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HomeMy WebLinkAboutForester UpdateMEMORANDUM DATE: February 13, 2008 TO: Deschutes County BOCC FROM: Joe Stutler, Deschutes County Forester RE: Forester Update January-February) Highlights during this period of time include: • Completed the FEMA pre-disaster mitigation grant for both Deschutes and Crook County. The actual dollar amount will be $675,000 that the counties will share. Judith Ure was a tremendous help with the effort. A further update is the application was accepted by Oregon OEM and forwarded on to FEMA in DC. Congressman Walden has written a letter of support to FEMA for the grant. All three state elected officials also wrote letters of support to OEM for our application. We expect a decision on the grant in late April or early May. • Conducted a 1 ½ hour talk show on County Forestry program, Project Wildfire, FireFree Program with a local radio station which resulted in several calls of interest. • Met with a property owner who is located adjacent to an 80-acre parcel of county owned land to identify potential fuels treatment options on both properties. I’m coordinating that with Teresa. • Met with City of Bend official and Solid Waste to identify alternatives to burning inside the city limits. On January 15th presented those alternatives (additional FireFree sites and additional days) to the Bend City Counsel, as a result the Counsel passed a burn ban inside the city limits. We will use the new sites in conjunction with FireFree activities this spring and will do something similar in the fall. • Working with Health Department, County Sheriff and fire departments developed a “preparedness strategy” for Deschutes County for all-hazards response. We will be requesting a meeting with County Administrator to present the strategy. • Completed the RFP process to treat fuels in Deschutes County. The amount is approximately $1.5 million and treats fuels on private lands and county owned lands in 12 work areas within the county. There were 24 bidders using the “qualified pool” concept that Mark Pilliod was instrumental in assisting with the concept and completion. I will make a formal presentation to BOCC on February 13, 2008. • In conjunction with county counsel, developed a “Letter of Permission/Waiver” to allow fuels treatment on private lands. • On January 21st met with Congressman Walden on CWPP’s, grants, Project Wildfire presentation at the Congressional Fire Service Institute Dinner in April. Congressman Walden will accompany our group and be part of a panel discussion about Project Wildfire and FireFree Program. • Represented Deschutes County and Project Wildfire at a Sunriver Chamber of Commerce and realtors presentation about the efforts of the Upper Deschutes Coaltion, the efforts with CWPP’s, treating fuels on both county owned lots and other private lands. • I continue to monitor the work accomplishments at Fremont Canyon with Melcher Logging. To date approximately 100 acres of a 400 acre total have been treated to contract specifications. The ground is frozen so impacts have been negligible and the results are outstanding. We expect this work to continue until mid-May. A side note, Congressman Walden in a subsequent visit to central Oregon has requested a field trip to the location. • On January 25th, met with Deschutes Forest Supervisor John Allen to discuss forestry and other natural resource issues. John and the District Manager from BLM will join me with an update to the BOCC in April and October on issues that may impact Deschutes County. • Met with Ponderosa Pines Homeowner’s Association to discuss fuels treatment on private lands. • I was invited to participate in a national effort to create an education campaign for people living in the WUI. The theme will be “living with fire” and consequently three communities in the US (Bend Oregon, Denver Colorado, and Jacksonville Florida) were identified as areas with a wildland fire problem. Focus groups were identified and my specific role was to listen to the deliberations of the groups. I will have further involvement as the education campaign continues. • Last June and again in October participated in the Blue Ribbon Panel to develop solutions to WUI issues in the US. The panel has completed a final draft of the efforts and a final report is forthcoming. I will stay involved with this effort and we expect several grant opportunities to follow as the results of our efforts. The panel had 5 major themes and used Deschutes County as a model for collaboration, partnerships and the Project Wildfire/FireFree programs as national examples of success. • Completed and submitted a lottery grant for the upcoming trip to the Congressional Fire Service Institute dinner. Additionally have been coordinating meetings with USDI, FS and FEMA during our trip to DC. • Assisted with S-339 Division/Group Supervisor training @ COCC campus in Redmond. • Participated with the Department Head retreat to develop values, goals and objectives for Deschutes County. • On February 11th chaired a co-sponsored effort by Central Oregon Fire Chief’s Association and Project Wildfire to develop recommendations for “Alternatives to Evacuations.” This group will meet five times during 2008 and present our finding to the respective groups. • Chaired two Project Wildfire meetings, developing the FireFree Program for 2008 and CWPP updates throughout the county. • On February 12, 2008 will attend an evening homeowner’s association meeting for Lower Bridges Estates to discuss fuels treatment and grant opportunities. • February 13th, will present the Intent to Award proposal to the BOCC on the county wide RFP fuels treatment, and in the afternoon will present the County Forester update. • On February 15th will attend the homeowner’s association meeting for Caldera Springs to celebrate the establishment of Caldera Springs as a FireWise Community. This is the second community in Deschutes County and only two have received official designation in Oregon, both in our county. • Future endeavors: o Will participate in the International Fire Chief’s Association meeting in Reno (1st week of March) to develop implementation guidelines for CWPP’s. Currently the guidelines exist for creating CWPP’s but no implementation guidelines exist nationally. Because of our completion of seven CWPP’s in Deschutes County we have been requested to share