Catron County Community Wildfire Protection Plan
INTRODUCTION

• Home page
• CWPP Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Declaration of Agreement and Concurrence
• Preface & Introduction
• Planning Process
• Community Profile
• Planning for the Future
• Monitoring & Evaluation
• Appendix 1 - data
• Appendix 2 - maps
• Downloads

Goals And Objectives

Building together to a common goal

The goal for the Catron County Community Wildfire Protection Plan has been to create a plan by and for the stakeholders (private and public landowners, and people who use the land) to protect the values of those stakeholders from damage or loss by wildfire.

Collaborative assessment of values at risk and protection priorities

The objectives of the Catron County Community Wildfire Protection Plan are:

• Create a county-wide, landscape level plan
• Identify the areas and values most at risk from catastrophic wildfire in the County
• Prioritize treatment needs by area based on the values to be protected and the level of risk.
• Suggest mitigation actions for the protection of life, property, critical infrastructure and wildlands in the County, based on
• Optimum treatment efficiency
• Lowest treatment cost
• Highest benefit to local economy
• Provide the information and planning necessary to develop local Community Wildfire Protection Plans in a coordinated manner.

Sheep Basin CFRP project 2005 Photo Credit Lif Strand

Future Desired Condition and Relevant Fire Authorities

Desired condition

This plan's goals and objectives are to achieve certain desired future conditions for WUI areas as well as for forests, woodlands and grasslands in Catron County. Successful protection of WUIs in the County from catastrophic wildfire is highly dependent on the condition of the vast areas of surrounding wildland forests, woodlands and grasslands. Treatment of WUIs alone cannot protect these areas fully if surrounding forests, woodlands and grasslands are subject to catastrophic wildfire.

Relevant Authorities

This Plan has been guided by the policies and authorities cited below. Please refer to Appendix Volume 2 – Data (page 3) for details.

Federal

• The Healthy Forests Restoration Act (HFRA)
• The Healthy Forests Restoration Initiative (HFI)
• Western Governor’s 10-Year Comprehensive Wildfire Strategy
• The National Fire Plan (NFP)
• The Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 (DMA 2000, Public Law 106-390)
• Federal Wildland Fire Policy

State

• The New Mexico Fire Planning Task Force (NMFPTF)
• The New Mexico Fire Plan
• 20 Communities Initiative ( New Mexico Fire Plan) .

County

• Resolution establishing Hazardous Fuels Reduction Task Force
• Resolution (or date of vote) for initiating the CWPP

Village of Reserve

• Ordinance prohibiting the burning outdoors of trash, refuse or garbage within Village limits. (Ord. No. 2002-01)

Planning Area Boundaries

Definitions of areas

In this Plan, Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) has been defined as an area in or adjacent to a) a community, including isolated parcels of private property containing structures, b) infrastructure, or c) watershed. Each of these areas has topographic features and fuel conditions (fuel type, fuel loading and arrangement) that have the potential to endanger that WUI.

The definitions in the Healthy Forests Restoration Act (HFRA) for "at risk community" and "WUI" were used as guidelines for development of collaborative identification of WUIs. The criteria to be used when establishing WUI boundaries in this Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) were:

1. Fuel Hazard Threat Level
2. Risk of Occurrence
3. Values at Risk

The process of establishing WUI boundaries is described in detail in the Appendix, however three important points are:

1. All homes and business structures were included in a WUI.
2. E911 address Geographic Information System (GIS) data files were used as the base for determining the location of structures needing protection.
3. WUI boundaries are designated both by mapped boundaries and by description of the criteria used to establish and modify boundaries.

Mogollon Photo credit: Gale Moore, Glenwood Gazette

The result was 519,412 acres in 196 WUI areas with an average size of 2,650 acres, the largest being 36,695 acres and the smallest being 33 acres. Please refer to Appendix Volume 2 – Data (page 6) for more information regarding WUIs.

map