A community’s journey to fire resiliency

Cooperation and planning earned Firewise status

BY ELI LOFTIS AND BECKY DRENNER OKANOGAN CONSERVATION DISTRICT

Community is a word that means both very much and very little depending on the context. The most simplistic definition describes it as a unified body of individuals. The field of ecology lends the word a more distinct but still ambiguous meaning, describing associations between two or more populations or species in the same space and time. Community takes on a broader meaning as members try to make it through a mix of smoke, flame and critical action that follows when wildfire arrives on the landscape.

The verdant Methow Valley is home to many communities, hosting grasslands, wetlands, and pine and fir forests teeming with life that rise upward into the subalpine of the North Cascades. These communities, or ecosystems, are resilient toward wildfire when the right conditions are met. Each, in its way, contributes to the overall health and well-being of the land. The Methow Valley is a complex web of interdependence, where each species, from the smallest microbe to the largest mammal, plays a crucial role in the balance of life, death and rebirth when wildfire makes its appearance.

The diverse mosaic of communities, home to everything from pygmy short-horned lizards to mountain goats, is further diversified by human communities that share the landscape. Although wildlife and other wild things are adapted to fire, finding resilience to wildfire in the human communities of the Methow can be a challenge.

A Diverse Community

Kumm Road, in the north end of the valley off of Highway 20, is a community that is, in many ways, a crosscut of the biological and human diversity of the Methow. It’s a mixture of part-time and full-time residents, old-timers and newcomers, residential and agricultural, all living in an area that hosts everything from aspen woodlands and alfalfa fields to rocky talus slopes at the base of Lucky Jim Bluff.

Like many communities in the Methow, the residents of Kumm Road have experienced the smoke and nighttime glow of wildfires in the surrounding national forest lands. In July and August 2021, that nighttime glow came unse ttlingly close for many as the Cedar Creek Fire burned in the steep rocky uplands of the valley’s rim.

For the landscapes’ ecosystems, the aftermath of wildfires like Cedar Creek, which ultimately burned over 55,000 acres, is the beginning of a story of recovery. But for the residents of Kumm Road, it was instead a journey towards resiliency.

“It’s a great neighborhood,” says Nils Pohlmann, a Kumm

Road resident along with his wife, Sarah, and one of the leaders of the Kumm Road Firewise Community. After the harrowing experience of Cedar Creek, the Pohlmanns began their fire resiliency journey by talking to firefighters who had worked diligently to prevent the fire from moving down Lucky Jim Bluff into the valley.

The Pohlmanns’ home, built by former U.S. Forest Service employees, had many features for resiliency, such as metal siding, gravel around the residence, and open space between the buildings. The next step was to schedule an assessment to see how resilient the property was.

“We thought we’d pass with flying colors,” said Pohlmann, recalling the home risk assessment performed by the Okanogan Conservation District in the fall of 2021. But, while having a strong showing, there was still room for improvement.

Taking The Steps

During the assessment, district staff talked about how Firewise communities that become certified as Firewise USA sites take an essential step towards protecting themselves from wildfire impacts.

The Firewise USA program, run by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), provides communities with a framework for reducing their wildfire risk through education, planning, and action. Kumm Road, already a close-knit community before the fire, had many features that made it a community primed for Firewise USA certification.

Communication is critical for wildfire resiliency, and in an area like the Methow, where the population has experienced an influx of new residents and an increase in second home ownership, knowing your neighbors can be a challenge. Folks on Kumm Road made a point of connecting and maintaining solid ties through

Seeking

Check

Host Home Program

instant messaging, emails, and community get-togethers.

This came in handy when the Pohlmanns suggested that Kumm Road form a Firewise council to continue its wildfire resiliency journey. As the fall passed to winter, with additional assistance from the conservation district, Kumm Road’s Firewise community began to

The Room One Host Home Program facilitates matches between young people (12-24) in need of housing with volunteers who have safe and private rooms to share on a time-limited basis.

Program Highlights:

•Provides space and time for youth and young adults to work toward long term stability

•Helps youth and youg adults stay in school or keep employment

•Trauma-informed and experienced case management for participants

•Support and mentorship for Hosts and young people enrolled in the program take shape.

Becoming a Firewise USA community has four basic steps: form a council, identify the community boundaries, assess the community’s overall risk of wildfire impact, and submit the assessment and an action plan to the NFPA to receive certification.

Kumm Road’s strong intercommunity ties made setting up the council a breeze, and boundaries were easy to decide on, which were all properties on Kumm Road and its spurs. The assessment was the next step. The Pohlmanns contacted the Okanogan Conservation District in March 2022 to continue the conversations about Kumm Road’s progress.

Like many things on Kumm Road, the assessment was a community affair. Okanogan Conservation’s fire planners, Eli Loftis and Dylan Streeter, met with the Pohlmanns and other residents as they shared stories of wildfire experiences, the community’s concerns about possible future impacts, and what they were already doing to protect themselves and their neighbors.

Irrigation systems kept the large meadows at the heart of Kumm Road green in the summer, the ponderosa pine stand nearest the highway had been cleared of much of the forest litter and pine beetle-killed trees and, most importantly, folks knew one another and made an effort to stay connected. Loftis and Streeter spent the rest of the day touring the area, measuring road widths, accessing forest health, and creating a plan forward for the community.

Following Recommendations

The assessment ultimately found more assets than it did faults in fire resiliency. The biggest recommendations included creating additional turnarounds for first responders, adding reflective address and road signs, and reducing fuels in the undeveloped portions of the community through cost-share offered by the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

Kumm Road’s residents developed an action plan based on the recommendations and the desire to maintain the valley beauty they all enjoy. In the fall, with Okanogan Conservation District’s financial assistance, Kumm Road residents disposed of nearly two tons of pine needles, pinecones and other ground fuels, removing the means for fire to travel on the ground, while also helping to improve local air quality by using alternatives to the typical pile burning.

Community members encouraged their neighbors to sign up for individual home risk assessments through the Okanogan Conservation District or the DNR. The community action plan was finalized and submitted to NFPA. On Nov. 21, 2022, Kumm Road became Okanogan County’s newest Firewise Community, joining a mosaic of communities in Okanogan County.

The high probability of wildfire in the Methow Valley is real and challenging. The impacts of climate change, forest health issues, and the paradoxical destructive/ creative forces of wildfire will need to be managed on varying ecological, social, and financial scales for some time to come.

The ambiguous nature of community makes facing those challenges difficult, but when neighbors show mutual care and concern for one another and the landscape, a more sustainable future is created. The word community is ultimately derived from the Latin word communitas, meaning literally “community spirit.” Through the spirit of the Kumm Road Firewise Community and many other communities up and down the Methow Valley, the challenges of living on a wildfire-prone landscape in a changing world can be met, ensuring the health and well-being of the land and its inhabitants.

Practicing cooperative conservation since 1940, the Okanogan Conservation District works every day to serve the ecological and human communities of Okanogan County. If you want to begin or continue your fire resiliency journey, or need assistance to recover after a wildfire, contact the Wildfire and Community Resiliency Program’s Lead, Eli Loftis, at (509) 429-3453 or eli@okanogancd.org. Check out our website at www.okanogancd. org/wildfire.

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