Jessie-indignant) What announcement? The waiter could have told us....

((Helen) recovering/pleading) Would you stop that...I'm fine...just a little too much coffee.

(Jessie-angrily) Coffee! Well I don't drink coffee and I'm awake now!

(Helen) calmer but sternly) Jessie, I think its time we had a little talk.....about us.....about our future. I used to think you were such a hopeless romantic. I loved it. You'd take me to a secluded beach in California...the tide would come in and we'd be stuck for six hours against a cliff on a sliver of beach that kept shrinking. I was young then and rules were made to be broken. Or you'd take me up to Aspen.... and of course there's a blizzard and we'd get snowed in for three days....and I'm not done yet....which was fun when we were dating but we're married now and I'm beginning to think I'm outgrowing you.

And now, for reasons I can't figure out, you've doubled my commute time and tossed our life savings into a little place in the country and you know what? You can't even pitch a tent in the woods. Well, let me tell you something, I'd be a fool if I said I wanted to lose everything we've got to some...forest fire...and start over again with nothing. And now you tell me you can't even get reasonably priced fire insurance on this place because the insurance companies have redlined the whole neighborhood. It just doesn't make sense.

(Jessie-thinking fast) They haven't red lined it...they're just limiting their exposure and anyway, the guy at Lloyds of London said he'd get right back to me. West Creek is a great place to raise our family. It is beautiful there and its quiet.....and I know I'm not exactly a tree hugger when it comes to nature but hey anybody can learn, right sweet heart?

((Helen) threatening) Yeah, well you better get a good book because.....

(Jessie-Huh, I can do better than that....I've got some friends from volleyball and they'll be glad to....

(Helen) Well give me a report at dinner time and don't come home drunk as a skunk....Listen, I've got some errands to run and then I'm going shopping. (She gets up, pulls a bill from her purse) And tip the waiter, will ya?

(Exits)

Sketch by Alex Mizuno

(Jessie-calling in vain) Helen....all right, so I'll call in a few markers that's all. (to himself) I got friends that know this stuff. I help them fix their computers don't I ? I've gotten their butts out of a jam at least once. (Guilty tone) I knew I should have done it myself instead of walking them through it by phone. If I hadn't been so busy....and they know the house I'm buying is a fire trap. The ad said cozy and quaint didn't it? (With resignation) I should have stayed in Cleveland where all you have to worry about is twisters. (Pulls out cell phone as bus boy clears table.) I must have been (singing) Rocky Mountain Hi-igh Colorado...

Sketch by Alex Mizuno

Scene Two (The Brush Cutter's Lesson)

The camera pans a brushy hillside with a view of suburbia.

(Cliff) Hi Jessie. Pull up a chair. (points to ice chest) Thanks for stopping by. That Windows Vista is the greatest. Plug and Play is just super. Thanks for helping me out there.

(Jessie) Hey, no problem. (modestly)

(Cliff) (Mops brow with handkerchief) Man, its warm today. (Takes sip of water from canteen, sits down at crude table and starts working on a chain saw with a rat tail file.) So, how's the fixer upper?

Sketch by Alex Mizuno

(Jessie) Oh, pretty good. It needs work.

(Cliff) Don't they all?

(Jessie) (with resignation) And mine especially. I can think of a lot of things I should have noticed on the first walk through. The worst thing is the wife figures she can paint everything because she's liberated but I'm a city slicker and can't take care of the landscaping. The smoke detector is beeping every two minutes all night long and she's worried about fire danger.

(Cliff) Well try a new battery in the smoke detector and we'll make a six pack gardener out of you yet. Beer?

(Jessie) Thanks but I just had breakfast. Listen, I gotta ask a favor. I need to learn about "habitat values" and fast. She's got this nesting instinct and all the brush around the place makes her nervous.

(Cliff) Well, you came to the right place buddy old pal. Look around you. This place was as bad as yours. If you and your wife work together and do it smart, it'd take, maybe a weekend at most. Three days tops. Then, get a ladder, clean out the rain gutters to keep the sparks away from the rafters and you're through. And it wouldn't hurt to have some plywood covers cut for the windows just in case. Your lumberyard clerk will cut them to size for you. (Puts file down to gesture) Look at this job...

(Jessie) It makes me tired just looking at it.

