What is a fire adapted community? The important piece of being fire adapted isn't one tangible thing. A Fire Adapted Community acknowledges and takes responsibility for its wildfire risk, and implements appropriate actions at all levels whether it be making the home more ignition resistant (less prone to ember/spark ignitions), planning for post-fire recovery or evacuating during an event. A fire adapted community is a community that is working to prepare for, respond to, and recover from wildfire. It incorporates people, buildings, businesses, infrastructure, cultural resources, and natural areas into the preparedness effort. Fire adapted communities use many tools and programs to better live with wildfire. The Firewise Communities USA program is one tool available to communities but is not the only tool. Programs such as Ready, Set, Go! as well as our local codes and ordinances, Community Wildfire Protection Plans, collaborative planning efforts, business resilience activities, local mutual aid agreements, fire department capacity, and more all help adapt a community to live with wildfire.The Hidden Valley/ Swauk area was chosen by the Washington State Fire Adapted Community Learning Network to become Kittitas County's first FAC in 2015. Since then the Hidden Valley/Swauk FAC has been absorbed by KFACC.
Fire Adapted Communities
In May 2017, agencies, stakeholders, and community members met to discuss wildfire related issues in Kittitas County. The group quickly agreed that a coordinated effort to mitigate risks and prepare for the inevitable next fire would benefit the community. Fire adapted communities bring together the various stakeholders helping to change the culture from one of wildfire victims needing federal, state and local aid to survive a wildfire to communities living proactively with wildfire. In recognition of the importance of fire adapted communities, the Kittitas Fire Adapted Communities Coalition (KFACC) was born. KFACC's mission statement is: A coordinated movement to increase community resiliency to wildfire by providing education, planning, and technical assistance for implementing activities with the people that live, work, and recreate in Kittitas County.
In October and November 2019, KFACC conducted two workshops to develop member consensus about the priority strategies for the next two years; and to explore actionable next steps and tasks. This was done with the assistance of Dr. Travis Paveglio, University of Idaho, and Dr. Catrin Edgeley, Northern Arizona University. Read the workshop report to learn more about the discussions and results of these workshops.
Virtual Workshop for Landowners
The videos below are available for landowners to watch at their convenience to learn about our fire environment and how to build and maintain defensible space.
How is Kittitas County a Fire Environment?
This video was funded by the Kittitas County Board of Commissioners, Kittitas County Conservation District, Washington Department of Natural Resources, Washington Resource Conservation, and Development Council and The Nature Conservancy.
Living with Wildfire: A Defensible Space Guide
This video was funded by the Kittitas County Board of Commissioners, Kittitas County Conservation District, Washington Department of Natural Resources, Washington Resource Conservation, and Development Council and The Nature Conservancy.
Wildlife and Wildfire Resilient Forests - A Ken Bevis Story
This video was funded by the Kittitas County Conservation District
Ready. Set. Go.
This video was funded by the Puget Sound Energy Foundation, the City of Ellensburg, and the Kittitas County Conservation District