Teton County has a HIGH risk of wildfire, higher than 84% of communities in the US.

(Source:  WildfireRisk.org which is led by the USDA Forest Service)

Why a Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP)?

A Community Wildfire Protection Plan is a means of bringing local solutions to wildfire management.  It is a plan created by the community, in collaboration with emergency responders, planners, and land management agencies.  The CWPP will identify and prioritize areas for fuel reduction treatments, methods to protect at-risk communities, and measures to reduce structural ignitability.  During this revision process we will be looking at wildfire response, hazard mitigation, community preparedness, and wildfire risk. 

Wildfire risk is based on several factors. Understanding which factors affect our community can help identify strategies to reduce our risk.

Risk to homes

Risk to homes measures the relative consequence of wildfire to residential structures everywhere on the landscape, whether a home actually exists there or not. We must consider wildfire risk in places with homes in addition to places where new construction is proposed.

Exposure

Exposure is the intersection of wildfire likelihood and intensity with communities. Communities can be directly exposed to wildfire from adjacent wildland vegetation, or indirectly exposed to wildfire from embers and home-to-home ignition.  Populated areas in Teton County are predominatly exposed to wildfire from indirect sources. 

Wildfire likelihood is the probability of wildfire burning in any given year. At the community level, wildfire likelihood is averaged where housing units occur.  Wildfire likelihood can be difficult to modify but we modify our home ignition zones to reduce the likelihood of structure ignition. 

Vulnerable populations

Social and economic factors can make it more difficult for some people to prepare for, respond to, and recover from wildfire. Vulnerable populations may lack access to resources, experience cultural and institutional barriers, have limited mobility, or have medical conditions exacerbated by stress or smoke. Equitable risk reduction strategies will be addressed throughout the course of this revision process. 

https://wildfirerisk.org/explore/overview/56/56039/

https://www.facebook.com/TAWPC

Jackson Hole Fire/EMS has received funding from Wyoming State Forestry and will be working with Jensen Hughes to revise this plan.  Public outreach events will be posted on this site, our social media,  as well as http://tawpc.org. We look forward to the community's collaboration on this very important update.