Bring It, Don't Burn It: Reducing Wildfire Risk Through Community Action

About the Program

Category: Risk and Emergency Management (Best in Category)

Year: 2017

In June of 2012, the Woody Debris Collection Program was a small cooperative experiment by the Donnelly Rural Fire District, the Valley County Fire Working Group and a local contractor with large bins to capture the debris. The thesis was to give local landowners easy and free access at the Fire Station to dump their own clean woody debris and find out if they would do the work themselves. The result was a reduction in post winter down fall and the clearing of hazard fuels on private property. Woody debris not burned reduced emergency response and loss of personal property. The community noticed and participated at an unexpected rates, enough to expand the program to include all three area Fire Districts and continued use of the County transfer station site. Newly minted as Bring It, Don't Burn It, the county successfully applied for a grant from Idaho Firewise to help support the expansion. The statistics for 2013 were impressive. Burn permits in McCall reduced by 50% with zero grass fire responses. The investment by multiple partners increased from $6,000 in 2012 to over $33,000 in 2016. So has participation by landowners, continued reduction in burn permits, private burning and fire starts. The demand is so high the contractor is making bin exchanges 7 days a week for several weeks from Memorial Day weekend through the end the June and throughout the valley. Additional opportunities are now available during Community Wildfire Protection Day, the month of October and through work with individual neighborhoods. Neighbors are helping neighbors and organizing work days throughout the county. For an area assessed as High Risk Wildland Urban Interface, this program is bringing awareness and opportunity for homeowners to make a difference in their Wildfire Risk and reduce the cost frequency of emergency response.