(Cliff) Yeah, I figure another three hours on this project and I'll have this one clean as a whistle. And then it's on to another project in Watsonville and then to Corralitos for another. If I didn't have a way to do this methodically I'd be exhausted. Working smart makes me look professional, reliable and indispensable, if you know what I mean. Unfortunately, I'm booked solid for weeks. Otherwise, I'd come down and help you out myself.

(Jessie) Well, just tell me how ya do it.

(Cliff) It didn't come easy. Some of these homeowners have handed me projects large enough to experiment with different methods of moving the brush I've cut down to the truck. I usually figure one hour of cutting the brush makes for two hours of loading it up and hauling it away. Some land I've seen in Bonny Doon has had fuel loads of up to thirty tons per acre. Some of that is heavy timber that stays put but you get the idea. On this project, I've rigged up a cable and pulley system to carry piles of brush across the hillside and then down to my truck. Come on, I'll show you how it works.

Sketch by Alex Mizuno

(Scenes of hauling, winching, and chain sawing through the pile of brush in the dump truck. Cliff returns to table and sits down.)

(Cliff) I just found this to be so much faster than chipping the brush, you know..... one branch at a time (gesturing) "zing-zing".

(Cliff) Yeah, $300 a day for a trailer mounted one. That's why I prefer hauling it away. No muss no fuss.

(Cliff) Right! Too soon old and too late smart. That's why, when I work around Bonny Doon, I take the extra time to fill out a permit with the County, even if I'm clearing invasive, non-native species like pampas grass and broom. The name of the game is minimizing disturbance, so I avoid rare wildflowers when dragging branches and occasionally I'll call in a biological consultant for help with identification. Those County fines and red tags are just bad for business. I even have to time my work to avoid harming endangered insects like the Mount Hermon June beetle and the Zayante Band-Winged Grasshopper, as they emerge from the ground and seek shelter.

(Cliff) It's just experience, lots of experience. (Pauses to reflect) Ya know, my business card says I'm a tree cutter but that gives people the wrong impression.

(Cliff) When actually I consider myself to be in a growth industry (smiles) called vegetation management. I'm being paid by the homeowner (gestures) to reduce the risk that a fire might roar up the hill and take out his house right?

(Cliff) And so we got to take the environment into consideration when I'm deciding what goes and what stays.

This is a story called, "The Cannonball Express",
a woman called Helen and her flaky husband Jess
and then over breakfast they were having a fight
and this old train gave 'em a terrible fright,
scared that is, sur-prised, heavy metal!

Well, the first thing you know old Jess is Britain Shicks
should'a spent more time, A HANGING OUT WITH HICKS!
And that's why he learns how to clear some brush
been fighting with his wife-he's in a big rush.
Teo that is, Don Coyne, experts in the field.

This couple bought a house, Lawdy it was grand
their next door neighbor, earned millions in a band
no firemen objected but their friends was all perturbed
'cause their old house was heavily insured.
Cash that is, federal loan guarantees, rebuilding money

Well now its time to clear away the brush and all the weeds
they are being careful for the birds and all the bees
You'll be invited back soon to watch this video
wish Good Luck! to Jess 'cause he'll be a daddy-oh
Jessie Junior that is
healthy set of lungs!
Want some ear plugs?
Ya'll be safe, hear!

(Cliff) (Pointing) Take this dead oak for example. It was tall and strong when the Spaniards arrived. Now the Sudden Oak Death syndrome has killed it and it shouldn’t even be hauled away for firewood. When it was a seedling the local Indians weeded around its base and for generations knocked off dead branches with long poles to stimulate growth and harvest the acorns. Anyway, its kind of scenic and it will make for great habitat for garter snakes, owls and woodpeckers for the next hundred years. (Heavy branch snaps off with a loud crack! and falls nearby with a thud)

(Cliff) (Angrily to the tree) If it does that again its gonna be a little less scenic!

(Cliff) And there's another. ....poison oak and oak trees. (Heavy sigh) Now there's a combination. I use lanolin on my skin and I usually set up a gravity fed solar heated shower right on the job site.

(Cliff) Fortunately most of the oil that you got to worry about is in the leaves which turn red and then fall off in the winter. If it wasn't for the poison oak I could burn some of this brush in piles but there's a permitting process and its just more hassle than it’s worth.

