Approve and authorize the Chair to sign the Yolo County Community Wildfire Protection Plan. (No general fund impact) (Pinedo/Weivoda)

Approve and authorize the Chair to sign the Yolo County Community Wildfire Protection Plan.

A Community Wildfire Protection Plan is a collaborative plan developed to help reduce wildfire risk and create fire-adapted communities. The Community Wildfire Protection Plans are required by the Federal Healthy Forest Restoration Act (HFRA, 2003) to have the following minimum standards:

Projects focus on rural areas in the “Wildland-Urban Interface” (WUI), defined as any populated area within high-severity fire hazard areas. Community Wildfire Protection Plan addresses the conditions, values, and priorities of wildfire risk reduction and community resilience. The plan will enable access to funding for fuel reduction work and other wildfire resilience projects.

The Board received a copy of the plan on February 2, 2023, and requested comments by February 17, 2023. None were received.

The Yolo County Fire Safe Council is asking the Yolo County Board of Supervisors to approve this plan. It is not a legally binding document, and its main purpose is to allow us to obtain funding for fuel reduction projects. The final signatory will be the Unit Chief of the CAL FIRE Sonoma Lake Napa Unit, and the Yolo County Firefighter’s Association will also approve it.

This document was written by Yolo County Resource Conservation District staff, the official coordinators of the Yolo County Fire Safe Council, through a Memorandum of Understanding with the County of Yolo.  This document has been guided by, edited, and commented on by the Community Wildfire Protection Plan Steering Committee, composed of citizens, fire officials, and Yolo County Office of Emergency Services staff.