Kennedy Meadows Community Wildfire Protection Plan
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KENNEDY MEADOWS COMMUNITY WILDFIRE PROTECTION PLAN “If you chose to live in a place like this, you better be prepared to take care of yourself” Delores Foster, May 28, 2006 Resident, Kennedy Meadows KERN RIVER VALLEY FIRE SAFE COUNCIL MISSION OF THE KERN RIVER VALLEY FIRE SAFE COUNCIL “Private and Public Partners working together to preserve the Kern River Valley’s natural resources by mobilizing Kern River Valley residents to make their homes, neighborhoods and communities Fire Safe.” KENNETH DELFINO Registered Professional Forester # 506 Dr. CHRIS DICUS January 2007 2 CONTENTS Executive Summary ................................................................................. 5 Need …………………………………………………………………………….. 6 Overview of Project Area History of Kennedy Meadows ……………………………………… 10 Setting ……………………………………………………………………11 Recommended Actions ……………………………………………………….16 Field Activities …………………………………………………………………. 25 Analysis Fire Safe Knowledge and Support in the Community ………….. 27 Full-time versus Seasonal Residents ……………………………… 31 Wildland Fire Fundamentals ………………………………………… 32 Fire History ……………………………………………………………... 39 Fire Environment of Kennedy Meadows ………………………….. 44 Fuel Plots ……………………………………………………………….. 46 Structural Protection Groups ……………………………………….. 56 Fire Ignition Model …………………………………………………….. 61 Fire Protection Resources …………………………………………………… 71 Community Medical team ……………………………………………………. 77 Evacuation Plan ……………………………………………………………….. 78 Communications ………………………………………………………………. 80 Community-wide Evaluation of Hazards and Construction …………… 82 Prospect for Future Success ………………………………………………. 108 Purpose of the Project ………………………………………………………. 110 Request for Proposal ………………………………………………………… 111 Submitted Proposal ………………………………………………………….. 112 Grant Tasks ……………………………………………………………………. 112 Acknowledgments …………………………………………………………… 113 About the Authors ……………………………………………………………. 114 Literature Cited ……………………………………………………………….. 115 Protect Your Property ……………………………………………………….. 117 3 Appendix I – PRC 4291 ……………………………………………………… 128 Appendix II – LE – 100 ………………………………………………………. 130 Appendix III – Information Radio Systems ………………………………. 131 Appendix VI – Letter to property owners ………………………………… 133 Appendix V – Fuel Plots …………………………………………………….. 135 Appendix VI – Property evaluation form …………………………………. 145 Appendix VII – Property addresses ……………………………………….. 146 Appendix VIII – Property location index …………………………………...149 Appendix IX – Pinyon Juniper Vegetation Type…………………………..150 Appendix X – Sagebrush Vegetation Type ………………………………..154 Map 1 – Project area …………………………………………………………...15 Map 2 – Recommended fuels projects ……………………………………. 23 Map 3 – Recommended fuels projects ……………………………………. 24 Map 4 – Slope classes ………………………………………………………... 52 Map 5 – Structure Protection Zones – North area ………………………. 59 Map 6 – Structure Protection Zones – Project area …………………….. 60 Map 7 – Fuel Model …………………………………………………………… 66 Map 8 – Flame Length Model ……………………………………………….. 68 Map 9 – Rate of Spread Model ……………………………………………… 69 Map 10 – Property Location Index …………………………………………..149 Map 11 – Fuel Plot locations …………………………………………………144 4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Kennedy Meadows is an isolated community at the extreme southeast corner of a Central Valley county (Tulare County). It receives few public services that are common to most California property owners. Kennedy Meadows, with almost 200 habitable structures of which 45 are full time homes, is located miles from the nearest full services. Residents are in the unique position of having to take care of and protect themselves most of the time. Telephone service is the only public utility servicing the area. The community has no school, library or church and not a Starbucks within 50 miles. Tulare County provides garbage service at a central transfer station and the fire station and engine. Local residents are responsible for staffing the Volunteer Fire Department. Wildland fire protection is provided by BLM during the summer months only. Ambulance service is provided by Liberty Ambulance in Ridgecrest, approximately 60 minutes away. Air ambulance (helicopter) is provided by Mercy in Mojave, 45 minutes away (Watson, 2006). Law enforcement must come from Lake Isabella or across from the Kern River Canyon. This community is indeed isolated. Fortunately, fire safe conditions within the Kennedy Meadows community are relatively good. Many properties had moderate to good fire safe clearance and most had done some improvement since the Manter Fire of July 2000. Most of the permanent residents and many part-timer owners were interviewed during three visits to the project area and they had a high level if interest and knowledge about wildfire conditions