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Humboldt County advances CWPP update with new modeling, prioritization and public survey
Summary
Contractor Dudek presented updated wildfire‑behavior and hazard modeling for the Humboldt County Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP), unveiled a public survey and scheduled a June digital workshop to inform project prioritization and grant planning.
Dudek, the consultant updating the Humboldt County Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP), presented modeling and prioritization work at the Fire Safe Council meeting on May 14, 2026. The presentation described planning‑unit wildfire behavior modeling, flame‑length and burn‑probability analyses, and a spatial prioritization tool intended to identify 'hotspots' where fuels‑reduction or landscape restoration projects would deliver the greatest benefit.
The contractor said the modeling will be used to support grant applications and local planning. Dudek summarized countywide wildfire environment findings — including repeated notes that slopes exceeding 65% are common and that wildfire hazard is elevated during about 55 days a year — and explained the hazard and risk assessments are produced at a planning‑unit level rather than only at the countywide scale.
Dudek also described how the risk assessment quantifies likely impacts to the built environment and guides community‑specific projects by identifying human assets with higher damage potential. The presentation noted that factors such as ember load, housing density and community access are considered but are not weighted equally across planning units.
Council members asked technical questions about whether rescaled zones would appear in the CWPP and how human‑caused ignitions are accounted for. The presenter said rescaling will be reflected in the CWPP and noted that, for the hazard assessment, human ignition influence is not factored into the model.
The presentation closed with outreach steps: a soft launch of a public CWPP survey on the CWPP Update Hub and a Dudek‑hosted digital workshop for community members on June 16. Staff encouraged attendees to amplify the survey through partner networks and said printed 'Preparing for Wildfire' brochures and living‑with‑wildfire materials are available for distribution.
The CWPP update is intended to produce prioritized, implementable project lists for fuels reduction and landscape restoration and to inform 2027 planning and grant applications. The council will consider the draft resolution and next steps at upcoming meetings.
