{"id":279136,"date":"2026-04-21T21:11:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T21:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/279136\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T21:11:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T21:11:12","slug":"winners-of-inaugural-wildfire-resilience-awards-show-what-wildfire-conscious-homes-and-gardens-can-look-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/279136\/","title":{"rendered":"Winners of inaugural Wildfire Resilience Awards show what wildfire-conscious homes and gardens can look like"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Tom and Winifred Walters in front of their award-winning home on Greenbank Ave.<\/p>\n

See two real-life examples of Piedmont homes that reduce wildfire risk without sacrificing beauty,\u00a0character, or the gardens their owners love. The City\u2019s first Wildfire Resilience Awards honor Dana\u00a0Shultz and Tom and Winifred Walters, whose homes and landscapes reflect two different paths to\u00a0the same goal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A new addition to the City\u2019s Design and Sustainability Awards program, the Wildfire Resilience\u00a0Awards highlight residents whose homes and landscapes model best practices in home hardening\u00a0and fire-smart landscapes. By showcasing real homes in Piedmont, the Fire Department aims to\u00a0make those choices more visible, concrete, and achievable for others.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For many years, the Design Awards have recognized excellence in construction and architectural\u00a0design. Three years ago, it expanded to include sustainability. The addition of the Wildfire\u00a0Resilience Awards builds on that evolution by recognizing a different kind of home investment \u2013 one that helps protect individual properties while strengthening resilience across the community.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meet this year\u2019s honorees\u00a0<\/p>\n

The inaugural Wildfire Resilience Award recipients took different paths, but both created properties\u00a0that model important risk reduction principles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dana Shultz, Bell Avenue\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"The Schultz home on Bell Ave\"\"5\u2032 ember-resistant zone<\/p>\n

Dana intentionally set out to make his home more wildfire-resilient, starting with\u00a0a Fire Department inspection to understand where his property was most\u00a0vulnerable. He created a five-foot ember-resistant zone, added ember-protective mesh over vents, and moved favorite plants to safer areas rather than removing\u00a0them altogether. The result is a practical, appealing example of home hardening\u00a0best practices that shows meaningful improvements do not have to be\u00a0overwhelming projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tom and Winifred Walters, Greenbank Avenue\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tom and Winifred (pictured at top) did not set out to create a wildfire-resilient property \u2013 they\u00a0set out to create a beautiful garden they loved. In the process, they created a\u00a0home and landscape that reflect many best practices \u2013 their home features\u00a0 enclosed eaves and covered vents, while the landscape provides an all\u00a0important separation between plants and structure. Their property challenges the common perception that fire-conscious landscaping must come at the\u00a0expense of beauty or the enjoyment of gardening.<\/p>\n

\"\"Covered vents at the Walters\u2019 home\"\"Tom and Winifred Walters\u2019 ember-resistant zone\"\"The Walters\u2019 drought-friendly garden<\/p>\n

Wildfire is now a fact of life across California, including in communities like Piedmont. The Fire\u00a0Department created this award to highlight residents leading by example and help more\u00a0community members imagine what\u2019s possible on their own property.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s honorees reflect two different paths to the same goal. One homeowner looked at\u00a0wildfire risk head-on and made deliberate changes to harden his property. The other created a\u00a0beautiful, environmentally friendly yard that also embodies many of the same resilience principles.\u00a0Together, they show how wildfire resilience can be practical, attractive, and achievable.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tom and Winifred Walters in front of their award-winning home on Greenbank Ave. See two real-life examples of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-279136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}