Community Wildfire Resilience and Preparedness
Jake Hardt, left, a community resilience coordinator at the DNR, gives a demonstration of a home assessment at a community building near Cle Elum in October 2022 with community captain Jeremy Baker at a Wildfire Ready Neighbors event.
-
Vision: Creating pathways for communities in Washington state to adapt, prepare, and recover from wildfire.
-
Mission: To inspire, educate and empower individuals and communities to coexist with wildfire, through listening and advocating for community solutions.
Wildfire is a cause of concern for us all in the Evergreen State. While wildfire has historically played a crucial role in Washington's forest ecology, climate change and other factors have led to longer, more destructive fire seasons, which threaten communities throughout the state's diverse landscape. But there are a number of steps landowners can take to protect their property -- and their neighbors'.
Every year across our nation, some homes survive - while many others do not - after a major wildfire. Those that survive almost always do so because their owners had prepared for the eventuality of fire, which is an inescapable force of nature in fire-prone wildland areas.
Key Resources
-
Your home can survive a wildfire. This video captures the most effective wildfire preparedness actions that a homeowner can take on their property.
-
Visit the Community Resilience Resource Library to access resources like a fire-resistant plant guide and how to make your home more ignition-resistant.
-
DNR's WildfireReady.com is available to residents in many counties to help landowners prevent damage from wildfire. For more information, visit the Wildfire Ready Neighbors program page.
Are you a small forest landowner interested in wildfire mitigation and forest health treatments?
DNR's Service Forestry Program can provide technical assistance to small forest landowners with questions about forest health, wildfire risk mitigation, or long-term forest management strategies. Cost-share opportunities may exist non-federal owners of fewer than 5,000 acres of forestland seeking to improve forest health and reduce the threats of wildfire.
