County reviews updated Community Wildfire Protection Plan with expanded smoke and climate analyses
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Summary
Consultant SWCA presented an updated Clallam County Community Wildfire Protection Plan with risk modeling, evacuation-route maps, smoke and climate assessments and community-specific mitigation recommendations; commissioners signaled support and plan adoption was scheduled for an upcoming regular meeting.
Clallam County staff and consultants presented an updated Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) at the March 9 work session that adds new wildfire-risk modeling, community field assessments, smoke-impact analysis and a future climate assessment to the county’s 2009 plan.
Diane (county staff, speaker 15) told commissioners the plan was a collaborative effort across county departments, the sheriff’s office, emergency management and public-health partners and was supported by a USDA grant plus state health funding to allow smoke and climate work. Matt Cook of SWCA (speaker 10) said the firm used a Quantitative Wildfire Risk Assessment (QWRA) plus field surveys in 23 communities to identify high-risk areas, evacuation-route constraints and priority mitigation projects.
Key recommendations include home ignition-zone work and defensible-space outreach, targeted fuel treatments near wildland–urban interface areas, roadside fuel buffers to improve evacuation corridors, measures to protect critical infrastructure (communications towers), and evaluating building-code changes or voluntary home-hardening approaches. The plan also includes recommendation matrices that list priority, timeline, lead agency, methodology and potential funding sources to make the work actionable.
Commissioners asked about water-storage options for firefighting in remote western communities and whether storage could be dual-purpose for potable use; consultants said investigating existing water sources and portable tank sites would be an important next step. Several commissioners urged emergency management and community development to review code- and policy-level recommendations and return with a timeline and priorities for potential county actions.
Next steps: staff said the CWPP will be posted online for public access and that the board is expected to adopt the plan at its next regular meeting; the steering committee will remain in place to move priority actions forward.