our success not only with the development but successful implementation. o Will present to BOCC on February 13th a proposal to create a county wide ordinance for the “unprotected lands” which will provide; (1) defensible space on private lands and treat fuels on vacant lots, the standards will be exactly the same as Senate Bill 360, (2) regulate open burning on “unprotected lands” which will require residence to comply with burn day criteria. By doing so we could then seek reimbursement for escaped burns, currently we can not seek reimbursement if a controlled burn escapes and becomes a wildland fire. o Will be meeting with many homeowners associations to identify private lands for fuels treatments utilizing grants received. o Will be implementing the county wide RFP to treat fuels. o Continue the coordination of the DC trip to the Congressional Fire Service Dinner the first week of April. Joe Stutler Deschutes County Forester Attachments Deschutes County Ordinance For Unprotected Lands Proposal Historical Perspective: In Deschutes County there are approximately 175,000 acres of unprotected lands. Simply stated these lands have no organized structural or wildland response, the lands are not within a designated fire district and in all cases are immediately adjacent to other jurisdictions. These lands generally are covered by law enforcement and ambulance service districts. These lands are generally north and west of Redmond, west of Bend between Bend and Sisters, all of Alfalfa and lands in eastern Deschutes County but including the communities of Milican, Brothers and Hampton. There are approximately 350 homes located within the unprotected lands. Deschutes County was one of the first counties in Oregon for implementation of Senate Bill 360 which is entitled The Oregon Forestland-Urban Interface Fire Protection Act of 1997. Deschutes County began implementing SB 360 in 2004. Since that time the legislation has been amended to create more flexibility for county classification committees to establish one of three designations; High, Extreme and High Density Extreme, which are adjective ratings for fuel hazards. Additionally vacant lot standards have been modified and treatments along roads/ingress/egress have changed to allow more of a margin of safety for citizens. It is important to note that SB 360 ONLY applies to private lands where ODF has jurisdiction. In Deschutes County that is approximately 176,000 acres and are lands generally from Sunriver south, private lands near Sisters and a small portion of lands west of Bend. To date over 50% of private lands have been voluntarily treated utilizing SB 360 standards. Since the implementation of SB 360 significant accomplishments/events have occurred in Deschutes County: • Seven CWPP’s were completed that covers every acre of Deschutes County. An important standard that was adopted was the SB 360 standard for all private lands regardless of jurisdiction. • Expansion of Project Wildfire and FireFree Programs which is now treating over 40,000 cubic yards of defensible space yard debris. • The Cities of Bend and Sisters have significantly expanded yard debris pickup and essentially banned open burning from within the city limits. • Deschutes County held a public meeting regarding a proposed ordinance for the unprotected lands and comments received were almost unanimously in favor of the proposal. Some of the public wanted the ordinance to include all private lands but if Deschutes County enacted an ordinance for lands protected by ODF, the county would then be responsible for the entire SB 360 program which would be cost prohibitive. • A significant increase in the number of wildland and structural fires in the unprotected areas where currently no standards exist for defensible space or regulated burning. Several of these fires came from open burning. • The Bend and Redmond Fire Districts have expressed interest in adopting SB 360 standards within their respective districts if the county passes the same standards. • The Deschutes National Forest and Prineville BLM have completed and will be implementing a Fire for Resource Benefit Plan in eastern Deschutes County thus the strategies will change from a fire suppression perspective resulting in potentially more exposure to private lands in the unprotected lands. • A range land fire protection association has been formed for the Milican, Brothers and Hampton areas to offer some limited wildland suppression capability for the private lands. Proposal: Deschutes County enacts and ordinance for the unprotected lands with the following provisions: 1. Private lands with structural improvement will provide defensible space implementing the same standards as SB 360. 2. Vacant lots with no structural improvements will implement the SB 360 standards. 3. Regulate open burning to be consistent with the remaining agencies within Deschutes County. Private Citizens would be required to utilize a “call-in-number” and only burn on designated burn days. By applying SB 360 standards there are no punitive consequences for non- compliance, thus a voluntary program with heavy emphasis on education. Like SB 360 there would be civil penalties if a wildland fire occurred on private lands and suppression cost would be re-coverable. For open burning, private citizens would be regulated by existing burn days for the respective fire districts and if an open burn did escape control, Deschutes County could bill the responsible party for suppression costs. The County Forester, in conjunction with the appropriate fire districts would administer the program. Specifically the decision to be made is does the Deschutes County BOCC wish to pursue such an ordinance given the mention parameters? Existing SB-360 Standards The Standards under the Oregon Forestland – Urban Interface Fire Protection Act of 1997 (SENATE BILL 360) which will be applied on private lands where structures exist are: • Establish a primary fuel break of 30 feet around structures; • Create fuel breaks around driveways longer than 150 feet; • Remove tree branches within 10 feet of chimneys; • Remove any dead vegetation that overhangs a roof; • Remove flammable materials from under decks and stairways; • Move firewood 20 feet away from structures; For vacant lots, SB 360 requires a minimum fuel break 20 feet around the perimeter of the property and a 20 foot break along the access roads.