September 2026 PREP Newsletter | | |
President’s Welcome
Welcome to the inaugural edition of The PREP Report, which we hope will be a monthly publication!
As you are probably aware, the Placitas Resilience & Emergency Preparedness Alliance is all about building a resilient community that is well prepared for any emergency. We hope this newsletter will both help raise awareness of the potential threats our community faces and help residents identify relevant emergency-related resources.
In this issue you will find out about past and future PREP activities (including the recently launched ”Emergency Preparedness in Placitas” survey), grants that are supporting our education and outreach efforts, and FACNM, another important New Mexico organization with wildfire resources that we highly recommend.
Speaking of emergency resources, we encourage you to explore the PREP website at
https://PREPalliance.org
Read on! Take the survey! Come to our upcoming public meeting! (You can also email us.) We would love to hear from you about your emergency preparedness concerns and ideas!
info@PREPalliance.org
PREP President Allen Saville
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PREP Launches Emergency Preparedness Survey
September 15 Public Meeting Scheduled to Discuss Placitans' Concerns
September is National Preparedness Month and PREP is observing the occasion by launching an online survey to evaluate the emergency concerns and readiness of Placitas residents. PREP is also hosting a public meeting on Sept. 15 to share preliminary survey results and discuss future emergency-related priorities.
The “Emergency Preparedness in Placitas” Survey went live on September 1, coinciding with the mailing of a survey alert postcard to all Placitas addresses.
Please take the survey! If you live in Placitas and haven’t already completed and submitted the survey, we strongly encourage you to do so:
https://prepalliance.org/survey/
The September 15 public meeting, “Public Perception of Fire Danger & Other Emergencies,” begins at 7 p.m. at Las Placitas Presbyterian Church, 7 Paseo de San Antonio in Placitas.
For more information about the survey and the public meeting, read Rodd Cayton’s September 9 Sandoval Signpost piece at:
https://sandovalsignpost.com/2026/09/placitas-prep-preview-2/
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More Upcoming PREP Events
“Fire Extinguisher Training & Fire Department Open House” Saturday, October 10, 2026, 10am-2pm at Placitas's Sandoval County Fire Station 41, 463 NM-165 (next door to the Placitas Community Library).
October is National Fire Prevention Month.
“Go Bag: What is it? Have it Ready when Wildfire Approaches” - Planned for mid-February 2027. Date, time, and place to be announced.
“Fire Mitigation, Defensible Space, & IBHS Standards” - Planned for mid-May 2027. Date, time, and place to be announced.
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PREP Field Trip
PREP board and advisory council members get a tour of a forest thinning area near Las Huertas Reservoir, which supplies water to the Las Huertas Community Ditch. Leading the June tour was Nathan Schroeder, Restoration Division manager for the Pueblo of Santa Ana. Schroeder had headed up a team of Santa Ana forestry workers that was contracted by Cibola National Forest to work on their North Sandia Fuels Reduction (NSFR) Project. PREP participants in the field trip were Christopher Huntsman, Phillip Clark (PREP secretary), Allen Saville (PREP president), Anita Hackett, Dawn Foster, Angelina Giraudo, and Jay Rodman (PREP treasurer).
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PREP Awarded $20K NMAC Grant to Expand Programming
PREP is ramping up its education and outreach programming, thanks to a recently awarded one-year, $20,000 grant from the New Mexico Association of Counties (NMAC), an organization representing all 33 counties in the state.
PREP is one of nine New Mexico recipients selected to receive funding through the 2026-2027 Wildfire Risk Reduction Grant Program. The funds, which originate in the Bureau of Land Management and are awarded through NMAC’s partnership with that federal agency, are intended to help communities in the state reduce the risk and impact of catastrophic wildfires.
PREP, an all-volunteer non-profit organization, is using the funds to
- support its ongoing series of community briefings, with a focus on wildfire issues
- expand its educational outreach efforts to the Placitas community
- produce and distribute an emergency resources notebook
- develop survey tools to assess the community’s emergency-related concerns, and
- support a part-time assistant
PREP recently contracted Dr. Lauri Andress to take on substantial planning, writing, reporting, and production duties related to these grant-funded initiatives.
| | Recent PREP Community Briefing Addresses Shelter-in-Place Emergencies | | PREP presented its fifth community briefing, “Shelter-in-Place: Who, What Where, When & How,” on July 14, 2026. Making the presentation are PREP President Allen Saville (center right) and Sandoval County Emergency Manager Dan Heerding (far right). [Photo by Dawn Foster.] | | | |
PREP Recommends: Fire Adapted New Mexico Learning Network
PREP collaborates with many other organizations and agencies, often benefitting from their expertise and support. One such entity that we are pleased to highlight is the Fire Adapted New Mexico Learning Network, a.k.a. FACNM.
FACNM’s offerings for aspiring “fire adapted communities” include a number of informational resources, which can be found at
https://facnm.org/
We like The Spark, subtitled “Wildfire Preparedness is Year Round.” This monthly one-pager addresses a single theme in each issue. We especially recommend the July 2026 issue, “Most Wildfires Can Be Prevented: Reducing Human-Caused Fires.” Another regular offering, published twice-monthly, is Wildfire Wednesday. Interested in emergency evacuation? Check out “Planning Your Exit: Egress Routes for Fire Safety” (#189). Access both publications at
https://facnm.org/news-2
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A Fervent Thank You to FACNM!
PREP was the grateful recipient of a $2000 FACNM Microgrant, our fledgling organization’s first successful grant request. We are immensely appreciative of FACNM’s support, which has helped us cover community briefing expenses and our material support of Coronado Soil and Water Conservation District’s May 30 “Chipper Day!"
| | PREP Appreciates Funding Support from | | And from a number of generous donors who value our work! | | | | |
