An outline for safety
Open house to discuss 293-page draft Community Wildfire Protection Plan this Saturday
Tuolumne County has a new draft of its Community Wildfire Protection Plan, it’s 293 pages long, a public comment period is ending in less than two weeks, and the nonprofit Tuolumne
Fire Safe Council is hosting an open house this Saturday so that people can learn more about the plan.
Many federal and state grants related to forestry, watershed protection, fire prevention, fuel reduction, and natural resources require Tuolumne County to have a current Community Wildfire Protection Plan in order to qualify for those grants.
The current draft plan is an update to the existing, 20-year-old Tuolumne County Community Wildfire Protection Plan dated Dec. 12, 2004, which primarily focused on the northern county. The current draft plan is expanded in geographic scope to cover the entire county.
The draft Community Wildfire Protection Plan, dated December 2023, has been prepared by the Tuolumne Fire Safe Council in partnership with the county. The nonprofit council, which geographically encompasses the entire county, is an independent entity, unaffiliated with county government and Sonora’s city government.
The council and the county are seeking public feedback on the draft Community Wildfire Protection Plan.
The Community Wildfire Protection Plan for Tuolumne County provides a road map and is a principle guiding document to help agencies, organizations, and the general public to better prepare for, mitigate against, respond to, and recover from future wildfire threats, the December 2023 draft plan’s executive summary states.
Wildfires have historically been a major part of Tuolumne County’s natural ecosystem.
The climate, surrounding rugged topography, rural landscapes, and fire-adapted vegetation combine to create “an environment for periodic burns,” the new draft plan states.
This is made more dangerous by the abundant risks associated with a resident population of 55,810 and growing; 32 Communities at Risk identified by Cal Fire; a high tourist and transient worker population; remote settings with limited ways in and out; and increasing effects of changing climate that include the increasing frequency and severity of droughts, extreme storms, flooding, and everincreasing numbers of fire danger days.
Further complicating fire dangers and at-risk assets in the county is the presence of local, regional, and national level high-value public properties run by government agencies, including the Stanislaus National Forest,
Yosemite National Park, two California state parks, and other recreation sites, ecological services, water resources, and other lands that are pivotal to the county’s economy and the well-being of its residents.
The primary purpose of the county’s new Community Wildfire Protection Plan is to minimize wildfire threats to human life and well-being, and reduce wildfire risks to community assets such as residential structures, critical infrastructure, businesses, the natural environment, and historic and cultural resources in the county, the plan’s introduction states.
Goals and objectives of the new draft plan are to enhance life safety and preparedness for responders and the public; to create healthy and productive fire-adapted communities; to restore and maintain healthy and fire-resilient landscapes; and to reduce
wildfire threats to values and assets at risk.
The new draft plan includes maps of Fire Hazard Severity Zones in the county, as well as 10 pages devoted to defining the wildfire problem in the county and the county’s fire history.
Karen Caldwell, a council board member, is the former Summit District Ranger for the Stanislaus National Forest from 1992 to 2012, and she is project manager for the Community Wildfire Protection Plan.
Earlier this week, Caldwell shared a briefing on the draft Community Wildfire Protection Plan for Tuolumne County. Work on the plan began in 2022.
The draft plan is focused on identifying and addressing foreseeable local hazards and risks from wildfire in Tuolumne County communities. The plan determines what is at risk and provides actions for the community to address wildfire threats.
The plan is being funded by about $239,000 in grants through Cal Fire and the county.
The plan is supposed to include measures to reduce the ignitability of structures, and it’s supposed to identify and prioritize fuel reduction projects on federal and nonfederal lands. More than 75% of Tuolumne County lies in public jurisdictions controlled by governmentfunded agencies, including the U.S. Forest Service, Yosemite National Park, the federal Bureau of Land Management, Caltrans, schools, and irrigation districts.
Outreach and collaboration last year included a plan steering group meeting in February; a stakeholders workshop in June; public workshops in Twain Harte and Groveland in July and in Sonora in August; and stakeholder interviews and a public survey in September and October. The draft public comment period began Dec. 26 and it ends Jan. 23.
The final Community Wildfire Protection Plan for Tuolumne County is expected to be signed by the county Board of Supervisors, Cal Fire, the County Fire chief, the City of Sonora, and the Tuolumne Fire Safe Council by Feb. 15.
Disclaimers in the December 2023 version of the draft plan include that the plan is not a legal document and is not intended to be an all-encompassing fire planning, wildfire resiliency, or disaster risk management document for Tuolumne County.
The plan is considered to be a living document that serves as a road map for planning and prioritizing wildfire mitigation activities throughout the county. It is also intended to help increase public awareness and engagement in wildfire safety principles and preparedness at the individual, household, and neighborhood levels.
As a living document, the plan is a work in progress and is anticipated to be monitored, evaluated, and updated over the next several years, as wildfire hazards and risks evolve, human development increases, community needs change, and social, economic, and regulatory landscapes change with time.
The new draft plan ends with a list of recommended actions, references, appendices that include responses to a public survey. It does not include a conclusion or an end summary.
Key contributors to the plan so far have included Tuolumne Fire Safe Council administrators Diane Bennett, Glenn Gottschall, Michael Olencheck, and Caldwell; Dore Bietz and Sean Hembree with the county Office of Emergency Services and county administration, respectively; Madeline Amlin, the county geographic information systems coordinator; chiefs Nick Casci, Andrew Murphy, and Gary Whitson with Cal Fire’s Tuolumnecalaveras Unit; Jason Kuiken, supervisor for the Stanislaus National Forest and Clinton Gould, the forest’s assistant forest fire management officer; Jason Schroeder, fire mitigation specialist for the federal Bureau of Land Management, Mother Lode Field Office; and Aimee New, chief of Sonora City Fire.
The new draft Tuolumne Community Wildfire Protection Plan can be downloaded, reviewed, and commented on at this link https://cwpp.tuolumnefiresafe.org. The draft public comment period began Dec. 26 and it ends Jan. 23.
A public open house event to promote the plan is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. this Saturday, Jan. 13 in a conference room at Stanislaus National Forest headquarters, 19777 Greenley Road, Sonora.