CWPP Executive Summary
The Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) for Tuolumne County provides a road map and principle guiding document to assist agencies, organizations, and general public to better prepare for, mitigate against, respond to, and recover from future wildfire threats. The plan is an update to the previous Tuolumne County CWPP dated December 12, 2004, which primarily focused on the northern county, but is now expanded in geographic scope to cover the entire County.
In accordance with the 2003 Healthy Forest Restoration Act (HFRA), the CWPP was developed through a collaborative process involving the Tuolumne Fire Safe Council (TFSC), Tuolumne County Office of Emergency Services (TC-OES), Tuolumne County Fire Department, surrounding fire agencies, City of Sonora, county officials, county-, state-, and federal-land management agencies, HOAs, community groups and the general public. In addition, the plan also satisfies additional CWPP requirements set forth in theHFRA, including:
- Identifying and prioritizing areas for fuel reduction activities
- Collaborating with Stakeholders
- Addressing structural ignitability
Wildfires have historically been a major part of Tuolumne County’s natural ecosystem. The climate, surrounding rugged topography, rural landscapes and fire-adapted vegetation creates an environment for periodic burns. This is made more dangerous by the abundant risks associated with a resident population of 55,810 and growing, 32 identified Communities at Risk by CAL FIRE, a high tourist and transient worker population, remote settings, limited access/egress and increasing effects of changing climate (e.g., increasing frequency and severity of droughts, extreme storms, flooding, increased number of fire danger days, etc.). This is further complicated by the presence of not only local, but regional and national-level high value assets such as Federal and State managed lands (e.g., Stanislaus National Forest, Yosemite National Park, two State Parks), recreation, ecological services, water resources and lands that are pivotal to the county’s economy and the well-being of its residents.
To better understand, assess and develop recommended actions for the unique set of hazards, assets-at-risk and vulnerabilities across the County, the plan was developed using the latest tools, resources, best practices, and guidance on wildfire planning and preparedness, particularly at the wildland-urban-interface (WUI). This included science
and engineering-based hazard, risk and vulnerability assessments using high resolution data (e.g., topography, fuels, weather, and values). The assessment was focused on identifying areas of concern throughout the County and in sub-regional planning units, and prioritizing areas where wildfire threat potentials create the greatest risk to communities. Hazard and risk mitigation efforts and other action items were specifically tailored to address the unique issues in the areas of greatest concern (see Sections 5.0 and 6.0), using a range of strategies, including:
- Pre-fire planning.
- Wildfire preparedness using holistic fire safety principles and strategies for protecting life, property, natural resources, and other communities’ assets. Public education and outreach to promote and increase wildfire awareness, action and mitigation activities.
- Vegetation management and fuel reduction at the community level, including the enforcement of defensible space standards on private lands. Reducing structure ignitability by promoting and enforcing building codes, ordinances, and statutes.
As such, this document provides a framework that can be used to identify, prioritize, implement, and monitor hazard and risk reduction activities throughout the Planning Area. This document is also intended to support the California Fire Plan and the 2020 Tuolumne-Calaveras Unit Strategic Fire Plan. While this CWPP covers the entire Planning Area, the plan also supports and encourages focused wildfire protection actions at the community and neighborhood scales.
