Community participation in fire management planning: The Trinity county fire safe council's fire plan

Abstract

In 1999, Trinity County CA, initiated a participatory fire management planning effort. Since that time, the Trinity County Fire Safe Council has completed critical portions of a fire safe plan and has begun to implement projects defined in the plan. Completion of a GIS based, landscape scale fuels reduction element in the plan defined by volunteer fire fighters, agency staff and community members has been a highlight of the past 3 years' work. Current efforts are focused on implementing fuels reduction projects. This paper reports on the plan development process, project implementation, and the challenges of involving landowners, particularly absentee owners, in fuels reduction activities. A demonstration effect is noted, in which a few landowners participate initially and model creation of defensible space for neighbors, who join later. The critical role of volunteer fire departments as first responders on many fire starts and the lack of funding support they face are discussed.

Parent Publication

• Proceedings of the 2002 fire conference: managing fire and fuels in the remaining wildlands and open spaces of the Southwestern United States

Citation

Everett, Yvonne. 2008. Community participation in fire management planning: The Trinity county fire safe council's fire plan. In: Narog, Marcia G., tech. coord. 2008. Proceedings of the 2002 Fire Conference: Managing fire and fuels in the remaining wildlands and open spaces of the Southwestern United States. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-189. Albany, CA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station: p. 217-226