Preparing a Community Wildfire Protection Plan
Download the 12-page pdf file This guide is not a legal document, yet offers one of several possible approaches to planning. It is produced by community and county organizations, foresters and western governors. free pdf file reading software

"The Healthy Forests Restoration Act focuses on the treatment of forests at risk. "Foresters have found that large, healthy trees and old growth forests are not easily burned — unless they are engulfed from flames fed by dense brush and smaller trees. "Those smaller trees and fire-promoting brush are the focus of reduction in the Healthy Forests Restoration Act. " — Senator Thad Cochran, 2003-04 Committee Chairman Interview published by the journal, Women in Natural Resources Also for your information: a new common ground approach to improved forest protection from wildfire and insect destruction. Details on how Congress worked to make this new law.

Once the "Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 " became law, federal agencies and community organizations took the first steps to plan and review proposals for removing hazardous overgrowth threatening homes, watersheds and the deep forests.

Communities now have a concise, step-by-step guide:

• how to convene other interested parties
• what elements to consider in assessing community risks and priorities, and
• how to develop a mitigation or protection plan to address those risks.

You can review results of the more recent projects across the nation by visiting the U.S. Forest Service website.

To encourage effective collaboration on proposed projects, the Healthy Forests Restoration Act set up a "pre-decisional administrative review process" where the public has an early opportunity to weigh-in on treatment options proposed by the Forest Service. (USDA news release)