Feather Falls: Wildfire Community Assessment and Action Plan Feather Falls Wildfire Community Assessment & Action Plan November 17, 2015 1 Feather Falls: Wildfire Community Assessment and Action Plan INDEX I. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………3 a. Feather Falls Community At-a-Glance Demographics b. Collaborators who assisted with assessment Section I Attachments:………………………………………………………………….4 Attachment A: Map – Top Boundary_1:100,000 scale Attachment B: Community at Risk List for Butte County – California Fire Alliance Attachment C: Map – CAL FIRE/Butte Unit Battalions II. Definition of Home Ignition Zone………………………………………………………7 III. Description of the severe case wildland fire characteristics that could threaten the area Fire History…………………………………………………………………………8 a. Fire History b. Vegetation Type c. Topography d. Weather Section III Attachments:………………………………………………………………10 Attachment D - Map - Fire History Attachment E - Map - Fire Severity Zones IV. Site Description………………………………………………………………………..12 a. Feather Falls Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) Project List b. Battalion Five Priorities Section IV Attachments:………………………………………………………………17 F - Map – Shaded Relief: _1:250,000 G - Map – CAL FIRE/Butte Unit Battalions H - Map – Compass Maps: Street Map V. Assessment Process…………………………………………….……………………23 VI. Important Considerations…………………………………………..…………………24 VII. Observations and Recommendations………………………………….……………26 VIII. Successful Firewise Modifications……………………………………...……………28 IX. Next Steps / Action Plan………………………………………………………………32 2 Feather Falls: Wildfire Community Assessment and Action Plan I. Introduction: Feather Falls is a rural community located in the Sierra Nevada foothills in Butte County, California. The residents in Feather Falls are focused on wildfire planning and prevention and share a common vision with Butte County Fire Safe Council to create communities within a landscape that are resistant to the devastating impacts of wildland fires. The Firewise Communities/USA recognition program is designed to provide an effective management approach for preserving wildland living aesthetics. The program can be tailored for adoption by any community and/or neighborhood association that is committed to ensuring its citizens maximum protection from wildland fire. Feather Falls is seeking FIREWISE Communities Recognition because it believes in the same principles of working together and sharing information with neighbors to lessen the impact of a wildland fire to where the impact is lessened and homes and residents survive. The following community assessment is intended as a resource to be used by Feather Falls residents for creating a wildfire safety action plan. The plan developed from the information in this assessment should be implemented in a collaborative manner, and updated and modified as needed. a. Feather Falls Community At-a-Glance Demographics/Specifications: County / Location: Butte County / Sierra Nevada Mountains Number of Homes: 250 Population: 425 Total Acres: 28,880 Elevation: 900 to 3500 Latitude: 39.59398 Longitude: -121.26031 Township: T20N, R6E Section: 24 (multiple - See Shaded Relief Map Page 4) State Responsibility Area (SRA): YES Community Wildfire Protection Plan: YES Listed as a Community at Risk in the federal register: YES Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) Community: YES b. Collaborators who provided support and/or technical assistance include; Mike Shorrock, Battalion Chief, CAL FIRE/Butte County Fire Carol Dower, Chairperson Feather Falls Fire Safe Council Richard Burr, FFFSC Board Member Sandy Bourasa, FFFSC Board Member Dewey Harvey, FFFSC Board Member Jason Vermillion, PNF/LNF Feather River Ranger District Calli-Jane DeAnda, Executive Director, Butte County Fire Safe Council Brenda Rightmyer, Rightmyer Consulting Services/Fire Safe USA Section I. Attachments: A - Map – Topo Boundary _1:100,000 scale B - Community at Risk List for Butte County – California Fire Alliance C - Map – CAL FIRE/Butte Unit Battalions 3 Feather Falls: Wildfire Community Assessment and Action Plan Attachment: A Topo Boundary Map_1:100,000 scale 4 Feather Falls: Wildfire Community Assessment and Action Plan Attachment: B Community at Risk List for Butte County – California Fire Alliance 5 Feather Falls: Wildfire Community Assessment and Action Plan Attachment: C CAL FIRE/Butte Unit Battalions Feather Falls Battalion 5 6 Feather Falls: Wildfire Community Assessment and Action Plan II. Definition of the Home Ignition Zone Feather Falls is located in a wildfire environment. Wildfires will happen--exclusion is not a choice. The variables in a fire scenario are when the fire will occur, and where. This assessment addresses the wildfire-related characteristics of