As the evening hours approach, and surface temperatures continue to drop and frozen precipitation remains, the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) is advising against unnecessary travel due to the likelihood of icy road conditions across the state.
DelDOT crews continue to salt primary roads, however, freezing rain is more difficult to treat than snow. Freezing rain dilutes the effectiveness of salt faster than snow and can cause the road surface to rapidly freeze. Examples of primary roads across the state are I-95, Route 1, Route 9, Route 13, Route 26, Route 113 and Route 404.
Untreated secondary and local roads will likely be icy and caution is advised for anyone who must travel. Black ice can form instantly and create hazardous driving conditions.
Please stay tuned to your local forecast and further updates from DelDOT regarding this storm.
Delaware Wildfire Training Classes Offered Online
DOVER, Del. — The Delaware Forest Service (DFS) is always looking for motivated recruits to join its wildland fire crew. There is no cost for training and no previous experience necessary. Candidates must be over 18 years, willing to learn, physically fit, and able to travel for at least two weeks at a time, usually in the summer months. In 2020, Delaware sent its Type 2IA crew to battle blazes in Arizona and California.
Students must complete all courses and submit printed certificates by March 19 to:
Kyle Hoyd
Delaware Forest Service
2320 S. DuPont Highway
Dover, DE 19901 kyle.hoyd@delaware.gov
“The fact that training is completely online this year might be a good option for candidates who were unable to take in-person classes in previous years because of their schedule,” said Kyle Hoyd, the Delaware Forest Service’s assistant forestry administrator who oversees its wildfire program. “Later in the spring, we hope to bring new and veteran firefighters together for our annual “Fire Camp” event. It’s an important training exercise where we go through a “live-burn” simulation and practice the proper tactics and safety measures for successfully fighting wildfires.”
Courses are listed below, with links to NWCG and FEMA websites.
Students must also pass two FEMA prerequisite courses:
ICS-100 – Introduction to the Incident Command System
IS-700 – An Introduction to the National Incident Management System
* You may need to set up a FEMA ID if you have not previously registered.
Students who complete the entire set of courses will be eligible to attend “Fire Camp,” a one-day hands-on seminar featuring a “live-burn” fire simulation. Exact date TBD.
Students must also complete an arduous “work capacity” or “pack test” – carrying a 45-pound pack over a three-mile course in 45 minutes or less – to receive their NWCG “red card” and participate on out-of-state fire assignments.
The Mezzanine Gallery to Exhibit Photography by Bronwen Hazlett
On view through February 26, 2021
Visit the Gallery in-person or view it online
Wilmington, Del. (February 3, 2021) –Anamnesis, an exhibition of photography by Bronwen Hazlett, is on view in the Mezzanine Gallery through February 26, 2021. Hazlett, a fine art photographer based in Clayton, is fluent in digital and analog photographic processes. Inspired by an early nomadic journey in life, Hazlett explores concepts of home, place, memory, and self-healing.
Hazlett composes images directly to film to replicate the experience of memory. Memories are stored in disparate parts of our brain and when recalled, the experience is reassembled like a puzzle. Anamnesis is the act of remembrance of the past or recollected ideas which the soul had known in a previous existence.
Hazlett creates this work using film in a 120mm Diana F+ camera, a plastic-bodied toy camera dating to the 1960s. She likes these cameras because she can advance the film as she wishes, and for their artistic effects. Hazlett processes the film in her darkroom and then scans the images and prints them on glossy paper.
“The many layers of memory are reassembled and become vulnerable to change,” Hazlett said. “Our present experiences and emotions perpetually recompose, overlap, and shift our memories as time passes.”
Similarly, her photographs are constructed by shifting and overlapping multiple views of the same image. The photographs are finished with haikus hand-written on the bottom of her images to document her memories associated with an image.
Image: Shallow Roots, 2018, photography (in-camera film photomontage), 26 x 11 inches
DelDOT Winter Storm Update #1
The Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) continues to prepare for the arrival of a statewide snow event. The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Warning for New Castle County from 7:00 a.m. Sunday to 10:00 a.m. Tuesday, and Winter Storm Watch for Kent County and Sussex County from 10:00 a.m. Sunday to 10:00 a.m. Tuesday.
DelDOT has brined roads across the state and prepared equipment ahead of the approaching storm and will be bringing in staff beginning Sunday morning to continue preparations.
At this time, DART also plans to operate fixed route and paratransit bus services as scheduled on Sunday, January 31.
The DelDOT snow plow tracker will be active during the storm and is available via the DelDOT smartphone app and www.deldot.gov under the interactive maps icon.
2021 Arbor Day School Poster Contest
2021 Contest Theme: “Trees are Terrific… In Many Wonderful Ways!”
DOVER — The Delaware Forest Service is seeking entries for its annual “Arbor Day School Poster Contest” – open to students in grades K to 5 from all Delaware public, private, home school, after-school, and other organized youth groups. Winning posters will be selected from each of the three counties in the following categories: kindergarten, grades 1 and 2, grades 3 and 4, and grade 5. The twelve winners will be recognized at the annual Statewide Arbor Day Celebration and receive a tree planting ceremony at their school to celebrate Arbor Day. Deadline to register is March 15. Posters must be submitted by April 1.
The poster contest is designed to increase student knowledge about forests and forest resources. For teachers, the poster contest can be an ideal way for students to learn more about the role of trees in our communities and their direct impact on Delawareans’ health and well-being. The schoolyard is a perfect setting to incorporate the role of trees into your everyday curriculum. Trees not only provide beauty, shade, and habitat and food for wildlife, they also improve air quality, muffle noise, moderate air temperatures, filter runoff into streams and rivers, and reduce energy consumption.
Deadline to register and reserve free seedlings: March 15
Deadline to submit posters for state contest: April 1
Arbor Day in Delaware: April 30
Seedling delivery: mid-April
Delaware’s Arbor Day is Friday, April 30, 2021.
Established by J. Sterling Morton in Nebraska in 1872, Arbor Day is an annual occasion to encourage everyone to plant trees and celebrate the numerous benefits that trees provide. In Delaware, the last Friday of April is traditionally observed as “Arbor Day.”
In 2019, the Delaware Forest Service hosted its annual Arbor Day Ceremony at Dover’s Schutte Park, honoring its school poster contest winners and recognizing Dover’s 30th Year as the First State’s longest-running Tree City USA. The event culminated with the planting of more than 30 large trees at six locations, including a zelkova on the historic Green on State Street. Delaware State University also held its Arbor Day event and is now celebrating its 9th consecutive year as Delaware’s only certified Tree Campus USA. Check out the 2019 Arbor Day photos on Flickr or at the Delaware Forest Service Facebook Page.