Community Wildfire Protection Plans:

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• Community Wildfire Protection Plans
• The Great Lakes States Experience
• Welcome!
• March 18, 2008
• Rhinelander, Wisconsin

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Workshop Partners

• Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
• Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
• Michigan Department of Natural Resources
• USDA Forest Service Chequamegon-Nicolet
  National Forest, Superior National Forest,
  Manistee National Forest Northern Research
  Station, Rocky Mountain Research Station
• Northwest Regional Planning Commission, WI
• University of Minnesota
• Fort Lewis College, CO

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Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003

• Promotes collaboration around wildland fire
  management
• Expedited fuels reduction projects
• Encourages preparedness through Community
  Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPPs)

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• What is the Joint Fire Science
• CWPP Project?
• http//jfsp.fortlewis.edu
• Principal Investigators
• Pam Jakes and Dan Williams
• USFS Northern Research Station
• USFS Rocky Mountain Research Station
• Partner Investigators
• Kristen C. Nelson, University of Minnesota
• Victoria Sturtevant, Southern Oregon University
• Tony Cheng, Colorado State University
• Sam Burns, Fort Lewis College, CO

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• Research Questions
• What are the outcomes of federal law requiring
  collaboration?
• How do context and process influence
  collaborative outcomes in wildfire planning?
• How does the CWPP process impact social capacity?

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Study Area

• 13 cases
• 162 interviews total
• Case level
• 4 county
• 4 municipal
• 5 homeowner association
• Range in community capacity

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Project Advisory Board

• Help identify relevant issues
• Provide feedback on CWPP insights
• Assist in building awareness of the lessons
  learned
• Provide guidance in knowledge transfer

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Knowledge Transfer Approach

• make available lessons learned about the
  contexts, processes and outcomes of collaboration
• Shared in traditional professional meetings
• Dialogue with diverse folks working on wildfire
  mitigation and protection via workshops.
• Workshop topics chosen to best fit the CWPP
  development process and stages of the host states.

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What are the benefits of a Community
WildfireProtection Plan?
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Grizzly Flats, California

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Grizzly Flats, California Benefits

• Creates potential to reach other community goals
• A principal benefit was how it helped reach the
  goal of creating a community center and fire
  station in Grizzly Flats.

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Auburn Lake Trails,California

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Auburn Lake Trails, California Benefits

• Fuel management and infrastructural improvements
• Something was actually getting done fuel
  management around homes, commons fuels
  management, shaded fuel break, street/house
  signing, etc.

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Post Mountain, California

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Post Mountain, California Benefits

• New resources used for uncontested projects
• A great benefit was the Watershed Research
  Training Center (WRTC) joining with The Nature
  Conservancy (TNC) to become a Fire Learning
  Network Project.
• It really helps us get some other resources and
  do some coordination across bounds like this.
• The stewardship project was not appealed by
  environmentalists.

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Ashland, Oregon
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Jackson County, Oregon Benefits?
Some attempts for a CWPP held little
benefit Little change Environmentalists
threatened litigation Forest Service held on to
strict interpretation of law to avoid successful
litigation
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Josephine County, Oregon
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Josephine County, Oregon Benefits

• Social learning about each other community
  capacity building
• The tremendous growth in community capacity new
  assets (economic, social, political).
• There was significant learning regarding
  cooperative planning for both mitigation and
  response unclear how extensively efforts have
  diffused into the community, but there have been
  some successful cooperative projects with
  homeowners.

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Em Kayan, Montana
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Em Kayan Firewise Communities/ USA Plan
Lincoln County CWPP
Lincoln County pre-disaster mitigation plan
State of Montana multi-hazard mitigation plan
Embedded Plan
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Lake County, Colorado

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Lake County, Colorado Benefits
Knowledge spreads to other communities Community
members involved in the process are now aware of
the wildfire threat and the unique fire ecology
of their forests this knowledge has been
spreading by word-of-mouth to other communities
that were not involved
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East Portal, Colorado

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East Portal, Colorado Benefits
Common goal and common message The CWPP creates
a common goal for community members to work
towards among themselves as well as with agency
partners.
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Harris Park, Colorado

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Harris Park, Colorado Benefits

• Increased understanding of each others interests
• Community members who interacted with the fire
  department or Colorado State Forest Service are
  now able to speak knowledgably about forest
  ecology and fire defense. Agency members speak
  with an understanding of community values and
  concerns.

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Lake County, Minnesota
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Lake County, Minnesota Benefits

• Awareness of the wildfire issue
• just getting everybody involved. The local fire
  departments and people to understand. Trying to
  get the citizens and everybody to understand that
  its important to address. Especially when you
  live in remote areas, or urban areas you know,
  back up to the forest. I think thats a really
  primary goal to get people to understand that. To
  see why youre trying to do something.

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Barnes and Drummond, Wisconsin
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Barnes and Drummond, Wisconsin Benefits

• New and/or strengthened relationships.
• "But just to show that it could be done, and we
  could communicate as a group, and you could take
  agencies that have different focuses, bring them
  together and everybody come through it okay. I
  think that it proved that there's a great working
  relationship in this part of the world. And we
  can take a difficult issue and we can find ways
  to make things better."

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High Knob, Virginia
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High Knob, Virginia Benefits

• Improved protection and safety for the community
• Fostering a sense of community
• Relationships created in the CWPP have already
  helped achieve non-wildfire related objectives.

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Taylor, Florida
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Taylor, Florida Benefits
Agreement on actions that need to be taken
together I think having the agencies come
together and realize that Taylor is a vulnerable
area. And that they are now all working together
to protect it. Everyone had a positive attitude
toward the plan and the fuel break was completed.
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Benefits Realized

• Awareness of the wildfire issue
• New and/or strengthened relationships
• Increased understanding of each others interests
• Agreement on actions that need to be taken
  together
• Common goal and common message
• Fuel management and infrastructural improvements
• New resources used for uncontested projects
• Social learning about each other
• Community capacity building - social, economic,
  political
• Improved protection and safety for the community
• Knowledge spreads to other communities
• Creates potential to reach other community goals

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Benefits Support Capacity

• SocialNew and/or strengthened relationshipsIncre
  ased understanding of each others
  interestsAgreement on actions that need to be
  taken togetherCommon goal and common
  messageSocial learning about each otherCreates
  potential to reach other community goals
• KnowledgeAwareness of the wildfire
  issueCommunity capacity building - social,
  economic, politicalKnowledge spreads to other
  communities
• Natural system and InfrastructureFuel management
  and infrastructural improvementsImproved
  protection and safety for the community
• FinancialNew resources used for uncontested
  projects

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How do these perspectivesfit with your
expectations of CWPPs?What are the benefits
people in your community will respond to?
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Realized Benefits and Outcomes of CWPPs