Sierra County Community Wildfire Protection Plan Update Final December, 2014 1 Sierra County CWPP Final Table of Contents Sierra County Update Community Wildfire Protection Plan Mutual Agreement Page ................................ 6 Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................................... 8 CWPP Objective ................................................................................................................................... 8 Sierra County Communities at Risk ...................................................................................................... 8 I. Requirements of a Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) ..................................................... 11 Federal .................................................................................................................................................... 11 State of California ................................................................................................................................... 13 Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPPs) and Local Jurisdiction ............................................... 14 II. Planning Process ................................................................................................................................. 17 Collaboration........................................................................................................................................... 17 Primary Collaborators ......................................................................................................................... 17 Primary CWPP Development Team members and responsibilities ........................................................ 17 -CWPP Planning Process ........................................................................................................................ 19 Planning Area Boundaries .................................................................................................................. 19 Public Education Effort ........................................................................................................................... 19 III. Community Description .................................................................................................................. 20 Weather, Demographics, Topography & the Wildland Urban Interface ................................................ 20 Weather ............................................................................................................................................... 20 Demographics ..................................................................................................................................... 21 Vegetation and Fuels ........................................................................................................................... 21 Westside .............................................................................................................................................. 22 Eastside ............................................................................................................................................... 22 Wildland Urban Interface.................................................................................................................... 23 Community Emergency Fire Department Services................................................................................. 25 IV. Community Hazard Assessment ..................................................................................................... 40 Current Risk ............................................................................................................................................ 40 Current Risk Situation ............................................................................................................................. 45 V. Fire Response ...................................................................................................................................... 51 Local Wildfire Fire Protection Responsibilities: .................................................................................... 51 Wildland Urban Interface wildfire suppression condition .................................................................. 52 2 Sierra County CWPP Final VI. Community Preparedness for a wildfire emergency and Action Plan with Recommendations for Projects. ....................................................................................................................................................... 54 1. Critical Findings and Recommendations ........................................................................................ 54 Fire Response ...................................................................................................................................... 54 Communications and Early Warning in case of a wildfire ................................................................. 55 Roads and Evacuation Planning .......................................................................................................... 55 Individual understanding of Evacuation Planning .............................................................................. 58 Evacuation Planning ........................................................................................................................... 58 Basic Individual Preparation for Evacuation ...................................................................................... 59 Water Sources ..................................................................................................................................... 62 Collaboration, Public Education and Prevention CPRC 4291 ............................................................ 62 2. Fuel Treatment Recommendations Past and Future Projects .......................................................... 64 Community Project recommendations of the 2002 Fire Safe Plan: ............................................................ 64 Future Projects within Sierra County .......................................................................................................... 84 US Forest Service Projects ...................................................................................................................... 84 Future Projects by Fire District ............................................................................................................... 87 Sierra County Fire Safe and Watershed Council, projects .................................................................... 100 Fuels Treatments and Restoration Projects ............................................................................................... 101 VII. Monitoring and Evaluation ........................................................................................................... 102 Appendixes ............................................................................................................................................... 106 Appendix A: Sierra County Fire Behavior Modeling ............................................................................... 107 Model Descriptions ........................................................................................................................... 107 Appendix B: Treatment Descriptions and Prescriptions ........................................................................... 112 Appendix C: Useful Resources in Pre Fire and Emergency Planning ...................................................... 120 Appendix D: Community meeting Questionnaire and Results ................................................................. 121 Appendix E: Fire Protection District Structure Protection Preplan .......................................................... 123 Attachments .............................................................................................................................................. 124 3 Sierra County CWPP Final Tables Table 1: Resistance to control matrix ......................................................................................................... 47 Table 2: Effective Fire Suppression efforts ................................................................................................. 47 Table 3: Fire history 1994-2012 Table of acres size and cause ................................................................... 50 Table 4 Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) conditions and suppression and treatment strategies .............. 53 Table 5: 2002 Fire Plan Recommended Projects ........................................................................................ 74 Table 6: Completed Sierra County projects over the past 10 years ........................................................... 81 Table 7: Sierra County Fire Protection District #1 projects......................................................................... 87 Table 8: Loyalton Projects ........................................................................................................................... 89 Table 9; Verdi Projects ................................................................................................................................ 91 Table 10: Sierra City Projects ...................................................................................................................... 92 Table 11: Allegany Projects