Wildfire Resilience Program

Sign-ups for our Wildfire Resilience Assessments and spring chipping are open!:

Underwood Conservation District offers free technical assistance and wildfire risk reduction services to Skamania and western Klickitat County residents. Expert property assessments help district residents identify potential hazards and take steps towards making their homes and communities more resilient to wildfire. Chipping helps reduce fire hazards after thinning, pruning, and brush clearing by getting rid of woody fuel from the area approximately 200’ or less around your houses. Chipping also decreases the need for burn piles and reduces emissions released into the atmosphere. Interested residents should request a Wildfire Resilience Assessment (WRA) using the link below. Mobile chipping is only available to WRA clients and is on a first-come, first-served basis.

• Wildfire Resilience Assessment – Free, no-obligation site visits are available to help you prioritize and focus your defensible space work. During your visit, UCD staff will do a walk-and-talk with you around the home and adjacent areas, identifying priority work areas, offering recommendations on how to best lower your wildfire hazard risk, and discussing available project funding opportunities. Residents with larger acreage wildfire mitigation projects (more than 20 acres) may be eligible for assistance and cost-share through DNR or NRCS.

  Want to get your neighborhood, community, HOA, or utility group assessed or Firewise USA® certified? Contact UCD staff by email at fire@ucdwa.org, or call Michael at 509-493-1936, ext. 8.

• Mobile Chipper Service – For 2024, UCD is offering spring and fall mobile chipping to clients who have had a property assessment and performed some recommended defensible space work. Shoulder seasons are an excellent time to thin small-diameter trees and prune back limbs and brush. There’s little chance of sparking a fire when using power tools or attracting certain forest pests to newly cut wood. Reducing wildfire ignition hazards is best approached with an ongoing maintenance mindset.

  Ready to chip? Signups for spring will be open until May 5th. Subscribe to our newsletter to be reminded when chipper signups will close for the season.

Please read these important instructions:

• Chipping will be limited to no more than two hours per site. This represents a lot of brushing or limbing, but not huge slash piles from logging or land-clearing. Neatness counts: The neater the limbs are stacked the more work the crew can get accomplished.

• It’s most efficient if each pile has all the limbs facing the same direction, butts-out toward where the chipper will pull up nearby, and no more than 4’ tall.

• The chipper crew is not available for old, tangled slash piles or chipping limbs larger than 5” in diameter

• Make sure your pile is accessible! Do not place piles to be chipped behind locked gates. We’ll let you know when our chipper crews will be out, but it’s best to leave piles where the crew can get to them in case of missed communications. Make your piles where the crew can access them with a large truck and tow-behind chipper. Piles behind obstacles, near the road, behind locked gates, in wet fields, down steep embankments, etc., cannot be chipped. Our crews are not available to chip logging slash or machine piled wood.

Additional Resources:

Here’s a list of additional steps to take to reduce ignition risks around a home. District residents can always contact UCD for “Firewise” tips.

Have woody debris that doesn't make sense to chip? Check out an alternative that could also help boost wildlife habitat on your property. Ask us more about wildlife habitat piles, and where/when to install them.

Need additional information, or have other questions? Email fire@ucdwa.org, or call 509-493-1936, ext. 8. Contractors who wish to be considered for the District’s mobile chipping service work are encouraged to contact Michael via email: michael@ucdwa.org.