UCD Wildfire Resilience Program
A new year, new team members, and new ideas are at the heart of our expansion of our Wildfire Resilience Program. With fire being a regular occurrence in the Columbia Gorge, our conservation team is ready to help our whole community become more fire-wise.
Overlooking the Columbia River and the Tunnel Five Fire from the Underwood community.
Services
Fire mitigation is always in action at UCD. This year, we’re offering free wildfire risk reduction services, including expert property assessments and brush chipping for district residents to help them take steps towards making their homes and communities more resilient to fire. Here’s how it works:
1) Sign up for a Wildfire Resilience Assessment (WRA). Specialists from UCD will come to your property and work with you to identify risks. We’ll discuss improvements and give you recommendations to make your home and land more resilient to wildfire. This usually takes about an hour and comes with no obligations on your part.
2) Complete one, some, or all fuels reduction actions recommended by your specialists.
3) Once your WRA and fire mitigation work are complete, signups for our spring mobile chipping service are open until May 5th. Our mobile chipping is free, but you must have had a WRA or similar assessment from another agency to be eligible. Chipping days will come in late-May to early-June, depending on your location. We’ll let you know when to have your pile ready for us.
(*Note: Be sure to look at our guidelines for what to expect on your chipping day, how to arrange your brush pile, and restrictions on brush type and stem size.)
Have questions or want to get services to your whole neighborhood? Contact our wildfire specialists at fire@ucdwa.org.
Presentations
Our December winter workshop “Fire and Flora: Wildfire Resilience in the Central Columbia Gorge” is now available for viewing! Learn how fire has shaped the beautiful landscapes of southern Washington and how to best prepare yourself and your home for wildfire by making landscapes more fire resilient with proper plans and native plants.
Community Wildfire Workshops
Want to learn more about defensible space and financial assistance available to you for wildfire risk mitigation? UCD is putting on several Community Wildfire Workshops throughout the district in the coming months. Check our list of currently scheduled meetings to find one near you.
Conversations with The Columbian and the Commissioner
On Thursday, February 1, The Columbian newspaper hosted “Conversations: Wildfires in SW Washington” in Vancouver, bringing together frontline emergency responders and state officials to talk about fire in southwest Washington communities. The panel included Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz and our very own UCD Wildfire Resilience Technician Michael McNorvell. Michael provided not only an important ecological perspective on wildfire but represented conservation organizations and residents in rural communities who live with fire as a near certainty on the landscape. Though Clark County is outside our District’s boundaries, wildfire rarely obeys human-drawn lines, and many of the same principles drive fire and fire safety (i.e. wind, fuels, drought) whether you’re in Vancouver or Lyle.