Plumas County Fire Safe Council members and local Firewise community leaders told the Plymouth County Board of Supervisors on July 15 that small, neighbor-led projects have cleared significant hazardous fuels and added local water storage, and they asked the county to consider letters of support and inclusion in strategic planning.

The request came during a 15-minute presentation to the Board of Supervisors in which presenters described limb-thinning, pile burns, underburns and installation of a 7,500-gallon water tank near a small neighborhood to improve local defensibility and firefighting access.

The Old Highway Road Firewise co-coordinator, Sally McGowan, described one early neighborhood project that cleared a 2.5-acre parcel behind several homes. She said volunteers removed understory and underburned the piles, later working with Cal Fire and the U.S. Forest Service on follow-up burns. "We formed a Firewise community...we treated, along with the help of the Fire Safe Council, 140 acres," McGowan said. She also described a community-funded 7,500-gallon tank at the end of a cul-de-sac for local fire response.

Mike Flanagan, a long-time resident and Firewise volunteer, outlined countywide activity and the program's value for insurance and hazard reduction. He said Quincy Firewise and other local groups have logged thousands of volunteer hours and that the Firewise certification process requires each participating household to document at least one hour of activity. "For every hour invested...an hour is equivalent to $30," Flanagan said, noting the volunteer time converts to a substantial notional value when aggregated across communities.

Presenters asked the board to consider supporting Fire Safe Council requests in the county's strategic planning process and to provide letters of support when groups apply for larger grants. The Council also requested help identifying public-right-of-way or emergency-access improvements, such as reopening a logging-road spur at the end of a cul-de-sac that volunteers identified as a potential evacuation route.

Supervisors replied that county strategic planning will address safety and resilience and thanked the presenters for on-the-ground work. The board did not take any formal action at the meeting beyond public acknowledgement and invitation to participate in future planning sessions.

Why it matters: The presenters framed neighborhood-scale fuel reduction and home-hardening as pragmatic, low-cost steps that reduce risk and attract grant funding for larger-scale work. The countys involvement with planning and letters of support could strengthen grant applications and coordination with Cal Fire and federal agencies.

The presenters also flagged equity and capacity issues: many Firewise communities are volunteer-run and participation varies by neighborhood; presenters asked the county to help scale projects and to coordinate public communications about risk reduction.