Navajo County adopts 2026 Community Wildfire Protection Plan and proclaims Wildfire Community Preparedness Day

The Navajo County Board of Supervisors approved a proclamation designating May 2, 2026 as Wildfire Community Preparedness Day and adopted the 2026 Navajo County Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP).

Vice Chair Donna Faye Weitzinger read the proclamation and highlighted the county’s wildfire risk, citing past large fires including the Rodeo-Chediski event. Katrina Jenkins, who led the CWPP update, described a merged single-county plan revised this year after partner input from local fire districts, state and federal agencies, tribal jurisdictions and community groups. Jenkins said the county will move to a five-year plan update cycle rather than the previous 10-year cadence and summarized project and mitigation priorities for the next five years.

Katrina and Timber Mesa representatives briefed supervisors on the 2026 wildfire outlook and preparedness measures: the county’s coordination group uses multiple datasets to decide staged restrictions; roughly 70% of recent burned acres statewide were human-caused; the county will continue community outreach (Ready-Set-Go) and encourage defensible space. Timber Mesa noted early-detection cameras (Pano) and unmanned aerial vehicles are being used during restrictions to detect and respond to fires.

Supervisors praised collaborative partnerships across jurisdictions and thanked staff for the CWPP work. The board adopted the plan and the proclamation by voice vote.

The county emphasized that restrictions, if activated, will apply to residents and visitors alike and that many routine activities such as permitted debris burning may be suspended during restriction stages. Officials urged residents to sign up for emergency alerts and to create defensible space around homes.

Next steps include implementation of prioritized projects and continued partner coordination for fuel mitigation, public education and staged restriction protocols.