Louisville presents resiliency plans for public land, homes
Louisville’s Disaster Education and Outreach Series, which focuses on community wildfire protection plans, wildfire risk assessments, emergency preparedness and notifications and reducing risk at home, returns in April.
The focus will be on lessons learned from the Marshall Fire and the next steps to take after wildfire risk assessments.
The series began Jan. 30 with Ben Pfohl, supervisory forester at Colorado State Forest Service, presenting the Community Wildfire Protection Plan to Louisville and Superior residents.
Pfohl said that the CWPP is part of the Healthy Forest Restoration Act, which helps to give communities the opportunity to set up their own wildland-urban boundary.
The HFRA also gives communities that have a wildfire plan funding prioritization. Pfohl explained the steps to creating a CWPP, which include setting up a group of decision-makers which includes local fire authority, local government and the CSFS, establishing a map of areas at potential risk of wildland fire and developing an assessment strategy.
Louisville’s Deputy City Manager Megan Davis said that the city also plans to use cattle in open space to graze in the area and reduce any small plants that could be fuel in a wildfire.
On Feb. 6, a wildfire risk assessment open house was held. The assessment will include identification of hazards and risks and develop mitigation opportunities for Louisville’s public lands to be more resilient.
Bill Szafranski, a project manager at Lynker, which the city is working with, said that Louisville and Lynker will evaluate potential wildfire risks on public land. Those findings will then be used to make mitigation recommendations, which can be implemented immediately, possibly as quickly as spring or summer, Szafranski said.
An emergency preparedness and notification presentation was held Feb. 13. Steve Silberman, communications director for Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, said that people should sign up for the emergency notifications. He said that those with landlines are automatically going to receive a notification, but he encourages everyone to register for notifications. He said that people can list up to five addresses to the notification services.
At the Feb. 13 meeting, many Louisville residents said that they received delayed warning notification about the Marshall Fire. Davis said that emergency services often have a blind spot when responding to a fire that is moving quickly.