(Cliff) Yep. When I started on this project it was really brushy here. I've already made several trips to the dump and now it’s starting to look pretty good. I told the homeowner I could make it look like a park. Look how steep this hill is. When I'm done clearing I'll reseed it with native wildflowers in the sunny areas. (Makes throwing motion as if scattering seeds)

(Cliff) Most of what I've taken out has been scotch broom, poison oak, coyote brush, sticky monkey flower, wild oats and even some English ivy. The scotch broom, the wild oats, and the ivy are the exotics and shoot.... this county loses more plant and wildlife habitat every year to exotic invasives than to developers putting in homes and roads. We just don't have any insects or animals that go to town on broom. It looks nice. Its got a pretty yellow flower that bees like....but it just takes over. And on a hot day the seedpods spread seeds like popcorn popping with a forty year shelf life. Anyway what natives that do grow back here will attract deer and rabbits with succulent new growth.

(Cliff) I'm also trying to ease up on the clearing just short of the property line so it doesn't have that clear cut look. It doesn't bother me that the guy next door wouldn't go for it. A good quilt of cleared and uncleared land makes for patchiness, which can be very rich biologically. A phased approach is best for wildlife. I have cleared a lot of backyards and I have got a map and database on every one of them. Sooner or later I will be back in the neighborhood and I'll talk to the neighbors. Scotch broom tends to come back quickly from seeds dropped the previous year so I'll make a follow up visit in six months to yank out the volunteers. Five years from now it will be due for a light trim. The only trees I'm eager to take out are the ones that just don't belong.

(Cliff) Eucalyptus is high on my list. It smells good but its always shedding bark and many native plants just get drowned out by the steady rain of debris. I heard once that eucalyptus created 80% of the fuel that went up in the Trabing Road Fire.

(Jessie) I saw that on the news (quick shot of burning eucalyptus forest spliced in).

(Cliff) They had a run on saws and loppers at hardware stores all over Santa Cruz County the afternoon of the fire. People were madly taking out bushes and trees from around their houses.

(Cliff) Several of our rare, special status manzanita species such as Silverleaf and Heartleaf Manzanitacannot re-sprout from the base.... so I do less pruning. It takes a long time for their seedlings to provide cover.

(CLIFF) Acacia is another beautiful tree but it’s an exotic and I'll get the owners permission before taking it out. Once the initial clearing has been done the annual vegetation management is easy. There's no real secret to what I do. Just be careful with the tools and watch out for poison oak.

(Cliff) I know many of my customers will do the annual maintenance themselves from now on but I'll keep tabs on them just to make sure it doesn't get away from them. If I touch bases with 'em once in a while its also good word of mouth advertising. Ol' Cliff is the cheapest fire insurance around and you know, a stitch in time does save nine. (stretches and flexes)

(Jessie) Right! And let me know if you need help with a new hard drive or something.

(Jessie) And the great thing about computers is that you can send a whole lot of Email at once. Have you ever thought about, you know, doing the whole neighborhood at once?

(Cliff) Yeah, when I get too old and famous to do this I might just organize an old fashioned "burn razing". Right now, there's no shortage of work for a Paul Bunyan like me.... But I would like to get old Manuel out here with Mario's kid and Mr. Peterson and have a work party some time with watermelon, lemonade and a BBQ.

(Cliff) Skankey? (pointing to house nearby) (pessimistically) He won't show. (with comtempt) He'll hem and haw and then decide to do nothin’. I don't think he'll ever get over that false alarm he called in. Sirens, flashing lights, a full haz mat team, the whole bit. Neighbors coming out of the woodwork. He thought he had an electrical fire in his swimming pool's pump house. He said it smelled like burning rubber, or chemicals.

(Cliff) Yeah, and he'll hibernate through the next great fire unless the earthquake knocks him out of bed first. (Cliff chuckles, picks up gloves...carefully puts them on and ...wearily picks up chainsaw.) And thanks for stopping by.

(Cliff) Oh and uh....do you hear that weed wacker? Excuse me....I gotta make a quick phone call (picks up portable phone and turns his back to the camera-camera pans trees and focuses on birds rustling in the underbrush) Cliff finishes call and hangs up). I just had to do that. I knew it was him. Why don't you go talk to Don Coyne? I think you know him through Sierra Club volleyball.

(Cliff) That's him. The guy that sweats so much he has to wring out his shirt. I know the names of some of the native plants. Don eats them. (laughs) But seriously, he's a talented athlete, outdoorsman, and artist. Talk to this guy and Helen will think you're Euell Gibbons. He sells his sculptures, hand carved stuff, out of wood. He's really quite good. He told me he's been trying to reestablish some native grasses in his backyard. Why don't you go have a chat with him...look for his orange volkswagen van outside and go through the green gate....

