County hears Smith‑to‑Klamath shared‑stewardship briefing; board signals support for regional wildfire mitigation

The Del Norte Fire Safe Council presented the Smith‑to‑Klamath initiative—an early concept for landscape‑scale wildfire mitigation that would deploy shaded fuel breaks, prescribed burning and targeted thinning across a broad swath of county landscape.

The presenter (Babcock of the Fire Safe Council) said the concept envisions roughly 30,000 acres of shaded fuel breaks, about 9,500 acres of community‑proximate work, a 3,000‑acre ridge top fuel break, and up to 100,000 acres of prescribed fire over time. He described discussions with federal and state partners and with local tribes and timberland owners, and said an early, rough cost estimate for implementing initial shaded fuel breaks and thinning could be in the neighborhood of $135 million over about 10 years.

“Most of our land in Del Norte County is federal or state managed. This is a lot of partners and a lot of coordination, but the goal is protecting communities and creating local jobs,” Babcock said. Board members discussed workforce training opportunities and asked staff to connect the Fire Safe Council with regional workforce programs that are developing equipment‑operator training and other capacity-building efforts.

Public commenters expressed strong support for the approach and urged the board to act quickly to demonstrate capacity to receive state and federal funds. The item was presented as informational; supervisors said they would continue conversations and could consider letters of support or other next steps as funding opportunities solidify.