and fire safe principles. Most expressed serious concern about another fire and expressed that they were determined to protect themselves. They realize that they fire protection resources are scarce in this remote area and that engines and equipment may not be available during the initial stage of a fire. This project involved the evaluation of 117 properties with a report prepared for each property. The section of this report “Protect Your Property” should be given to each owner along with the property evaluation. This information will greatly assist owners in improving their chance of survival when the next fire occurs. Recommendation #1 describes what owners need to do. Recommendations 2 and 3 describe fuel reduction and fire break projects that need to be installed. These improvements will improve the 5 capability of firefighters to protect developed areas in the community. Recommendations 8, 10, 15 will increase information provided to residents and the public. Recommendations 5, 16, and 19 focuses on improving fire protection resources and deployment in the valley. The Bureau of Land Management needs to enhance their structural protection plan and their visibility in the community. The volunteer department needs more trained members. A Wildland Fire Protection Plan for any community rests with the community members. The hard work needs to be done by local citizens. An outside consultant can create a framework plan but that plan will not work until it becomes the Kennedy Meadows Community Plan. The only way any plan succeeds is where locals have ownership and buy-in. The consultant can provide information, offer recommendations and point locals in a logical direction. Success will be measured by how many recommendations the locals agree to implement. This is the heavy lifting that needs to be done for a plan to work. Information on the Purpose of the Project, Request for Proposal, Submitted Proposal, and Grant Tasks is contained at the end of this report. NEED California and most other western states have experienced increasing losses from catastrophic wildfire in the past 20 years. Forest resources, watersheds, wildlife and valuable recreation resources have been damaged at an unprecedented rate. Not since the massive fires during the early 1900’s, before the modern era of fire protection, has so much damage occurred. The cause of this increase in fire loss is complex and varies in different locations throughout the West. Increases in rural populations, climate change, increase in fuel loading because of past aggressive fire protection are some of the factors in the increasing fire loss. Native forests, grasslands and brush lands in the west have evolved with fire and have the ability to recover over time, a process that has been occurring since the last ice age, 20,000 years ago. This evolutionary process continued until the intervention of humans about 8 to 10,000 years ago. 6 Indigenous peoples in the west learned to cope with this phenomenon and even used it to their advantage for hunting, food gathering and agriculture. Settlement of the west by European and Western cultures caused a significant change in land use and natural fire patterns. Mining, ranching and logging significantly altered landscapes and natural systems. Ranchers used fire to increase grazing; loggers created massive areas of flammable slash and carelessly let fires get out of control. Miners destroyed streams and in some places altered topography. The modern wildland firefighting era started during the 1930’s with the advent of the following: • Civilian Conservation Corps hand crews • Vehicles that could traverse steep terrain • Efficient water pumps • Cheap fire hose • Aircraft for reconnaissance and water dropping • Advent of professional wildland firefighting techniques Firefighting efforts became highly successful from the 1950’s through the 1970’s, so successful that fuels, normally kept in check by historic natural fires, built up to unprecedented levels. Sierra Nevada mixed conifer forests, with an historic fire frequency of 20 to 40 years, became overstocked with shade tolerant species such as white fir and incense cedar. Concerns over logging, especially on public lands, decreased active forest management and funds for thinning and fuel projects have not kept up with the need. The most significant factor affecting California wildland firefighting has been the influx of people moving into previously sparsely populated rural areas. Rural Sierra Nevada counties have been experienced some of the most rapid growth rates in California during the past 25 years. Communities like Kennedy Meadows, historically devoted to ranching and sparse weekend recreational cabins, have developed into permanent residential areas with many higher-end vacation and full-time homes. 7 Wildland fire agencies establish