Catastrophic Wildfire Summit: Part one

Recently, College of the Siskiyous (COS) hosted a Western State Resource Summit sponsored by the National Institute for the Elimination of Catastrophic Wildfire. Deputy Chief of the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) Jim Hubbard spoke about the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy (NCWFMS) – the creation of fire adapted communities, the “all-lands” approach to landscape restoration and the Flame Act response to wildfire. According to Hubbard, the NCWFMS will focus more attention on protecting communities where there is the greatest exposure to the threat of wildfire. Expectations will be placed on the homeowner to take greater responsibility for preparedness in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI,) creating fire-adapted communities. Unfortunately, grants to local Fire Safe Councils will now require a 50 percent match. The “all-lands” approach to integrated resource restoration will cross multiple ownerships on a broad landscape level. Statewide assessments will analyze forest resources, identify threats, incorporate related plans and provide resource investment strategies. Studies have shown that at least 15 percent of the landscape must be treated in order to impact fire behavior. By working with private cooperators and industry, enough of the landscape can be treated to make a difference. Restoration priorities are to conserve working forest landscapes, to protect forests from threats, and to enhance public benefits from trees and forests...more

I guess that 15% will have to be on private forested land, cuz it ain't getting done on Forest Service land.