Title
Chief Administrative Office recommending the Board receive and file an update from the Office of Wildfire Preparedness and Resilience.
FUNDING: N/A
Body
DISCUSSION / BACKGROUND
Background
The Board of Supervisors established the Vegetation Management and Wildfire Resiliency Working Group (group) on September 21, 2021 (file #21-1515). The CAO convened a core group, consisting of representatives from the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), CAL FIRE, the El Dorado County Fire Safe Council, the El Dorado County and Georgetown Divide Resource Conservation Districts (RCDs), the El Dorado County Fire Chiefs' Association, and the El Dorado County Fire Prevention Officers' Association in November 2021.
On March 22, 2022, based on the recommendation of the working group, the Board took the following actions:
· Add a new theme to the County Strategic Plan, to “Lead and facilitate the creation and maintenance of fire-adapted communities,” with an associated task to “Prepare countywide wildfire protection strategy.”
· Establish a process/governance structure led by El Dorado County through a dedicated Wildfire Resilience Office to prioritize and coordinate efforts on a countywide level based on a comprehensive wildfire protection strategy.
· Designate $3,375,000 of excess contingency funds for a federal Hazard Mitigation Grant to conduct defensible space, home hardening, and hazardous fuels reduction in the County.
Advisory Committee and OWPR
Following the Board’s approval of the working group’s recommendations on March 22nd and the direction to establish the Office of Wildfire Preparedness and Resilience (OWPR), the working group has established a governance model and structure (attached) in which the working group has been formalized into a standing advisory committee to the OWPR and recommends to the CAO an annual workplan for the OWPR. In addition, a representative from the Tahoe Fire and Fuels Team (TFFT) has been added. The TFFT has been active on in the Tahoe B...
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