Planning and Partnerships

Planning

Collaboration and partnerships are at the root of building community resilience to wildfire. Whether it’s agencies and organizations working together or neighbors working with other neighbors; wildfire adaptation is most successful when approached collaboratively.

Everyone has a role to play in wildfire adaptation. Illustrated below are a number of the different components and actions associated with fire adaptation.

Skagit CD focuses on many of the activities outlined in orange on the diagram and works closely with Skagit County, WA Department of Natural Resources, Skagit County fire districts and city fire departments, and the Washington Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network to educate landowners about wildfire risk, promote wildfire risk reduction actions, connect homeowners and communities to experts and resources, and assess risk and mitigation strategies at the county planning level.

Skagit Conservation District worked with our partners in 2019 to re-write the county’s Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP). This is a plan that addresses wildfire risk and susceptibility across Skagit County and identifies ways to reduce that risk. This plan is also part of the County-wide Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan update that is currently being finalized. Click here to view the updated and state approved Skagit County CWPP.

Below is the updated wildfire susceptibility map from this document.

In addition to working within Skagit County, Skagit CD also works to strengthen partnerships and work collaboratively at a regional scale. In February of 2020 Skagit CD helped host a Northwest Washington Fire Adapted Communities workshop which provided an opportunity for practitioners to share and connect over common efforts and priorities.

See this workshop summary for more information on this regional effort.

If you’d like to partner with the Skagit Conservation District on wildfire adaptation in Skagit County, please contact our Wildfire Resilience Coordinator at jcoe@whatcomcd.org or 360-526-2381x106

Links:

Skagit County Emergency Management https://www.skagitcounty.net/Departments/EmergencyManagement/main.htm

Skagit County Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan https://www.skagitcounty.net/Departments/EmergencyManagement/2003NHMPFinaltoc.htm

Skagit County Fire Districts Map https://skagitcounty.net/GIS/Documents/Fire/fd.pdf?ver=2

WA State DNR Wildfire Info https://www.dnr.wa.gov/Wildfires

WA State Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network https://www.fireadaptedwashington.org/

USFS Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie https://www.fs.usda.gov/mbs/

Washington State Conservation Commission https://scc.wa.gov/

UW Climate Impacts Group https://cig.uw.edu/