Like all natural processes, wildfire knows no boundaries. A single fire can spread across grasslands and forests, leap roads, rivers and whole valleys, and threaten homes several miles apart. Each year between June and October, communities in the arid and semi-arid regions of southwest Oregon experience a sense of unease wondering if fire will threaten their homes. For rural communities near Medford, Oregon, these fears have materialized in recent years as two large fires and several smaller ones have spread through communities and burned several homes. In the wake of catastrophic fire, private and public landowners often ask: what could have been done to prevent such a destructive event? For one rural community outside Medford, the answer was clear - they needed a coordinated fire-management plan.
This community had worked together collaboratively on several watershed-based issues for almost a decade and had long wanted to address the increasing high risk of fire in the watershed but did not have the resources with which to do so. When federal funding for localized fire planning became available through the National Fire Plan, the watershed partnership and representatives from the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management seized the opportunity and secured a grant to develop a coordinated strategy for managing fire in the valley. The situation they confronted was not unlike several other western rural communities. Years of fire suppression had led to thousands of acres of overly dense brush in forested areas, creating a prime environment for catastrophic fire. In recent years, several homes had been built in these highly-vegetated areas; the roads themselves only accessible via narrow or steep driveways with overhanging vegetation. Furthermore, many of these homes lacked alternative electronic communications for rescue operations should fire engulf power and phone lines.
The challenge of drafting an integrated fire management plan was formidable given the checkerboard patterns of land ownership and management across the 500,000-acre valley. Nevertheless, the local watershed partnership had successfully spearheaded numerous collaborative initiatives involving local, state, and federal agencies in the past. The partnership and the agencies were confident that through their collective experience and the growing interest among community members in fuels reduction, there was enough expertise and drive to develop a meaningful plan.
In less than a year, the partners in this process developed a Community Fire Plan - a strategic plan that discusses the region's fire history and presents strategies that agencies, community members and local landowners can employ to minimize the threat of catastrophic fire in the valley. The plan pulls together data from dozens of organizations in the region involved in fire management and prevention into one document that serves as a strategic guide for organizations to coordinate projects and more effectively address fire hazards. One agency participant in the planning process remarked, "Its incredible what was accomplished…other groups have spent a year or two working on this and they've got a fraction of where this group went in less than a year."
The plan is especially valuable to the private landowner because it has information on fire ecology, current fire hazards in the valley, fuel reduction strategies and techniques, fire suppression and protection, emergency communications and contacts, resources for identifying funding opportunities, local forestry contractors, and worksheets to help landowners develop their own fire management plan. To the agencies, the plan provides a crucial roadmap to help them coordinate strategies in fuel hazard reduction across borders, secure new resources for fire management on public and private lands, and improve the agencies ability to save lives and property from catastrophic fire.
