Archives: Toolbox
-
Hazardous Fuels Reduction
During a wildland fire, plant material can act as fuel and increase the intensity of the fire. These fuels allow fires to burn hotter, longer, and faster, making the fires more difficult and dangerous to manage. Houses and other developments in or near the wildland-urban interface (WUI) are surrounded by these fuels. Removing burnable vegetation…
-
Zoning Regulations
Zoning regulations are a fundamental land use tool to guide new development, redevelopment, and amortization. As it relates to wildfire, zoning regulations can encourage development (or redevelopment) in areas with lower risk, discourage new development in areas of higher risk, and move toward amortization of vulnerable uses in areas of higher risk. Zoning regulations generally…
-
Wildland Urban Interface Codes
A Wildland Urban Interface Code (WUI code) provides a minimum set of regulations designed to reduce the wildfire risk to lives and property. Its purpose is to prevent wildfire spreading from vegetation to a structure and to prevent structure fires from spreading to wildland fuels. WUI codes can be adopted as stand-alone codes that work…
-
Assess Risk
A wildfire risk assessment is an important community planning tool. Identifying where wildfire risk is high in a community and who is likely to be most impacted by a wildfire can inform investment priorities, mitigation strategies, and resource allocation. Wildfire risk assessments consider where fires are likely to occur, the intensity at which they might…
-
Fund the Work
Local wildfire mitigation activities rely heavily on financial and technical resources that may not be readily available to communities. Securing additional funding to support long-term community and home mitigation measures may be required. Funding opportunities are available from local, state, and federal sources to support risk-reduction efforts at the home/parcel, neighborhood, and landscape scale. Funding…
-
Engage Your Community
Building a wildfire-resilient community is a group effort. Residents, local government leaders, fire departments, architects and developers, land managers, nonprofits, and the business community all have a stake in community health and safety. Engaging the community to work together to prepare for wildfires first requires a clear problem statement of wildfire risk, then good listening…
-
Subdivision Regulations
Subdivision regulations guide how land can be divided and designed into lots, blocks, and open space. As a foundational element in determining the character and quality of a community, subdivision regulations determine the process, pattern, and horizontal scale of development. Subdivision regulations generally include the following components: Procedural information: who participates in the process, how,…
-
Open Space Policies
Open space policies are enacted by a community to preserve undeveloped and lightly developed lands for a variety of public benefits. Primary purposes usually include conservation of natural resources including wildlife habitat and wetlands, increased public access to recreational opportunities, retention of working agricultural lands, and preservation of historic properties. Open space programs are also…
-
Hazard Mitigation Plan
A hazard mitigation plan is a tool to identify specific actions to reduce the risk to a community for various disasters. These plans tend to evaluate the risk to people and property. Each hazard mitigation plan is place-specific, although it can span jurisdictional boundaries. Counties, municipalities, tribes, and other public authorities (such as a regional…
-
Fire Code
Fire codes dictate fire prevention and safety measures that complement building codes. For example, while building codes dictate the number, location, and design of egress/exits from buildings, fire codes make sure those exits work as designed and are not blocked. Although often confused, fire codes and building codes are separate documents that complement one another.…