Yolo County Living with Wildfire

Living with Wildfire Yolo County coming together to build fire safe communities. Welcome! This site is currently being used inform residents about the Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) for Yolo County. The plan was adopted in April 2023 (see link below) and will be updated roughly every five years.  However, we continue to gather valuable input from the communities in the high fire zones.  Please help us by providing feedback on our Community Base Map and informing us of assets and values at risk from wildfire in your community. This project is being done by the Yolo County Resource Conservation District (YCRCD) and the Yolo County Office of Emergency Services (OES). We are gathering your input in several ways: Achieving our Goals The Yolo County Resource Conservation District (YCRCD) and the Yolo County Office of Emergency Services (OES) have formed a county-wide Fire Safe Council (YCFSC), and completed a Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP). The YCFSC is committed to increasing wildfire awareness in the county, supporting community fire safe councils and developing projects that will create more fire-resilient communities. Please see our new website at: yolofiresafe.org Form A Fire Safe Council-Done! Support the Formation of Community FSCs Complete a CWPP-Done! Approve the CWPP-Done! Start the Action Plan-A work in progress which depends on funding The Yolo County Fire Safe council is composed of diverse stakeholders and coordinated by the YCRCD. YCFSC stakeholders will contribute to the CWPP. The YCFSC is working to support community FSCs, which are grassroots, citizen-led groups.  New fire safe councils in the County are: the Capay Valley Fire Protection District FSC and the West Winters FSC. This process requires 1) collaboration; 2) prioritized fuel reduction; and 3) treatment of structural ignitability.  A CWPP must recommend measures that homeowners and communities can take to reduce ignitability. The Yolo County CWPP was approved and signed by local government (The Yolo County Board of Supervisors), local fire authorities (The Yolo County Fire Chiefs) and CALFIRE (The Sonoma Lake Napa Unit Chief). Having a county CWPP in place opens up funding opportunities for vegetation management, chipping programs and other fuel reduction projects. Interested in participating in our Yolo County Fire Safe Council meetings? You can find out more about our upcoming meetings on our new website: www.yolofiresafe.org and the Yolo County Fire Safe Council Facebook page. Or if you'd rather be notified by email, please enter your email address in the form to the right. We won't share your email address with anyone and we'll only use your email to let you know of upcoming CWPP or wildfire planning related events. Thanks! Primary Focus Areas Our Yolo County Community Wildfire Protection Plan will cover the entire county of Yolo.  Western Yolo County includes the CALFIRE State Responsibility Area (SRA), small sections of Federal Responsibility Area (FRA) and the communities at risk: Rumsey, Guinda, Brooks, Capay, Esparto and Winters, and a High Hazard Zone that includes the community of Dunnigan. Capay Valley Since 2018, wildfire has burned the western edge of the Capay Valley, threatening the communities of Rumsey, Guinda, Brooks and Capay. For the Capay Valley Emergency Response Auxiliary Face Book and Fire Safe Council page: Click Here Western Winters The landscape west of Winters has the highest "fire return interval" in the state, burning six out of seven years, from 2013-2020.  There is a "Greater Winters Community Wildfire Protection Plan" which has been included in the Yolo County CWPP. Area Map Frequently Asked Questions Below we provide some answers to potential questions you may have regarding CWPPs. At the end, we offer the opportunity to submit your own question. What is a Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP)? How does the CWPP address California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)? A CWPP is a community-based plan focused on identifying and addressing local hazards and risks from wildfire. A CWPP determines what is at risk and provides a roadmap of actions for a community to address the wildfire threat. A CWPP may open up federal funding opportunities to implement the plan. Defined in the United States Congress Healthy Forests Restoration Act (2003), the goal of the CWPP is to enhance efforts to protect communities, watersheds and other at-risk lands from catastrophic wildfire. A CWPP is not a regulatory document, but provides wildfire hazard and risk assessments, community descriptions, options for addressing issues of structural vulnerability to wildfire (Home Hardening), and provides a prioritized list of projects which, if implemented, can serve to reduce wildfire hazards. A CWPP is one of the best tools we have to take strides to adapt our county to a wildfire-prone environment. The CWPP will contain hazard and risk analyses and, using a collaborative model, will suggest projects that can efficiently  reduce risk of loss of life, property loss, and environmental damage. What is required in a CWPP? A CWPP can vary in scope, scale, and detail, but must meet three minimum requirements for their contents and adoption per the Healthy Forest Restoration Act and the State of California. These requirements include: The CWPP itself is not a project under California Environmental Quality Act. Instead, the CWPP will serve to guide the preparation of specific action decisions which may require CEQA analysis. Why did Yolo County create a CWPP? How was the development of the CWPP funded? How will the actions identified in the CWPP be implemented? The collaborative process of a CWPP allowed partners to participate in planning and prioritizing wildfire wildfire risk reduction projects. Partners include, but by no means limited to: Collaborative planning helps the County adapt to wildfire by: The CWPP process provides opportunities to share science-based assessments & GIS modeling with the community  to increase understanding of wildfire hazards and risks across landscapes and communities. It also provides opportunities for a variety of partners to share views, define their own communities’ assets and values, and let their concerns be known. Having risk-reduction projects listed and prioritized in a CWPP can add weight to grant proposals, and help link projects to potential funders. In 2020, the Yolo County RCD received a funding from CAL FIRE and the California Climate Investment Program to create the county-wide CWPP. Following approval of the CWPP, Yolo County RCD staff began applying for project funding. When funding is received, we can proceed with preparing Implementation Plans. The Implementation Plans should identify the specific actions and steps needed to implement those actions. Any actions that require site specific treatments to address wildfire hazard may require environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act and permitting. Submit your own question Feel free to email us directly to submit any question you may have regarding CWPPs or this CWPP process. We look forward to hearing from you!

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