The Kenai Peninsula Borough is inviting the public to attend a number of meetings scheduled from July 20th through the 24th to give feedback on the Community Wildfire Protection Plan. Communities develop the plans to address wildfire planning, response, and recovery. The Kenai Peninsula Borough wants to ensure that the plan represents the community’s preferences for emergency management, education and outreach, and fuels reduction activities to effectively lower wildfire risk.
Brenda Ahlberg, Community & Fiscal Projects Manager for the Kenai Peninsula Borough spoke with KSRM:
“What we really wanted to do this time when we did an update was really look at it from vet type as well as mitigation projects that can be done jointly or even recovery efforts or how could the communities themselves be engaged in the entire process from a homeowners perspective. Wildland fire does not know who the landowners are. It tends to go across all lands. That was one of the important things about these plans is let’s not only update them, but let’s make this inclusive. This plan is going to be used for planning purposes for response and recovery. It will also allow for the information component that gives the homeowners opportunities to harden their property to be firewise if the information is known and to also engage people when it comes to potential evacuations. Do they know their ingress and egress routes? Do they know what those levels of alertness are so that it can be prepared in the event of an evacuation?”
Ahlberg added:
“It also allows us to identify those fuel reduction projects that can be done not only from a homeowner’s land to maybe those adjacent public lands that are also being treated or reduced in fuels.”
Community members are encouraged to join in on the planning process and let the Kenai Peninsula Borough know what matters to you. There’s also meetings for off-road communities and central peninsula communities that will be scheduled for August.
For more information, visit the story map here.
For more information, please contact Brenda Ahlberg, Kenai Peninsula Borough Office of Emergency Management, bahlberg@kpb.us or 907-714-2153, or Emily Geery, Project Manager, at egeery@swca.com.