With the Gorge still recovering from the Eagle Creek wildfire and devastating conflagrations becoming a more common occurrence across the country, the need for support at a community level has only become more important, say local officials.
Wasco County will soon be getting that support, as it has been selected to receive technical assistance in 2018 from the Community Planning Assistance for Wildfire (CPAW), a national program aimed to reduce the impact from wildfires through land-use planning.
The local CPAW team will give a public presentation about the program and project on Wednesday, March 21, from noon to 1 p.m., in the Building Two lecture hall at Columbia Gorge Community College.
All interested community members are encouraged to attend.
“I’m very excited about being chosen for the CPAW Program,” said Steve Kramer, county commission chair, in a press release.
“This program's experience and expertise will help guide us to update our current CWPP [Community Wildfire Protection Plan] to insure public safety and public health for our citizens of Wasco County.”
CPAW is a joint partnership founded by Wildfire Planning International and Headwaters Economics in 2015 and is funded by private foundations and a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Forest Service.
The program has worked with 13 communities across eight states since their pilot project in 2014, including Ashland and Bend.
CPAW’s programs are not intended to prevent wildfires from happening, but rather to prevent loss of life and property when wildfires occur.
“In a fire adapted community, wildfire is part of the landscape but no lives are lost or homes destroyed,” CPAW wrote on its website.
Through the program, the Wasco County planning department will collaborate with CPAW consultants, such as land use planners, foresters and risk mapping experts, to help communities reduce their wildfire risk by identifying and implementing local planning measures — specifically to update the county’s long-term community vision and comprehensive plan to include planning tools that can reduce the county’s risk for wildfires.
Will Smith, the county’s senior planner and Dan Hammel, fire marshal for Mid-Columbia Fire & Rescue, applied for CPAW’s assistance.
“Good land use planning is not about telling people where to build. It’s about respecting private property while making safer, smarter community development decisions to avoid future wildfire disasters,” said Ray Rasker, the executive director of Headwaters Economics in a written statement.
“Through examining and sharing best practices from other cities and counties, communities can also learn about what successful land use planning for wildfire looks like in practice.”
The organization identified Wasco County as a risk for extreme fire behavior due to local influences of topography, wind and fuels such as the western juniper and ponderosa pine.
The numbers support these observations: From 2008 to 2017, Wasco County had approximately 1,164 acres burned in wildfires, the Oregon Department of Forestry reports, while neighboring Wheeler County lost just under 1,000 and Hood River and Clackamas counties each had under 200 acres burned during the same period.
These numbers do not include the 2013 Government Flats Fire that burned 11,434 acres, the 2014 Rowena Fire that burned 3,680 or last year’s Eagle Creek Fire, which burned 48,861 acres, (data according to incident reports from the National Wildfire Coordinating Group.)
“Wasco County encompasses a diverse Oregon landscape and experiences a variety of wildfire types,” stated CPAW, adding that the county has major residential growth centers around areas where large fires are not only common, but extreme enough to exceed local resources.
“We believe Wasco County is in an excellent position to benefit from CPAW due to the community’s wildfire risk, anticipated planning updates, and strong leadership support for this opportunity,” said Molly Mowery, president of Wildfire Planning International, in a press release.
“Many communities have an interest in reducing wildfire risk through land use planning mechanisms, but may lack the capacity or expertise. CPAW provides the assistance needed to help achieve a positive outcome.”
More information about the program can be found at planningforwildfire.org, or by calling 541-506-2560.
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