PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson County has hired an environmental consulting firm to create a community wildfire protection plan to identify wildfire threats and make the county eligible for certain state and federal grants.
Jefferson County commissioners and representatives from several other county agencies met in a special meeting Wednesday with staff from Phoenix-based SWCA Environmental Consulting for the first of several advisory group meetings in the creation of the plan.
The advisory group includes the board of commissioners, East Jefferson Fire Rescue, the county Department of Emergency Management and other stakeholder groups.
Community wildfire protection plans, or CWPPs, do not mandate actions for the county but do make recommendations for fire safety. Establishing a CWPP also would help the county in securing additional funding, organizers said, adding that dozens of counties in Washington already have CWPPs, including Clallam County, which drafted a plan in 2009.
Part of creating a CWPP involves public outreach to help determine the public’s understanding of wildfire risk and provide information to the community about what residents can do to prevent wildfires and what to do in the event of a fire.
A series of four public meetings are to be conducted later this year, tentatively scheduled for late August or September. Representatives from the CWPP advisory group also will be at certain public events, including the All County Picnic currently scheduled for Aug. 20.
A draft version of the CWPP is tentatively scheduled to be presented in December with adoption of a final version set for February 2024.
Jefferson County Administrator Mark McCauley said that, although the county hasn’t identified specific grants which the CWPP will help procure, he knows there are grants available that will help the county implement the plan’s recommendations.
Jefferson County contracted with SWCA for $167,481, McCauley said.
CWPPs focus on reducing fire risk and prioritizing the reduction of potential fuels as well as identifying high-risk areas and potential issues for wildfire response.
SWCA will work with local agencies to collect data for the area on things like potential fire hazards, fire history and fire response to create risk maps for Jefferson County’s fire danger.
According to a survey of advisory group members, the communities with the greatest wildfire risk are Brinnon, Quilcene and Port Ludlow, with the first two having the highest risk.
Some of the largest concerns for wildfire response are adequate staffing levels, sufficient equipment and the amount of potential human ignitions in the area.
Both Jefferson and Clallam counties enacted burn bans earlier than expected this year, citing dry conditions, and crews have been battling the Lake Sutherland fire west of Port Angeles for several days, notably early in the state’s fire season.
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Reporter Peter Segall can be reached at peter.segall@peninsuladailynews.com.
