Franz warns wildfire suppression is only ‘buying time’ at Leavenworth town hall

LEAVENWORTH — At a wildfire resilience town hall on May 6, former Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz warned that despite large strides in firefighting response, proactive efforts are still needed to reduce risk as wildfire seasons lengthen and intensify.

“We cannot suppress our way out of this crisis,” said Franz.

Franz said that when she became state public lands commissioner in 2017, the Department of Natural Resources was underfunded, operating with limited firefighting capacity and aging aircraft. Since then, she said, the agency has increased its budget and firefighting staff, expanded air resources and improved response times, and restored about a million acres of forest.

She pointed to improved suppression outcomes, noting that roughly 95 percent of wildfires in Washington have been held below 10 acres in recent years.

“We’ve made real progress, but we also have a very long way to go, and I worry deeply that our recent successes in wildfire response have created a false sense of security,” she said.

In a prior interview with Ward Media, Franz said wildfire preparedness is often shaped by short public memory. She pointed to deficit-induced legislative cuts to wildfire-related funding last year, as well as declining urgency among residents when major fires fade from view. 

Franz called more urgency, proactivity and participation at all levels in order to achieve coordinated, community-wide preparedness across Chelan County.

“It's an all lands, all hands, all together moment,” Franz told Ward Media.

Franz emphasized the importance of not only the individual’s role in making their property wildfire resilient, but in working with their neighbors to ensure the entire community is protected.

“It has to be the community coming together and making it their culture — the culture that we will be the most resilient to wildfire and we are going to harden our homes, and we're going to work with our neighbors to get there,” said Franz.

This collaboration, paired with the coordination of local, state and federal agencies, is a necessity in order to scale the efforts required to make a community truly resilient, she said.

“We know how to do this work. We know what needs to be done. The problem is, we haven't figured out how to scale both the landscape resilience and the community resilience fast enough, and time is no longer on our side,” said Franz.

Local agencies described how that collaboration is already happening in Chelan County, and how local residents can play their part in the shared responsibility. The town hall’s panel included representatives from Sustainable Northwest, Cascadia Conservation District, Lake Wenatchee Fire and Rescue, Chelan County Fire District #3, Chelan County Natural Resources, Chelan County PUD, and the U.S. Forest Service.

While each organization focuses on different levels — whether it's working on private, state or federally-owned land — they all collaborate to coordinate funding and strategically plan forest health and fuels reduction work across ownership boundaries.

“All of our organizations have different tools to accomplish different things,” said Erin McKay, Forest Health Program Manager at Chelan County Natural Resources. “But to make the work the most effective, we do need to be coordinating and planning together and leveraging resources together.”

For instance, when the U.S. Forest Service was planning fuels reduction work on federal land along the south shore of Lake Wenatchee, the fire district, Cascadia Conservation District, and Sustainable Northwest reached out to the neighboring homeowners to coordinate private land treatment.

“The cherry on top is that Chelan County is also doing a fuel break on the adjacent federal land,” said Gia Landis of Sustainable Northwest.

Continuing Franz’s message, the partners stressed the importance of full community participation, which includes forested properties, as well as those in town.

“The first step is starting at your home and working outwards,” said Cascadia Conservation District Forestry Program Manager Patrick Haggerty.

This can include creating defensible space on your property and “hardening” homes with non-flammable and ignition-resistant materials.

The panelists recommended home assessments as a starting point, which are free services offered by both Lake Wenatchee Fire and Rescue and Fire District 3. Home assessments can provide an accurate snapshot of your home’s current preparedness for wildfire and a list of steps you can take to improve it.

Homeowners can also receive guidance on where to access available resources that can save time, effort and money. Additionally, more resources can be available when entire neighborhoods work together.

For property owners with power infrastructure on or near their property, Chelan County PUD can also come assess the vegetation surrounding powerlines. Any hazards within 10 feet of the infrastructure will need to be removed by the utility district.

“What I would say to homeowners is, if you're planning vegetation under power lines, make sure they're fire adaptive and low growing,” said Whitney Machado, Wildfire Program Manager at Chelan County PUD.

The community partners have also taken steps to streamline wildfire resources and information, recently launching a centralized website, wildfirencw.org. The site aggregates locally relevant information for preparing for wildfire, as well as navigating active fires and post-burn recovery.

For those still unsure of where to start, the panelists encourage residents to reach out to anyone of the organizations, as they will be able to point residents in the right direction.

Taylor Caldwell: 509-433-7276 or taylor@ward.media