Rogue Valley Integrated Community Wildfire Protection Plan June 2017
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Rogue Valley Integrated Community Wildfire Protection Plan June 2017 Reducing the risk of wildfire to life, property, and natural resources in the Rogue Valley by encouraging coordination among public agencies, community organizations, private landowners, and the public to increase their awareness of, and responsibility for, fire issues. Submitted By ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, many thanks to Jackson and Josephine County Commissioners Rick Dyer, Bob Strosser, Colleen Roberts, Simon Hare, Lilly Morgan and Dan DeYoung for recognizing the value and importance of this effort. In addition, countless individuals have committed time, energy and passion into the Rogue Valley Integrated Community Wildfire Protection Plan. Any outcomes in reducing the risk to wildfire come in no small part because of their ongoing efforts. Many thanks to all the members of the many committees, and to the agency and fire district representatives who have dedicated so much to this update effort: Current Executive Team Members: Lang Johnson, Grants Pass Department of Public Tyler McCarty, Oregon Department of Forestry Safety – Fire Rescue Dave Larson, Oregon Department of Forestry Brian Fish, Medford Fire-Rescue Joel Benton, Jackson County Lee Winslow, Oregon Department of Forestry Simon Hare, Josephine County Other Important Participants: Jim Wolf Leah Harper, Josephine County Austin Prince, Rural Metro Fire Brian Ballou, Oregon Department of Forestry Karl Witz, Oregon Department of Forestry Dan Thorpe, Oregon Department of Forestry Shelly Hoffer, Oregon Department of Forestry Rick Dryer, Oregon Department of Forestry Phil Turnbull, Rural Metro Fire Greg Alexander, Oregon Department of Forestry Mike Kuntz, Applegate/Williams Fire Neil Benson John Karns, City of Ashland George McKinley, SOFRC Danny Jordan, Jackson County Rogue Valley Fire Prevention Cooperative members Herb Johnson, Oregon Department of Forestry Rogue Valley Fire Chiefs Association members Matt Krunglevich, Oregon Department of Forestry Rogue Valley Integrated Community Wildfire Protection Plan June 2017 Core Team Members: John Patterson, Jackson County Fire District 3 Syndi Zerr, US Forest Service Chris Chambers, Ashland Fire Eric Hensel, US Forest Service Karim Naguib, Jackson County GIS Jena Volpe, Bureau of Land Management Kelly Madding, Jackson County Planning Max Bennett, OSU Extension Service Mike McLaughlin, Applegate Valley RFPD #9 Shayne Maxwell, Foots Creek Community James Black, Josephine County Planning Alison Lerch, Ashland Fire John O'Connor, Oregon Department of Forestry Kerry Metlen, The Nature Conservancy Herb Johnson, Oregon Department of Forestry Sean Hendrix, Forest Restoration Collaborative Jeremy Delack, Bureau of Land Management Mark Shay, Rural Metro Fire Rob Budge, US Forest Service Dayne Barron, Bureau of Land Management Over the past 15 years, both Jackson and Josephine County response agencies and citizens have worked very hard on the implementation of their fire plans. Many great people worked many hours on many great committees. The fire planning structure has changed over the years, and although the final structure moving forward has not yet been finalized, this should not reduce the importance of all of the steps and changes along the way. Thanks to Wildland Fire Associates who worked tirelessly to contribute to the Rogue Valley Integrated Community Wildfire Protection Plan, including Victoria Amato, SWCA Environmental Consultants for your dedication to the development of a plan that doesn’t fit the typical mold. We would like to express our personal gratitude to the people who spent many, many hours on the phone, in meetings and traveling around Jackson and Josephine Counties with us, in so many ways you all inspired this plan, exemplified what a strong, collaborative process means, and are helping to make this effort a long-term success. While we can’t possibly list them all by name, our greatest thanks go to the citizens who attend community meetings and trainings, create defensible space around their property, test or replace their smoke alarms annually, move wood piles away from their homes, convince friends and neighbors that preparing for fire is a good idea, and for all of the other efforts they do on a regular basis to promote fire safety. Sara Rubrecht and Jenny Hall Jackson and Josephine County Emergency Managers Rogue Valley Integrated Community Wildfire Protection Plan June 2017 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY THE CURRENT WILDFIRE SITUATION Wildfire is a significant threat to rural and urban communities across the United States. In the last few years, most western states have experienced the largest wildfires in their histories, with catastrophic destruction of