Sketch by Alex Mizuno

(Cliff) No....he's a peaceful guy...don't worry, he's expecting you. It was nice talking to you. And take one of my cards you never know when you are going to need a tree cutter.

The camera pans a breathtaking view of the canyon and Monterey Bay, then slowly approaches-from above and behind, a man working on a hillside with a weed eater, methodically sweeping it back and forth in wide arcs. A bamboo rake and blue plastic tarp lay nearby. A shiny brown mineral block sits nearby, dissolving on a log. Don shuts off the weed eater as the camera approaches, picks up the rake, and makes eye contact with the camera.)

Sketch by Alison Jeffs

(Don) That Cliff! Some fool helps him load Windows Vista and now he thinks he's a computer wizard. (Mocking voice) I've got plug and play...what have you got Don? Well, I've got a wood chisel and an Etch-a-Sketch in my satchel, bone head, and I can make stairways to heaven. So, eat it! (Calming down) Tell me, so you bought this place in the hills...does your wife want to do any gardening?

(Don) And she likes deer? She won't when her garden disappears in a single night down the hatch of some doe. Hey, there's a reason I built this fence. I've got corn, beans, tomatoes and pumpkins in there. There's deer in this canyon and they're always hungry. The salt block is for them....the garden is for me. I'm at the top of the food chain and my vegetables are not on their menu.

(Don) there are lots of deer around, so this area hasn't been claimed as territory yet. I heard there was a cougar spotted in Swanton last summer. There's occasionally bobcats here, but usually it is just raccoons, tree squirrels, possums, and an occasional mangey coyote... and skunks... nesting right under my neighbor's deck. (points as if to take him closer)

(Jessie) Ah, no thanks. I'd rather go home drunk than stinking to high heaven. Can you tell me something about native grasses....for erosion control, beauty, and fire protection?

(Don) Oh so that's what he wanted me to show you. Stalking the elusive nassella pulchra are you?

(Jessie) I guess, I bought this house in the hills. I guess a fireman would call it a natural born loser.

(Jessie) Yep, shake roof and the whole bit. Anyway, I want to grow something native, under and between the oak trees.

(Don) Yeah, I've been working on a few. I did a cheetah for a guy some time ago. I can carve a whole log into a salmon if you like. I've kinda got a backlog of commissioned pieces right now though. Maybe in a month or two. (Jessie) That would be better. Give us time to get settled in.

Sketch by Alex Mizuno

(Don) I planted some native bunch grass seedlings here last winter as plugs. Some species were grown by a nursery called Central Coast Wilds from seed that I collected locally, within two or three miles and some were already here. Valerie Haley, a botanist with The Vegetation Management Network, talked me out of using Santa Cruz Erosion Control Mix. She said the clovers in it are aggressive invaders and not native. The bottlom line is that these native grasses are really hard to reestablish in an area that's been disturbed. The botanists say it is all in knowing how the roots of the grasses battle each other while competing for nutrients, symbiotically. (Stoops to add another load onto the tarp)

(Don) Yup, this all used to be just overgrazed range land, believe it or not. I've found cow bones bleaching in the sun just off the freeway over by the College. (Stops raking and leans on it to reminisce) Once when I was a kid, when we first moved in here, we were driving downtown and there was a guy on the road moving a flock of sheep. Walking along. That was early 60's I guess and long before they put in the freeway. You can barely see it from here. (panoramic shot of canyon and bay-zoom in and out on distant freeway) There's still old barb wire fences in a lot of these canyons. Along the old land grant property lines. They used redwood for the fence posts, long lasting heartwood, virgin stuff and they may have rotted off at the base but they're still there....covered with moss but still lyin' around and all that wire rusty as hell. So where are you from?

Sketch by Alison Jeffs

(Jessie) Back East They taught us about the Civil War in grade school there and took us out to Valley Forge. We didn't have tract homes in my neighborhood. It was kind of a hodgepodge.

(Don) Here, history is about the mission system, dying Indians, the gold rush and waves of immigrants flooding in. What do you want to know?

