Mineral County solicits survey on wildfire plan
Heavy smoke pours off the Thorne Creek Fire Friday evening after fire crews used aerial ignitions in strategic locations to moderate fire behavior. (Scott Shindledecker/Valley Press)
A Community Wildfire Protection Plan is designed to assist the county and property owners in mitigating wildfire risk by assessing areas at risk and recommending measures to decrease those risks.
Mineral County has one that needs to be updated, and the public is encouraged to participate in a short survey. Mineral County has contracted SWCA Environmental Consultants to work in collaboration with municipal, state, and federal land management agencies to develop the 2025 Mineral County plan update.
This comes at the time where the Lolo National Forest is slowly ramping down their revision and the projects sound like they may overlap.
“The Lolo [Forest] has no authority in this, but they are however helping with mapping and updating work that has been done on Forest Service lands,” shared Angelo Ververis who is a Forester with Idaho Forest Group. “This plan identifies and justifies the boundaries of the WUI (Wildland Urban Interface) on private and public lands. It also prioritizes the work in the WUI based on public and county input.”
Community Wildfire Protection Plans came out of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003. This Act provided communities with the opportunity to influence how and where federal agencies implement fuel reduction projects on federal lands and how additional funds may be distributed for projects on non-federal lands.
A Community Wildfire Protection Plan is the means through which public citizens can provide their voices in fuels management and fire protection planning for their communities.
The goals and objectives of the Mineral County plan include:
- Wildfire Resilience: Improve wildfire resilience and adaptation of the County.
- Public and Stakeholder Input: Develop a CWPP update with broad public and stakeholder input and support.
- Grant Opportunities: Develop a CWPP update that will serve as a source and guide for accessing grant opportunities and funding.
- Risk Mitigation: Collaboratively develop a prioritized action plan to mitigate risks to people and property.
- Fuel Mitigation Resources: Provide resources, information, and actionable planning for conducting fuel mitigation on private and public lands.
- Project Tracking: Implement a process to implement and track project progress in an accessible and easy to understand format.
The survey can be found at forms.office.com/r/zAQg1LnPXJ.