Amador County – The Amador Fire Safe Council this week announced its next “stakeholders” meeting to take public input on the “Greater Pine Grove Community Conservation Wildfire Protection Plan.”

Cathy Koos-Breazeal, executive director of Amador Fire Safe Council, said “stakeholder comments are critical to the success of the plan,” funded by one of two $50,000 grants awarded in 2010 by Sierra Nevada Conservancy.

Koos-Breazeal said “one grant was to write a wildfire plan for highest-risk unit,” the greater Pioneer and Volcano area, one of nine distinct risk areas identified in a County-wide Wildfire Protection Plan developed by the Council in 2005. The Pioneer-Volcano plan was “signed by all the fire agencies last fall” and awaits signature from Supervisors. The new plans become addendums to the county-wide plan.

Koos-Breazeal said the next highest risk area is Greater Pine Grove, west of roughly Clinton Road, Jackson Rancheria and Pine Gulch; north to Shake Ridge Road; east to Rams Horn; and southeast to Pioneer-Volcano Road, Highway 26 and the Mokelumne River.

Maps and draft sections of the plan will be available to view at the meeting, and people who cannot attend but want to comment can download a form from the Council website or call to get a form mailed.

Both the Pioneer-Volcano plan and Pine Grove plan “have significant conservation elements included,” she said, and “you can’t just look at the fire event, but you need to consider the consequences of a catastrophic fire to soil, erosion and water quality.”

She said the County Wildfire Protection Plan and the Pioneer-Volcano Community Conservation Wildfire Protection Plan are available on the Fire Safe Council’s website.

Light public attendance at two previous stakeholder meetings may have been affected by the holidays. Input was significant for the Pioneer-Volcano Plan. Koos-Breazeal said it was helped by the high number of property owners’ associations in those areas. She was able to attend different owners’ meetings, and coordinate with the groups. The impact of some areas was immediate, and groups cleared defensible space, improved signage and added exit roads.

Some Pioneer-Volcano neighborhoods are ready for certification as “Fire Safe” communities, Koos-Breazeal said. It may not help lower insurance rates, but “it sends a good message to insurance companies.” Better yet, she said, it allows residents to confidently and safely evacuate when wildfire threatens, rather than staying behind to try to protect their homes with a garden hose.

The third Greater Pine Grove Stakeholder Meeting is 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 25, at Pine Grove Town Hall.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.