Community meetings announced for countywide update to wildfire mitigation plan

October 2, 2024 1:30 am
Contributed photo Islands Conservation Corps crew members burn brush piles into biochar to reduce wildfire fuel loads on Turtleback Mountain.
Contributed photo Islands Conservation Corps crew members burn brush piles into biochar to reduce wildfire fuel loads on Turtleback Mountain.

Submitted by San Juan County

A diverse group of local emergency responders, land managers, and forestry experts from over a dozen agencies and tribes have begun work updating the San Juan County Community Wildfire Protection Plan, originally adopted by county council in 2012. Now it’s your turn to chime in on your ideas and concerns related to wildfire preparedness in San Juan County!

Public meetings are scheduled in October and will provide a forum for attendees to learn the basics of what a CWPP is and what it does, and to share their ideas, concerns, and questions. All members of the public are encouraged to attend and lend their voices to shape the new plan.

Meetings will be held from 5:30-7 p.m. on Lopez Island (Monday, Oct. 14 at the Lopez Fire Sation in Lopez Village); Orcas Island (Tuesday, Oct. 15 at Fire Station 21 in Eastsound); San Juan Island (Wednesday, Oct. 16 at Fire Station 31 in Friday Harbor).

The updated CWPP, expected to be complete in Spring of 2025, will assess wildfire risk and vulnerability while prioritizing mitigation strategies, site-specific projects, policies, programs and resources that will effectively reduce wildfire likelihood and impacts. The San Juan Islands Conservation District is spearheading the effort on behalf of local, state, federal and tribal partners, while working to ensure input from the public and private sector is received.

Conservation District Executive Director Paul Andersson is excited for progress on this plan, saying, “An update to this plan is overdue. There remains a heightened level of public interest and concern with how we understand and manage fire risk in the islands – this plan is going to be a great roadmap for identifying and implementing as many risk mitigation strategies as we can.”

Northwest Management, Inc. has been retained as a consultant to provide risk assessments, hazard mapping, research, and to ensure the updated plan meets state and federal requirements.

Community input will play a key role throughout the planning process and will include these three public meetings, public reviews of the draft plan, and an open comment period. The current version of the San Juan County Community Wildfire Protection Plan can be viewed at https://www.sanjuancountywa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/21417/2012-SJC-CWPP.

For more information about the CWPP update, or to sign up for free wildfire readiness risk assessments and other forestry programs, please visit at https://www.sanjuanislandscd.org/wildfire-preparedness.

Questions can be addressed to Paul Andersson at 360-378-6621 or at paul@sjicd.org.