(Don) I have an envelope in the green house with some I can spare. And you can try the California Native Plant Society. They hold walks at Wilder Ranch and lecture as they go. You might meet some nice people there and enjoy a beautiful spring walk with your wife too. I know a lot about native plants but I'm just starting to get into the grasses. The Indians apparently used small portable mortars and pestles to grind up the seeds of grasses and forbs. The Spaniards called this food "Pinole" and named a town after it. I always just assumed that the grasses were natural but noooo, it turns out all this thistle-ly stuff came over with the cows and sheep. (Leaning the rake against the fence.)

(Don) And more exotics coming in all the time. I'm amazed you can still buy the dirty dozen at the local nursery.

(Don) That and English ivy. Nothing has gone extinct but it can get depressing if you let it. Anyway, let me show you what I've done so far. This is blue wild rye. It should do well here, on the edge of an oak woodland with plenty of sunshine. They say it provides good forage and cover for wildlife.

(Don) And song birds like meadow larks. It's good for controlling erosion and it tolerates this clayey soil. It should get about waist high. This is California Brome. This one is supposed to be excellent for recovering areas overgrown with weeds. There's not much that competes with wild oats but this will. For fire protection I've got California Oatgrass, not wild oats mind you...oatgrass. This one stays green late into the summer without watering so it really has to be a hot day before this will burn. If I water it once in a while it never will. Its also the longest lived of the native grasses so it'll be here for awhile. I'm going to plant a lot of this. And this stuff (they pick up the tarp with the pile of mown grass on it) is going straight to the gully. (While walking over) This ditch wasn't near this deep when I was a kid. (They dump it in)

And this is just from street run off. See the end of the culvert there? I hand laid that rock apron last year. I was gonna use rounded river rock but the guy at NRCS, Rich Casale, recommended angular quarry rock, so I had a load delivered. He said it would slow down the water better than slippery boulders or broken concrete. I was afraid the erosion would undermine my road to the point that the fire engine couldn't make it to my house in an emergency. I WAS GONNA USE ROUNDED RIVER ROCK BUT THE GUY AT NRCS, RICH CASALE, RECOMMENDED ANGULAR QUARRY ROCK, SO I HAD A LOAD DELIVERED. HE SAID IT WOULD SLOW DOWN THE WATER BETTER THAN SLIPPERY BOULDERS OR BROKEN CONCRETE. I WAS AFRAID THE EROSION WOULD UNDERMINE MY ROAD TO THE POINT THAT THE FIRE ENGINE COULDN'T MAKE IT TO MY HOUSE IN AN EMERGENCY.

(Jessie) Yeah, And this is just from street run off. See the end of the culvert there?

(Don) If all the vegetation on this hill was burned off in a fire there'd be massive amounts of run off every time it rained and there'd be nothing to throw in there to stop it. I suppose I could drop in a few hay bales ON TOP OF THE APRON but I think I'd have more important things to worry about. Like rebuilding the house.

Don) Yeah, but it wouldn't cover the contents and all my art and pictures. If I could burn off just this grass here I'd love to grow a native grass meadow from seed....and it would be beautiful hmmmm but too risky. And fire doesn't kill all the weed seeds either, the ones deep in the dirt. (They return to work area, Don grabs the rake and leans on it) There's a gully across the canyon BELOW A CULVERT there that's thirty feet deep with sheer walls. Its like a box canyon. It swallows up whole oak trees like a black hole eats up star dust. THE HOMEOWNER ASSOCIATION NEVER APPOINTED A ROAD MANAGER AND KEPT POURING MONEY AND TRUCK LOADS OF GRAVEL INTO THE SAME SEEP. NOW THEY NEED TO BUILD A CRIB WALL.

(DON) YEAH AND EXPENSIVE TOO. (Musing) Billions and billions...a lot of cubic yards of dirt came out of that DITCH and its still probably choking the steelhead in Branciforte Creek. I'd take you over there but there's a lot of poison oak to wade through... a lot. I guess the time to stop erosion is before it gets serious.

(Don) More like LA. You know...(pointing towards the bay.) When it rains, all the water from the storm drains pours down this canyon. It doesn't have a chance to soak into the ground. It's kinda like what happens when you have a bad fire. The soil gets so hot it can form a hydrophobic layer from all the resins in the pine needles.

(Don) And water can't penetrate it. So it just runs off. That's why LA gets these terrible floods after every major fire. The water can't soak in and there's nothing to hold it. Mud city. Slip sliding away. And then they build a few more houses, it all grows back and they do the whole thing again. Crazy.

