Chelan County Seeks Feedback on Wildfire Protection Plan

There's still plenty of time to make your feelings known about the Chelan County Community Wildfire Protection Plan.

The planning team on Friday put out a call for public feedback. The two-week "comment period" kicked off that very morning and won't conclude until Feb. 28.

If you're so inclined, you can express your opinions in writing: just email natural resource specialist Elle Robinson at elle.robinson@co.chelan.wa.us.

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A press release quotes Robinson as saying, "The update to the Community Wildfire Protection Plan comes at a time when our community increased wildfires - and an increase in those impacts from wildfires." (According to this jarring piece in USA Today, the Wenatchee-East Wenatchee metropolitan area has the nation's third highest percentage of residents living in fire-prone areas.)

"We are asking for public input because it's important a plan like this addresses Chelan County's specific needs and assets."

The plan is a perpetual work in progress. It first crystallized in 2019, and since last year, Chelan County and the Cascadia Conservation District have been making adjustments in consultation with "local shareholders," including senior fire officials. The plan "outlines the county's vulnerabilities to wildfire hazards and details various strategies and actions designed to reduce wildfire risk." It's proactive, not reactive, Robinson stresses, and will go a long way toward building wildfire resilience in our valley.

Visual learners are in luck because the webpage includes a project StoryMap; contained therein are interactive maps and even a hazard mapping tool that allows users to explore high-risk areas.

The county expects the plan to be adopted by late March.

Click here to access the draft plan. Click here to take a 10-minute community survey. It contains 16 questions, most of them multiple choice.