Community Wildfire Protection Plans:

The Great Lakes States Experience

Welcome!

March 18, 2008

Rhinelander, Wisconsin

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

Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003

Promotes collaboration around wildland fire management

Expedited fuels reduction projectsEncourages preparedness through

Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPPs)

What is the Joint Fire Science CWPP Project?

http://jfsp.fortlewis.edu

Principal Investigators: Pam Jakes and Dan Williams

USFS Northern Research StationUSFS Rocky Mountain Research Station

Partner Investigators:Kristen C. Nelson, University of Minnesota

Victoria Sturtevant, Southern Oregon UniversityTony Cheng, Colorado State University

Sam Burns, Fort Lewis College, CO

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?

• 13 cases• 162 interviews total• Case level:

4 county4 municipal5 homeowner association

• Range in community capacity

Study Area

• Help identify relevant issues

• Provide feedback on CWPP insights

• Assist in building awareness of the lessons learned

• Provide guidance in knowledge transfer

Project Advisory Board

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.

What are the benefits of a Community Wildfire

Protection Plan?

Grizzly Flats, California

*

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.”

Auburn Lake

Trails,California

*

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.

Post Mountain,

California*

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.

Ashland, Oregon

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

Josephine County, Oregon

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.

Em Kayan, Montana

State of Montana multi-hazard

mitigation plan

Lincoln County CWPP

Em KayanFirewise

Communities/ USA Plan

Lincoln County pre-disaster

mitigation plan

Embedded Plan

Lake County, Colorado

*

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

East Portal, Colorado

*

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.

East Portal, Colorado

Benefits

Harris Park, Colorado

*

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.

Lake County, Minnesota

Lake County, MinnesotaBenefits

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 that’s a really primary goal to get people to understand that. To see why you’re trying to do something.”

Barnes and Drummond, Wisconsin

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."

High Knob, Virginia

High Knob, VirginiaBenefits

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.

Taylor, Florida

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.

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

Benefits Support Capacity• Social

New and/or strengthened relationshipsIncreased 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

How do these perspectivesfit with your expectations of

CWPPs?

What are the benefits people in your community will respond to?

Realized Benefits and Outcomes of CWPPs