homes, property, and natural resources. The combination of increasing development in or near wildlands, the accumulation of wildland fuels, dry fire seasons, and rugged terrain has resulted in significant wildfire risk to communities in or near the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI). The cost to suppress wildfires across the nation typically exceeds $1 billion annually. Wildfire is not a new phenomenon in southwestern Oregon; it has played a significant role in shaping ecosystems within the Rogue Valley for centuries. Prior to the 20th Century, low- to mixed-severity fires played a large role in most dry forest types of the area. In the early 1900s, federal fire policy focused on immediate suppression of wildfire. Many areas in the region have missed two to five fire cycles because of this policy of fire exclusion, coupled with other land management practices. In general, forest diversity has been reduced at both the landscape and stand scales; as a result, both young and old forests are increasingly at risk of experiencing fires of greater intensity than they have in the past. Even in old-growth stands, fire exclusion and historic and existing land management practices have led to overly dense forests. With changing climates, these degraded forest conditions become further exacerbated, resulting in potentially severe and catastrophic wildfires. These large and intense wildfires can damage watersheds and cause significant erosion and degradation of water quality. Sensitive species habitat can be damaged or destroyed, or overrun with invasive species. The economic loss from a large, severe wildfire can be enormous, as tourism and recreational values are affected, and commercial timber stands are damaged or destroyed. Additionally, wildfire smoke causes significant safety and health issues to individuals located in the WUI and in urban areas, with some individuals requiring medical treatment. THE NEED FOR A COMMUNITY WILDFIRE PROTECTION PLAN Southwestern Oregon has the most complex system of forestland ownership in the nation. Often referred to as a checkerboard pattern, lands of varying ownership are intermingled across the region. This ownership pattern puts the responsibility to appropriately manage the land on everyone, from private citizens to timber companies to federal agencies; no one person or agency can do it alone. Rogue Valley Integrated Community Wildfire Protection Plan June 2017 In 2003, Congress passed the federal Healthy Forests Restoration Act (HFRA), which encourages local communities to collaborate with federal land managers to develop comprehensive fuels reduction strategies. This is accomplished through the creation of a Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP). A CWPP provides a set of guiding principles for local wildfire planning. It is developed collaboratively with all parties involved in managing lands within the geographical boundaries specified in the plan, and provides a framework for landowners and managers to use during the wildfire planning process. Use of the guiding principles from the CWPP by all parties will result in forest health and wildfire risk reduction steps being applied consistently on all lands, regardless of ownership. Although federal land managers are not bound by the results of CWPP collaboration, the federal government’s ownership of a vast portion of the forests in both Jackson and Josephine counties means that any plan without their valuable input will struggle to achieve meaningful control over wildfires. The HFRA also offers federal land managers tools to streamline the federal land management process and expedite management projects. FIRE PLANNING ORIGINS Jackson and Josephine counties have a long history of wildfire planning with the greatest impetus following the 2002 Biscuit Fire, which burned approximately 500,000 acres over nearly three months, and cost over $150 million to suppress. In the past 15 years, more than 170 agencies, organizations, and partners in Jackson and Josephine counties have embraced national wildfire protection practices and policies, and have invested countless hours to reduce the risk of wildfire to southwestern Oregon communities. This Rogue Valley Integrated Community Wildfire Protection Plan (RVIFP) was developed in 2016-2017 to update the Jackson County and the Josephine County integrated fire plans, which were originally developed in 2006 and 2005, respectively. Both counties, as well as many other agencies, organizations, and residents joined together to develop the RVIFP. This larger scale planning effort increases the level of coordination and cooperation among stakeholders, which can lead to broader and more efficient wildfire risk mitigation measures. Rogue Valley Integrated Community Wildfire Protection Plan June 2017 THE POLICY FRAMEWORK Numerous federal, state, and local rules, ordinances,