(Don) Absolutely (Turning back up the trail) I've got to get this tool back to the rental shop before five so I better get back to work. It was nice meeting you. Tell Cliff I said "Get a real job!" and I'll see ya at volleyball. (Don fires up the weed eater and goes back to mowing down the wild oats).

(Jessie) (loudly over the noise) Thanks for talking to me. I feel like an expert already.

Sketch by Alison Jeffs

(Return to narrator). As we have seen, there are several different varieties of fuel reduction. If you've gotten the go ahead, you can do it yourself or pay to have it done. The wise homeowner who gets this far will avoid leaving "the frying pan for the fire" by re-planting with fire resistant shrubs or native bunch grasses. This will provide year round protection from erosion and fire and be a source of beauty as well, even in the poorest soils. Let's see how a native plant fancier would simultaneously manage a fuel break for beauty, erosion control, habitat and fire protection. For this seemingly impossible task let's follow Helen and a friend as they do a little shopping at Harlequinn Gardens.

Act Three Scene Seven (The Botanist's Lesson) The camera follows a four door station wagon down the highway and then down a winding road. The car pulls into a parking stall in front of the nursery sign. The camera pans picnic tables, sheds and potted plants. A woman in a dress gets out of the car holding a long shopping list. (sound track- Quail calling)

(Claudia) What a beautiful place! I've lived around here for so long and I didn't even know this place was here-tucked back in the woods like this...and I thought I knew all the good places to shop. (giggles) (wistfully) What a nice place. So where is everybody? (she does a few notes of the Twilight Zone theme) Well I guess I'll just have to take a look around. (She pokes her head into a shed with nothing but ferns in it.) (sound track-dripping water) Hello? Nobody here...Hmmm....a fern bar with no IQ and everybody drinking. Deja vu. Let's try down the road a little. (She steps into a shed and sees the office furniture inside. Hello? Where is everybody? The service here is just terrible. (She sees a "ring bell for service" sign, a brass bell, and grabs the rope and rings it like a cablecar gripman. A woman, dressed in blue jeans, and carrying a cordless phone steps out of a nearby greenhouse.)

(Worker) (approaching and slipping the phone into her pocket.) Good morning...can I help you?

(Claudia) Why yes....I want to buy some plants. I have a list a fireman gave me.

Sketch by Alex Mizuno

(Worker) (after studying the list) Hmmm...some of these we have and some we don't. What kind of garden are you trying to grow?

(Claudia) Oh its not a garden....its to protect the house (flustered) you know...from fire. My husband wants good plants outside the fence.

(Claudia) Well the men came in and.....Our lot is about eighty feet wide....and the area they cleared is about, oh I forget, maybe it goes from here to that big tree. (pointing towards large pine)

(Worker) ok...eighty feet by fifty feet is about 4,000 square feet. One bush for every ten square feet is about four hundred plants.

(Claudia) Oh no...not that many. I'm only driving a station wagon and besides... money doesn't grow on bushes you know. (giggles)

(Worker) well why don't we get a wheelbarrow and get you what you can afford. I've also got some native wildflower seed that you can plant yourself.

(Claudia) Oh wonderful...my children will love that. The workmen burned all that brush last week. In long rows....it was stacked like wood. Can we plant the seeds...you know... in the ash?

(Worker) Definitely. That ash is good fertilizer and the heat from the fire sterilizes the soil and kills all the weed seeds.

(Claudia) that blackened scar is so ugly....but I guess they had to do it. There was just so much brush.

(Worker) Right. Brush fires have been part of the Colorado landscape for thousands and thousands of years and you know, we are starting to believe the Indians used fire as a horticultural tool..... to encourage pine nut production and to discourage brush. .. Anyway most brush will come back quick after a fire from the crown....the roots are still alive. All the woody plants on this list can be heavily pruned when they get too big and they'll re-sprout vigorously like nothing happened.

(Worker) Not long. Unless you use a herbicide and poison the roots.... or plant these nearby so they compete for the available sunlight and water.

(Claudia) Oh I think I'd rather plant something. We have children you know. So what do you have that's on the list?

(Worker) We've got the bearberry... that's over here. (lifting one into the wheelbarrow.) These are five bucks each....

Sketch by Alex Mizuno

(Enter Helen) Hi.... do you mind if I listen in? It sounds like we're in the same boat.

(Worker) Ok, we've got Prairie Sage. Here smell this (tearing off a sprig and crumpling it in her hand)

(Worker) And when its in bloom the fragrance is just heavenly. If you don't mind me asking Claudia, where do you live?

