Catron County Community Wildfire Protection Plan
PLANNING PROCESS

• 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

History

The history of collaborative landscape scale project planning in Catron County begins with the Negrito Ecosystem Project, which was established in 1992 to manage a watershed of about 128,000 acres at the head of the Gila River. The project began with a request from private citizens to implement a demonstration project based on ecologically sound multiple-use management on the Gila National Forest. The participants were a diverse group including representatives from the U.S. Forest Service, the Catron County Citizen’s Group, environmental groups, the timber and ranching industries and the County. A number of forest restoration projects in progress or completed are a result of the Negrito Ecosystem Plan, such as the Sheep Basin Forest Restoration Project and the Burro Forest Restoration and Vegetation Management Project .

The 20 Communities group was established after the disastrous wildfire season of 2000, considered to be the worst in decades. In cooperation with Federal, state, local and tribal governments and private citizens, the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department (EMNRD), Forestry Division developed the "20 Communities Initiative." Since then significant on-the-ground work has been accomplished through the 20 Communities group.

An Intergovernmental Task Force for the Reduction of Hazardous Fuels was established by the Catron County Commission December 3, 2003, coincidently on the same date the Healthy Forests Restoration Act (HFRA) was signed by President Bush. The Task Force was composed of representatives of the Catron County Commission, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the N.M. State Forestry Department, local Soil and Water Conservation Districts and local fire departments. As the Task Force members began to fully understand the value of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act and the need for a Community Wildfire Protection Plan, it became apparent that the Task Force needed to be dissolved and a new group established to focus on the development of a Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP). The Community Wildfire Protection Plan Core Group was established by resolution of the County Commission in June, 2004.

An additional recommendation of the Task Force was to establish a separate Marketing Strategy Group which was also accomplished by resolution of the Commission. The purpose of the Marketing Group was to accomplish the development of needed wood products industries.

Collaboration

Full collaboration with all parties who were interested in participating was the cornerstone of the entire plan analysis and writing processes. This was not as difficult as it might have been, since collaborative relationships to deal with forest restoration issues had been developed over the course of several years through efforts of the 20 Communities and Catron County Citizens groups. The work of those two groups involved all governmental agencies and as many members of the public as could be enticed to participate.

Other County groups such as the Health Council and Fire Chiefs Association have also contributed to collaboration. Fire Departments in the County have been very involved in the 20 Communities group efforts to improve fire suppression, mitigation and prevention since the inception of the group in 2001.

The collaboration experienced during the writing of this Plan has been relatively seamless between the various agencies and groups. The Catron County Commission was the lead agency and fully supportive of collaboration. The Commissioners directions to the CWPP Core Group and Core Group Coordinator provided discretionary power to develop the CWPP as necessary to create a viable plan.

Membership in the Core Group and teams included a broad spectrum of agencies and members of the public. The various land management agencies and private businesses who were contacted for information and data were very eager to be helpful.

The Gila National Forest was particularly helpful in supplying computers, data, expertise and work space. The New Mexico State Department of Forestry was very instrumental in organization of the effort. Although the Socorro District office of the BLM was handicapped by personnel changes, they nevertheless were helpful as well. Personnel in the County Commission office kept project records and performed other administrative tasks. Without such enthusiastic and extensive collaboration this Plan would not have been possible.

Unfortunately there was little, if any, participation by environmental interest groups with the development of this Plan. Mailing lists from the Gila NF, including approximately 15 such groups, were used for the public mailing during the first stage of public involvement. It would be difficult to determine how many of the individuals on the mailing lists represent environmental interests but given the source of the list it would have to be assumed that environmental interests were represented. Nevertheless, counting everyone consulted and/or who worked directly on the plan, there were over 100 people involved in the collaborative effort to write this plan

A table of the partners involved with this list can be found in the Appendix. See Appendix Volume 2 Data (page 15).

Methodology

The CWPP Core Group created three teams: Public Involvement, Analysis and Writing. Early in the process the Core Group and teams agreed on several guiding principles:

• The Plan would follow the guidelines provided in the Handbook for Wildland–Urban Interface Communities, Preparing a Community Wildfire Protection Plan sponsored by the Communities Committee, the National Association of Counties, the National Association of State Foresters, the Society of American Foresters, and the Western Governors’ Association
• The analysis would be on a landscape level, that is, it would include the entire County and all ownerships
• All homes/businesses would be in WUIs
• The analysis would be done at three levels or scales: County, watershed and Wildland Urban Interface (WUI).
• All interested parties would be invited to participate:
• Threatened and Endangered species habitat would be viewed as a priority for treatment.

It was further agreed that the intention of this CWPP would be to establish a framework of information, data and priorities from which on-the-ground planning and actions would be later developed . These would be detailed Wildfire Protection Project Plans for individual communities for specific, on-the-ground projects which would include application of this Community Wildfire Protection Plan’s results regarding the community, the vulnerability of structures, the needed mitigation and accomplishment scheduling, etc.

The sequence of steps taken to develop this CWPP were as follows:

1. First stage of public involvement (concerns expressed and prioritized)
2. Analysis: Design of analysis concept, determination of data needed
3. Collection and preparation of needed data for use in model
4. Analysis model development
5. Second stage of public involvement (summary of analysis results presented and further input on treatment options requested)
6. Draft Plan written
7. Public comment on Draft
8. Final Plan

next page ->