Lakeway officials highlight years of wildfire mitigation work, urge home hardening and signups for alerts

Lakeway city officials, the Tri City Emergency Management Office and Lake Travis Fire Rescue briefed the City Council on wildfire preparedness and mitigation measures at a special meeting on Feb. 3, 2025, outlining multi‑year programs, recent storm debris impacts and steps residents can take to reduce home ignition risk.

The briefing — led by Lake Travis Fire Rescue Chief Abbott, Tri City Emergency Management Director Wahida and LTFR wildfire mitigation specialist Dustin Dunn — summarized work dating to 2011, noted accelerated efforts after the 2021–23 winter storms and described completed projects such as the Hamilton Greenbelt mitigation paid with roughly $350,000 and an 18‑month effort.

Why it matters: Speakers said the city and partner agencies have invested in mechanical fuels treatments, volunteer programs and planning to reduce risk where homes meet wildland. But they cautioned debris from recent storms and contiguous privately owned forested lands limit the effectiveness of city work alone, and emphasized homeowner actions and policy changes are needed to reduce structure losses.

“...the programs that we've put in place with the collaboration with the cities and Travis County have gone a…