After near misses from the Beachie, Lionshead and Riverside wildfires and two
Public Safety Power Shutdowns (PSPS) by Portland General Electric in two
years, the danger of wildfire along the Hwy. 26 corridor between Sandy and
Government Camp has gone from a vague possibility to an urgent and annual
threat to the approximately 19,000 people who call the corridor home.

“We’ve been fortunate we haven’t had a large fire on the Hwy. 26 corridor at
this point,” Hoodland Fire District (HFD) Division Chief Brian Henrichs said. “To
keep our communities safe, the magnitude of work that needs to be done is
daunting.”

To help the multiple groups living and serving the region along Hwy. 26 better
coordinate their wildfire resilience efforts, HFD and the Zigzag Ranger District
of the Mount Hood National Forest arranged for a national inter-agency
Community Mitigation Assistance Team (CMAT) to visit and evaluate the
region’s fire mitigation efforts. The team visited the Mount Hood communities
from Oct 3. to Oct. 13.

CMATs are enlisted nationally to help resolve fire mitigation challenges that
occur in a region when multiple groups are involved. The team’s goal for their
visit to the Mount Hood region was to assist residents and organizations along
Hwy. 26 establish a wildfire partnership to coordinate and develop long-term
fire mitigation strategies using best practices.

“(The evaluation) was to help us collaborate and unify our efforts, so we’re
not all working in different directions,” Henrichs said.

CMATs are comprised of public and private wildland-urban interface mitigation
professionals from across the country and are sponsored by the U.S. Forest
Service (USFS).

The CMAT met with entities along the corridor and assessed their ongoing
efforts and challenges preparing for wildfires.

The meetings included local homeowner’s associations, community planning
organizations, the three fire districts along Hwy. 26, Portland General Electric,
Portland Water Bureau, the Oregon Department of Forestry, Skibowl,
Timberline Lodge, the USFS and several other government and community
groups.

The CMAT then presented recommendations for action and collaboration

throughout the communities. The goal of the guidance is to help address high-
risk areas on the corridor and focus the use of resources on larger projects

instead of taking a scattered approach to smaller treatments.

The CMAT presented a report with advice for all stakeholders, including short-
term immediate priorities and long-term, five-to-seven-year goals, as the

corridor develops a partnership to become wildfire adaptive.
The CMAT proposed generating momentum for the regional partnership by
achieving some small, early accomplishments, such as establishing slash
disposal sites at quarries in the region for cleared brush and other fuel
sources, getting chipping done in communities that have already cleared
brush and supporting roadside projects.

“Individual homeowners are going to have to take ownership and start
hardening their properties,” Henrichs said.

Henrich added that participants hope the partnership will allow the region to
receive grants to aid in the fire mitigation efforts. Government Camp recently
received a $75,000 grant for homeowners to harden their properties. Similar
grants can help address the expense of chipping and contractors to clear
defensible space on properties.

The CMAT urged all parties involved in the fledgling partnership to celebrate
accomplishments and coordinate resources, but to focus on investing most of
their time and resources on risk mitigation. The group cautioned that
meetings and events do not reduce the risk of wildfires, and that clear goals
should be established and met at each meeting.

The CMAT report stated that for the region the threat of fire has become
personal.

“Residents, visitors, businesses, and public service agencies alike were
without power for 8 days, with smoke in the air from a nearby fire and no way
of finding out what was going on,” read the report, detailing the first PSPS
event as a wake-up call for the region and an impetus for the new wildfire
partnership.

The CMAT report recommends that adaptation to the increased risk of wildfire
begin with personal action by hardening defensible properties and continue
outward as a coordinated effort to establish resilience throughout the region.
More information about preparing your property for wildfire is available online
at https://www.hoodlandfire.us. More information about the Community
Mitigation Assistance Team program is available at
https://www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/fire/cmat.