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WENATCHEE, Washington — On the Cascadia Conservation District Web site, atop its section on wildfire preparedness, reads a quote from Benjamin Franklin: “By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail.” The district has made preparing for wildfire one of its primary goals over the past few years, with the hope of minimizing the after-effects it leaves behind.
By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail...Benjamin Franklin
Five years ago, the Washington district was contacted by Chelan County officials who were looking to invest grant funds they had received from another source.
“The grant didn’t provide much direction and the timeline was about to expire,” said Michael Rickel, Cascadia program manager. “At the time, the Healthy Restoration Act of 2002 had passed, with an outline for community wildfire protection plans (CWPP).”
Because Chelan County had a history with wildfire, and because CWPPs were eligible under the County’s existing grant, it was a good fit. “The folks that had seen those previous fires became very interested,” said Rickel. The area is heavily forested, said Rickel, with wildland urban interface being a concern.
To act, the district took out a number of newspaper advertisements and outlined the boundaries to 10 fire districts, each anywhere from 10,000 to 25,000 acres. Then landowner steering committees were organized, and a series of meetings were held.
“It provided the fire districts an opportunity to talk to folks about what could be done to minimize the risks of wildfire,” said Rickel.
Since then the District has signed six CWPPs. To accomplish this, Cascadia has worked with county fire district staff, the Washington State Department of Natural Resource, U.S. Forest Service staff and interested landowners.
In September, District staff organized a meeting in another fire district and plans to complete it and two other CWPPs by year’s end.
Once completed, a county-wide plan is then developed to coordinate a prioritization strategy under the National Fire Plan and the Healthy Forest Restoration Act.
“In addition to these efforts, we have led independent but related projects with landowners of the County and obtained funds for fire education and fuels reduction projects,” said Rickel.
For more information on the Cascadia Conservation District , visit the website at http://www.cascadiacd.org, or contact Michael Rickel at 509/664.0268, or email him.
Source: November 2007 issue of NACD Forestry Notes
For more about Cascadia Conservation District programs and projects, read their annual report:  Annual Report 2007 - Cascadia Conservation District 200.16 Kb
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