If you expect responders to defend your home during a wildfire event, your property must first be defensible. Thurston Conservation District offers support to homeowners and renters in identifying risks on their property or in their community and can provide recommendations to protect your home before a wildfire event occurs. As we experience hotter and drier summers in Western Washington, more people are thinking about how to reduce the ignition potential on their properties.
Prepare for Wildfire
Wildfire preparedness isn’t one-size-fits-all. That’s why we’ve developed a simple survey to help your local wildfire experts craft a Preparedness Plan that works for your property, budget, and lifestyle. Through TCD’s Wildfire Resilience Program, our wildfire mitigation specialists will provide you with actions you can take to create a more defensible space around your home.
How to get started:
Follow the link below to fill out an interest form with Thurston Conservation District. Once you’ve signed up, a wildfire mitigation expert will contact you to schedule your assessment.
Please note that our wait times may be longer May – September. Fall and winter are ideal times to receive a risk assessment.
Guided by Dr. Jack Cohen’s Research
The South Thurston Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP)
Thurston Conservation District has partnered with stakeholders from the city, county, state, and federal level to create the first Community Wildfire Protection Plan in south Thurston County. This plan is a living document and will be updated regularly to address the current risks and priorities of the community.
This document is the first CWPP developed in Thurston County and covers the southern half of the county, with the possibility of expanding the CWPP in the future to include north Thurston County. The CWPP is a vital document for the future of wildfire resiliency in Thurston County.
The CWPP is a planning document that captures the collaborative process, values, and priorities of stakeholders who are working in south Thurston County to prepare for wildfire. This process involves gathering community input, assessing data, and local decision making to prioritize and implement wildfire mitigation actions that can occur within the next 5-10 years.
The current CWPP is written to include the southern half of Fire Districts in Thurston County. These Districts are: West Thurston Regional Fire Authority (FD01), South Thurston Fire & EMS (FD12), S.E. Thurston Fire Authority (FD02), and Bald Hills (FD17).
If you live within one of these districts, your community is included in the CWPP.
- Thurston Conservation District
- Department of Natural Resources
- Local farms and ranches
- Local officials
- Public Utilities Department
- WA Department of Fish & Wildlife
- US Department of Fish & Wildlife
- WA State Parks
- Thurston County
- Thurston County Emergency Management
- Fire Authorities
- Non-profit organizations
- Community members
- Chehalis Tribe
- Nisqually Tribe
- WA State Conservation Commission
The CWPP will outline community priorities and list potential projects that can be completed to reduce the ignition potential in and around vulnerable areas: cell/radio towers, schools, neighborhoods with limited evacuation routes, or anywhere else the community deems a priority or vulnerability.
Projects include prescribed burns, brush removal, evacuation planning, mitigation work in vulnerable communities, and invasive species management.
Firewise USA®
The national Firewise USA® recognition program provides a collaborative framework to help neighbors in an area get organized, find direction, and take action to increase the ignition resistance of their homes and community and to reduce wildfire risks at the local level.
1. Organize: Form a board or committee with a minimum of two people. This can be an HOA or it can be you and your neighbor, but Firewise USA® requires a minimum of 8 dwelling units within a specified boundary to quality as a site. Identify a resident leader, who will be the main point of contact.
2. Create a plan: You will receive a Community Wildfire Risk Assessment from a wildfire mitigation expert. This will outline risk factors as well as actions you can take to lower your site’s ignition potential. Then, it’s time to create your three-year Action Plan. Using the Risk Assessment Report, your community will create attainable actions and goals for your site to complete.
Every three years, you will need to update your Action Plan.
Every five years, a wildfire mitigation expert will conduct a Community Wildfire Risk Assessment and present their findings to the board or committee.
3. Take action: Complete one educational or mitigation action from the Action Plan each year. This can be a fall/spring cleanup, a fuels reduction chipping event, or an educational event/workshop. At a minimum, each site is required to annually invest the equivalent of one volunteer hour per dwelling unit in wildfire risk reduction actions. If your site has identified 100 homes within its boundary, then 100 hours of work or the monetary equivalent, based on the independent sector value of volunteer time, needs to be completed for that year.
4. Tell us about it! Report your accomplishments through the Firewise USA® portal.
Firewise USA® is a national recognition program designed to empower communities to create defensible, ignition resistance spaces by providing free technical and financial assistance. During the application process, a community’s vulnerabilities are identified by wildfire mitigation experts during a Risk Assessment and then prioritized by importance by the Community Board. Those vulnerabilities are addressed in a 3-year Action Plan, a document full of deliverable actions that a community has deemed necessary based on the results the Risk Assessment. The available microgrants are intended to reimburse your site for the expenses associated with the actions in your Plan.
Wildfire Ready Neighbors and Firewise USA® were both created to help community members design defensible spaces on their properties. However, there are critical differences between the two programs. Take a look at the table below to determine which is right for you.
| Wildfire Ready Neighbors | Firewise USA® | |
| Provides customized actions to reduce a property’s ignition potential | ✓ | ✓ |
| Designed for communities to organize and act together to reduce ignition potential at a community-wide scale | X | ✓ |
| A national recognition program with an annual renewal process | X | ✓ |
| Microgrants available | X | ✓ |
Folks who are interested in increasing their community resilience often start with their own property through Wildfire Ready Neighbors. If you have any questions about our community resilience programs, please contact Jae Townsend, jtownsend@thurstoncd.com.
Wildfire Ready Neighbors
In 2023, Wildfire Ready Neighbors, a statewide program developed by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), launched in Thurston County. Since then, hundreds of homeowners received their free home wildfire risk assessment and have completed actions on their property to reduce their risk of ignition. Please note: the Wildfire Ready Neighbors program has ended.
Browse through this guide to fire-resistant plants, a publication of PNW Extension.
Check out our resources page for additional information on emergency preparedness and natural disasters.
Interested in learning more about Wildfire Preparedness or Firewise USA®?
Jae Townsend
Community Resilience Coordinator
jtownsend@thurstoncd.com
You can also use our contact form.