Feather Falls. It examines the area’s exposure to wildfire as it relates to ignition potential. The assessment does not focus on specific homes, but examines the community as a whole. A house burns because of its interrelationship with everything in its surrounding home ignition zone----the house and its immediate surroundings. To avoid a home ignition, a homeowner must eliminate the wildfire’s potential relationship with his/her house. This can be accomplished by interrupting the natural path a fire takes. Changing a fire’s path by clearing a home ignition zone is an easy-to-accomplish task that can result in avoiding home loss. To accomplish this, flammable items such as dead vegetation must be removed from the area immediately around the structure to prevent flames from contacting it. Also, reducing the volume of live vegetation will affect the intensity of the wildfire as it enters the home ignition zone. Included in this assessment are observations made while visiting Feather Falls. The assessment addresses the ease with which home ignitions can occur under severe wildfire conditions and how these ignitions might be avoided within the home ignition zones of affected residents. Feather Fall residents can reduce their risk of destruction during a wildfire by taking actions within their home ignition zones. This zone principally determines the potential for home ignitions during a wildland fire; it includes a house and its immediate surroundings within 100 to 150 feet. The result of the assessment is that wildfire behavior will be dominated by the residential characteristics of this area. The good news is that by addressing community vulnerabilities, residents will be able to substantially reduce their exposure to loss. Relatively small investments of time and effort will reap great rewards in wildfire safety. 7 Feather Falls: Wildfire Community Assessment and Action Plan III. DESCRIPTION OF [SIZE AND NATURE OF] THE SEVERE CASE WILDLAND FIRE CHARACTERISTICS THAT COULD THREATEN THE AREA Fire intensity and spread rate depend on the fuel type and condition (live/dead), the weather conditions prior and during ignition, and the topography. Generally the following relationships hold between the fire behavior and the fuel, weather and topography. Fine fuels ignite more easily and spread faster with higher intensities than coarser fuels. For a given fuel, the more there is and the more continuous it is, the faster the fire spreads and the higher the intensities. Fine fuels take a shorter time to burn out than coarser fuels. The weather conditions affect the moisture content of the dead and live vegetative fuels. Dead fine fuel moisture content is highly dependent on the relative humidity and the degree of sun exposure. The lower the relative humidity and the greater the sun exposure, the lower will be the fuel moisture content. Lower fuel moistures produce higher spread rates and fire intensities. Wind speed significantly influences the rate of fire spread and fire intensity. The higher the wind speed, the greater the spread rate and intensity. Topography influences fire behavior principally by the steepness of the slope. However, the configuration of the terrain such as narrow draws, saddles and so forth can influence fire spread and intensity. In general, the steeper the slope, the higher the uphill fire spread and intensity. a. Fire History: 1999 South and Union Fires – Lightning Complex and Pendola Fire 2008 Frey Fire (burned 4,000 acres) 2008 Craig Fire (burned 2,001 acres) 2014 Kanaka Fire (burned 3 acres – high potential) 2015 Lumpkin Fire (burned 1,200 acres) b. Vegetation – Fuel Type: The vegetation fuel types range from grass land, brush land, and timber land fuel models intermixed. The timber type is primarily mixed conifer with brush stands of manzanita, toyon, deer brush, ceanothus, and other chaparral. The overstock of timber and the density of brush will affect fire behavior and these fuel conditions are located not only within the deep drainages but can also be found in underdeveloped parcels. At the lower elevations of Feather Falls include annual grasses and oak woodlands that include blue and valley oak. At the 900’ elevation, the fuel type transitions to brush with species of manzanita, chaparral, toyon, and white thorn. At 2,000 – 3,500 the fuel transitions to mixed conifers. For the fire department all of these vegetation types provide fire control problems because of their density and the current fuel conditions can lead to a large, fuel driven fire. Fire management will be difficult due to high fire intensities that include high rate of spread, long flame lengths, and long range spotting. Direct attack may be impossible under these burning conditions for safety reasons. An indirect defensive 8 Feather