Board endorses Western El Dorado Community Wildfire Protection Plan and 2026 work plan
Loading...
Summary
The Board of Supervisors unanimously endorsed the county's 2026 Office of Wildfire Preparedness and Resilience work plan and adopted the Western El Dorado County Community Wildfire Protection Plan to prioritize coordinated mitigation, inspections and grant-driven projects across the west slope.
Tonya Harlow, acting program manager for the Office of Wildfire Preparedness and Resilience, told the Board of Supervisors that the county's multi-agency effort to coordinate wildfire mitigation is moving into implementation. Harlow said OWPR now manages defensible-space inspection priorities across partner agencies and administers grant-funded programs, including a $10 million Bureau of Land Management award to inspect and treat parcels adjacent to BLM lands and a $25 million FEMA hazard mitigation grant for defensible-space and home-hardening work for roughly 525 homes south of Placerville.
Harlow described work to build a project-coordination working group that brings Cal Fire, the Forest Service, local fire districts, RCDs, utilities, large landowners and Fire Safe Councils together for monthly coordination and a county data hub for project planning and metrics. “We will continue doing public outreach and trying to strengthen that more,” Harlow said, noting Firewise communities in the county rose from 36 to 55 in 2025.
Supervisors and agency partners commended OWPR's coordination and emphasized insurance engagement and continued outreach. Jeff Hogue of CAL FIRE's unit-level community risk reduction program and Ryan Wagner from Eldorado National Forest described improved data sharing and cross-jurisdiction coordination.
The board made findings that the Western El Dorado County CWPP is a roadmap for future action, endorsed the 2026 OWPR work plan, and authorized signing of the CWPP; the vote was unanimous. The plan will be used to prioritize projects for grant funding and to track metrics for defensible-space and home-hardening work across multiple jurisdictions.
