Community Wildfire Protection Plan

Purpose

Pursuant to the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003, Public Law 108-148, the purpose of the Clackamas County Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) is to reduce the risks from wildfire on the Clackamas County community, infrastructure, and watersheds. This plan identifies communities at risk and vulnerable infrastructure, then provides actionable items that reduce risk to communities and infrastructure. In addition, this plan summarizes best practices for increasing the adaptive capacity of the community, and outlines policy, emergency management, and collaborative strategy improvements that create a more equitable, fire adapted Clackamas County.

Using community engagement and outreach, the best available risk assessment methods and data, and current best practices for improving home ignition zones, the 2023 CWPP update provides a road map for Clackamas County to reduce the risk of wildfire to the community.

CWPP Vision, Mission, Goals, and Actions

The CWPP vision describes what Clackamas County would like to achieve through this plan. The mission statement describes how Clackamas County will achieve the vision. The goals provide general statements of what needs to be accomplished to implement the mission.

CWPP Vision

The strategic vision for the CWPP is to protect Clackamas County communities from the impacts of wildfire and create a fire resilient landscape and community. The vision is guided by a focus on equity, climate resiliency, and collaboration.

CWPP Mission

The mission of the Clackamas County Wildfire Protection Plan is to provide a consolidated reference documenting wildfire hazards, prevention and response efforts, and resource-sharing information for all participating local, state, and federal fire agencies.

The 2023 CWPP update improves historical fire planning efforts by providing a more localized and precise approach for identifying wildfire hazards and implementing best practices for wildfire protection in balance with sustainable ecological management and economic activities throughout Clackamas County.

CWPP Goals

A primary goal of the 2023 CWPP update is to include resources for communities and officials during both periods of pre- and post-fire recovery. Detailed call-out sections for recovery services are provided in the post-fire section of the document. The updated CWPP identifies connections and potential partnerships between the American Red Cross, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Oregon Department of Forestry, Oregon State Fire Marshal, and other local and national entities to integrate each organization’s respective operations into the local recovery process.

Clackamas County’s remaining CWPP goals can be organized into five objectives: protect life and property, increase public awareness to wildfire risk, enhance natural systems, form partnerships to support implementation, and engage emergency response systems.

Protect Life and Property

  • Develop and implement policies and activities that increase community wildfire resilience, protecting homes, businesses, infrastructure, and critical facilities.

  • Ensure new and existing developments meet the requirements set forth in Senate Bill 762 and Senate Bill 80 and the CWPP to create more fire adapted communities.

  • Reduce losses and repetitive damages for chronic hazard events while promoting insurance coverage for catastrophic hazards.

  • Provide resources and support to communities beyond fire district services.

  • Communicate evacuation procedure information to the public.

Increase Public Awareness

  • Improve awareness of evacuations routes and alert systems through language and tools that can be easily accessed by a greater proportion of the population to facilitate a rapid and efficient evacuation during wildfire events.

  • Promote outreach programs that educate communities to become more fire resilient – especially in higher risk areas, such as households in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI).

  • Create more community connections among residents.

  • Establish networks of technical professionals and community-based organizations.

  • Aid woodland owners to prepare and treat their property to be more fire resilient.

Enhance Natural Systems

  • Collaborate with public and private sectors to manage wildlands and forested areas in a way that will support a more resilient and fire adapted natural system.

  • Plan for wildfire disasters in a way that restores the natural wildfire cycles and recognizes the value of indigenous fire management.

Develop Partnerships and Support Implementation

  • Work collaboratively across county lines, and with different agencies and community organizations, to implement policies and actions in this plan.

  • Encourage community engagement and participation from public and private sectors to activate and sustain mitigation efforts through funding programs and volunteer operations throughout the county.

Strengthen Emergency Services

  • Outline safe and effective evacuation routes for rural communities at high risk.

  • Strengthen bilingual emergency systems by having dual language disaster websites and

    emergency systems.

  • Coordinate CWPP to align with the National Hazards Mitigation Plan (NHMP) as well as other

    emergency plans, when appropriate.

Actions

This CWPP aligns actions with funding opportunities at both the state and federal level to assist Clackamas County communities to acquire the resources necessary to realize its vision.

The 2018 CWPP included an action plan to address the following focus areas: Risk Assessment, Fuels Reduction & Biomass Utilization, Emergency Operations, Education & Outreach and Structural Ignitability. The CWPP Action Plan has been updated and revised to ensure that actions related to these focus areas are clear, implementable, and relevant (Table 1-1).

Monitoring Progress

Clackamas County Disaster Management will regularly review both the wildfire mitigation actions listed in Table 1-1 and the fire agency-specific action plans listed in Chapter 9: Clackamas County Fire Agencies. Each year, in May, Disaster Management will work with the Clackamas Fire Defense Board to determine what progress has been made, if any, on these activities and will update these action plans accordingly. This process will ensure that the progress made by fire agencies will be recorded annually, for use during the CWPP update that occurs once every five years.

A document to assist Clackamas County Disaster Management, the Clackamas Fire Defense Board, and fire and forestry agencies with their annual reviews can be found in Appendix D: Annual Review Table.

The current Clackamas Community Wildfire Protection Plan can be found at Clackamas County Disaster Management’s website.