By Chris Chambers – Wildfire and Community Risk Reduction Division, Ashland Fire Department
It’s time for our community to face a difficult, but essential fact: We are no longer living in the climate that we planned for.
Present-day Ashland was cobbled together over 150 years — and throughout most of those years, wildfire was not a factor in our community planning. That has changed in recent decades, but we nonetheless inherited streets, a water system, electric grid, and flammable construction and landscaping that weren’t designed for today’s and tomorrow’s warming world.
The reminders of our vulnerability are all too frequent and scary — L.A., Lahaina, and of course the Almeda fire. It doesn’t take reading tea leaves to know that if we don’t reimagine our community and behavior, we risk more and more severe losses.
But that doesn’t need to be our future if we plan carefully and make needed changes starting now. Sometimes it feels that in the face of fires like Almeda there’s no hope… but that’s not true.
We built the problem, we can unbuild it. Our plan for that journey is called the Community Wildfire Protection Plan, or CWPP.
Ashland has had a CWPP since 2004. The original laid the groundwork for our successful forest resiliency work that’s now attracted over $30 million in outside investment. It’s an impressive wildfire mitigation and prevention effort for a small city. While those projects continue (in perpetuity), we need to examine and reduce wildfire hazards across Ashland itself — including our homes and backyards.
This newly drafted CWPP lays the groundwork for those community-wide changes. Some are relatively easy and not very expensive. Adding ember-resistant screening, removing flammable plants and small trees, getting rid of bark mulch, and sealing openings aren’t rocket science or costly. Most people can do those things in a weekend or have a contractor do them all at once, or over a period of a couple of years. Replacing flammable wooden gates and fences within 10 feet of structures is more costly (but no less important!), but not unachievable.
Unfortunately, in our experience with programs that coach people to make voluntary changes for wildfire safety, far too few do the work even when offered financial incentives. We’re currently offering a select number of the highest hazard homes in Ashland over $2,000 (from FEMA) to remove flammable landscaping from around their homes…. Literally paying people to keep their homes from burning down, and only 30% of those given the offer end up following through. There must be deadlines and standards to meet. Wildfire protection in a dense, urban environment relies on ALL of us doing the right thing. It doesn’t work if we don’t get a critical mass.
Our new CWPP calls for at least 90% of all properties to comply with best practices for reducing wildfire risk within 10 years. Fire doesn’t make exceptions. We can’t either.
We will be looking for cost-share funding to help defray costs, particularly for lower-income and physically challenged members of the community. Helping those who are most at-risk due to social factors is a CWPP priority.
It won’t be easy or cheap because we live in a climate our community wasn’t built for, so we have to reinvent together. Fortunately, we have science, technology, and lessons learned from too many horrible wildfires. We know what needs to be done. We can be that community newly adapted to our changing environment and continue to thrive. We have to be.
When the CWPP draft is released in April, give it a read. There will be a visual depiction in what’s called a Story Map. Please dig into all of it. We need your ideas, reactions, and support
Upcoming Events
Please keep an eye out on the City’s webpage for the CWPP draft release and comment period. Mark your calendars for the City’s Better Prepared Wildfire Series, especially on May 4th between 2 pm to 5 pm at The Grove for a CWPP open house. May 4th is also our annual free Green Debris Drop-off Day at the Valley View transfer station… a good chance to get a jump on your yard clean-up and wildfire risk reduction!
Chris Chambers
Wildfire and Community Risk Reduction Division, Ashland Fire Department
An Ashland native, Chris has worked at Ashland Fire and Rescue since 2002. Chris oversees the management of municipal forestlands under the Ashland Forest Plan for community wildfire safety and forest health; coordinates the City’s role in the Ashland Forest Resiliency Stewardship Project; and is leading the process during 2024-2025 to rewrite the City’s Community Wildfire Protection Plan, critical community risk reduction programs to make our community safer from the threat of wildfire.