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Butte County Fire Safe Council urges Oroville neighborhoods to form Firewise groups after new fire‑risk map
Summary
At an April 24 Planning Commission meeting, presenters from the Butte County Fire Safe Council described local wildfire programs — from free chipping and defensible‑space assistance to Firewise USA neighborhood certification — and encouraged Oroville residents to organize to reduce risk and access insurance discounts.
Members of the Butte County Fire Safe Council told the Oroville Planning Commission on April 24 that new fire‑risk lines added to the city map make neighborhood-level action more urgent and could affect insurance rates.
"We do all kinds of fuel reduction projects…our goal is to hit 6,000 this year," said Jim Hautman, an active member of the Fire Safe Council, describing the council’s chipper, hazard tree removal and grazing programs and saying the group treated about 3,500 acres last year.
The council’s presentation focused on the Firewise USA program, a national program managed locally with support from Cal Fire, which encourages neighbors to prepare collective action plans and document volunteer hours and vegetation removal. Lauren Deterra, community engagement coordinator for the Butte County Fire Safe Council, explained the certification steps and program requirements.
Deterra said Firewise communities begin with a map and a curbside risk assessment, then develop a three‑year action plan that must address education/outreach, home hardening, fuels reduction/defensible space, and evacuation planning. She said a Firewise group must include at least eight homes and may include up to 2,500 dwelling units; in Butte County the council currently tracks 36 active Firewise communities, and in Oroville there are two certified groups (Kelly Ridge and Lake Wyandotte) with four others in progress.
The presenters stressed that Firewise participation is voluntary. "It is voluntary and optional, so no one will be forced to participate," Deterra said. She described documentation requirements: an initial submission that Cal Fire typically reviews in two to six weeks, an annual renewal reporting volunteer hours and expenses, a new risk assessment every five years and a new action plan every three years. The council values volunteer hours at about $30 per hour for the matching calculation, Deterra said.
Hautman and Deterra also reviewed on‑the‑ground programs the council runs: a free chipping program for landowners who stack brush properly (the council has done 46 chipping sites in Oroville this year), a resident assistance program to clear defensible space for low‑income or disabled homeowners, grazing projects, and hazard tree removal in towns affected by recent wildfires. Hautman cited examples where local treatment and grazing helped structures survive advancing fires.
Insurance and certification were a recurring theme. Deterra said the California Department of Insurance’s Safer from Wildfires framework requires a mandatory discount for policies that cover wildfire; discounts differ by provider and range from roughly 2% to 10%, with the California Fair Plan toward the high end. She said Firewise documentation is one of the items insurers look for when evaluating discounts, but that enrollment in Firewise does not guarantee a specific discount amount.
Commissioners asked practical questions: one commissioner asked whether plants in pots count toward the 0‑to‑5‑foot noncombustible zone; Deterra confirmed potted plants are allowed. Another commissioner asked whether the city itself should seek community‑wide certification; Deterra recommended subdividing the city into multiple Firewise neighborhoods rather than trying to certify the entire city at once.
Hautman said some council projects around Lake Oroville remain subject to CEQA and to coordination with Cal Fire and PG&E for remediation and tree removal. Deterra added that the council maintains a Firewise map and posts certificates on its website so leaders and residents can share documentation with insurers.
The presenters closed by offering additional resources — the Fire Safe Council website, Be Ready Butte and statewide Cal Fire guidance — and promoted a grazing festival in Paradise on June 1 as an outreach event. The Planning Commission will receive the same presentation at an upcoming city council meeting, staff said.
The presentation generated no formal action by the commission; staff noted the city council will be given the same briefing.