(Claudia) Oh no, we live up in the hills but not that high. We get the usual afternoon wind.

(Worker) I took classes in ornamental horticulture there. It's a pretty good program. So does this hillside catch the morning sun or the afternoon?

(Worker) that puts you on a south facing slope-Fires always burn hotter on the south face of a ridge.

(Claudia) I know. My husband insisted we do everything we could to be fire safe. Every month he's up on a ladder cleaning the pine needles out of the rain gutters. He's been trying to talk the neighbors into going in on one of those foam spray trailer mounted thingys. Cover your house and everything with foam.

(Helen) I'm not sure which direction our house faces because we just bought it. I know my husband cleaned out the fireplace after one of those romantic evenings in front of the fire. The embers were still hot...it caught the paper bag on fire and melted our plastic garbage can.

(Helen) I guess I have to...somebody has to change the batteries in the smoke detector.
(laughter)

(Worker) well...uhmm here's a plant that does a good job of holding the soil. It will provide cover and food for quail. Did you see our resident flock as you drove in?

(Worker) I suppose they did. Anyway this is a golden currant. One gallon containers are $6 each.

(Worker) of course.....Here are creeping grape holly...and prairie sage. The holly is a low mounding shrub that won't block your views.

(Claudia) ok... lets round out the wheel barrow load with those and come back for more.

(Helen) So ahh...you're a long ways from the nearest fire station. What precautions have you taken against fire?

(Worker) Well some of the people here are all for a hot tub or swimming pool...just for a ready reservoir of water you understand.

(Worker) We have a fire evacuation plan if worse comes to worse. We've got fire extinguishers in case a power tool erupts into flame. We've got two back pumps to catch spot fires if it starts snowing embers and some buckets..plus we got a lot of garden hose, some lawn sprinklers and several spigots.

(Claudia) You know, just getting fire insurance these days is difficult. They won't write a new policy until someone else drops out.

(Worker) Here's another wheel barrow. Thank you Charley. (exit Charley) We'll just park this one here and have Vivian total 'em up all at once.

(Sound effect) A cell phone rings. The worker and Helen both reach for their phones. The call is for Helen, however, and the worker puts hers away. Worker continues talking to Claudia in the background.

(Helen) Hi, Jessie. (pauses-camera close up) That's great honey. (Pauses) I'm at Harlequinn Nursery, I'll have some plants for you to put below the deck at the new place....

Sketch by Alex Mizuno

(Worker) So we don't worry too much about what's outside the fence. Plants we can regrow. Sheds can be rebuilt. There are a few plants that I'd grab if we had to evacuate but I wouldn't take any chances. Like I said, a fire would just prove how fire adapted these natives are. It'd set us back but we'd recover. I just hope that I'm not the one who has to decide whether to rebuild, replant or relocate. We couldn't do business in a devastated landscape. Families out for a Sunday drive are a good chunk of our business. We all fear the worst but we hope for the best. It's just one of those things you have to plan for.

(Claudia) You can say that again....Thanks for all your help (exit Claudia with Charley pushing wheelbarrow) (Worker) Now Helen, what can I do for you? (Helen) About the sage.... (fade out)

Return to narrator- Helen and Jessie patched up their differences and lived happily ever after in a fire safe home. With a little help from his friends, Jessie persuaded Helen that planning for wild fire is part of the cost of living in a forest in a high and arid climate. To her credit, Helen convinced Jessie that Spring house cleaning should include painting the exterior of the house, cleaning out the rain gutters and cutting the brush back.

How aggressively you go about this task depends on your health, wealth, and emotional attachment to your material possessions. To be truly fire safe requires the participation and cooperation of individuals, neighborhoods and local government. As Jessie and Helen have learned, with foresight and careful planning, our homes can be made safer and portions of our cherished native plant and animal communities restored to their former glory. All aboard!

Fire Marshal's narration begins- "We hope that you high tech professionals have enjoyed this low tech lesson in fire safety and that the story of Jessie and Helen will become part of your personal matrix. Your local fire marshal has additional information that can help you make your home, fire and earthquake safe, and may be willing to make a house call to inspect your yard work. Support your local fire department and give them a call. Thanks for watching. Good luck, best wishes and be fire safe."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Credits and acknowledgments roll as steam train pulls out of the station
with the cast and crew waving and smiling from an open car.