Residents Encouraged to Shape Wildfire Protection Plan: Input Needed for Updated CWPP

Press release from the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council:

Cherry Creek Firewise Plan

As another fire season stretches into what used to be fall, Mendocino County residents have a chance to lay out their priorities for protecting their communities from wildfire.

The county is updating its Community Wildfire Protection Plan, which is a chance to bring in federal money to pay for fire resilience and recovery projects. The plan was last updated in 2015, well before ‘defensible space’ and ‘fuel reduction’ had become bywords in the age of weeks-long blazes. 

And that has real ramifications, according to Emily Tecchio, the county coordinator for the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council. “Our last CWPP is from 2015, which is before we had our major fires,” she noted.  “It’s also before a lot of the science started getting solidified around home hardening, especially that Zone Zero first five feet around your home, so none of that is in there.” Also absent is any mention of the harmful effects of air pollution due to massive wildfires. In August, the US Environmental Protection Agency reported “elevated concentrations of fine particle air pollution” in New England, due to smoke from fires in Canada.

But now, there is a new recognition of the importance of fire resilience. That recognition includes money from the climate change programs contained in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Specifically, a five-year community wildfire defense grant is tied to projects listed in the CWPP. And Tecchio thinks finding out what your neighbors’ safety priorities are can be a great way to build community, too. “The CWPP is really a vehicle for nonprofits and agencies to apply for funding for phe projects that are listed in there,” she reflected. “It’s also an opportunity to bring awareness about the different projects and what your neighbors want. Maybe you guys have the same goals, and you can partner. The document is about trying to secure funding, but funding for what the community wants.”

The Mendocino County Fire Safe Council is encouraging local people to articulate their needs as clearly as possible, to improve their chances of getting funded for the projects that are most likely to protect them from wildfire. This month, there are two opportunities to learn about the plan in person. People can also share written input through the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council website, at firesafemendocino.org/mccwpp/. There, visitors can peruse the current plan and find a link to a survey, where they can describe a project proposal to any degree of specificity or generality, from type of project and location to methodology and maintenance requirements.

On October 21, there will be a community meeting with county officials and representatives from SWCA, the contractor preparing the new plan. That’s a Monday night, from 6-8pm, at the Regional Behavioral Health Training Center at 8207 East Road in Redwood Valley.

Science Fair 2024

On a more festive note, community members can also offer input on the plan at this year’s Pumpkinfest in Ukiah. The Ukiah Valley Fire Authority is hosting a Fire and Safety Expo on Saturday, October 19. As kids pretend to be rescued from a staged burning, parents can learn more about how to contribute to the upcoming Community Wildfire Protection Plan. “The purpose of a CWPP is to collect input from the community,” Tecchio urged. “Everybody is in danger of burning, whether they realize it or not.”

Mendocino County Fire Safe Council’s mission is to help communities survive and thrive in a wildfire-prone environment. Visit our website, firesafemendocino.org, to find out how we can help you improve fire resiliency in your neighborhood.