Westport Volunteer Fire Department - TA for Spatial Assets for Wildfire Response
Project Overview
Basics
Westport Volunteer Fire Department - TA for Spatial Assets for Wildfire Response
- Address Climate Change and Extreme Event Effects, Impacts and Vulnerabilities
- Develop, Collect and Analyze Data at a Variety of Spatial Scales to Inform Priority Projects/Actions
- Ensure that Disadvantaged and Underrepresented Communities Benefit from Initiatives
- Integrate Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Collaboration with Tribes
- Prioritize Plans, Projects and Actions that Result in Long Term Sustainability of Jobs & Revenues
- Protect and Enhance Watersheds and Ecosystems that Provide Water Quality and Supply Benefits
- Respect Local Autonomy and Local Knowledge in NCRP Planning and Implementation
- Work across Jurisdictional Boundaries to Achieve Common Objectives Effectively and Efficiently
NCRP RFFC Technical Assistance (DOC)
Planning/Design
The Westport Volunteer Fire Department is a nonprofit volunteer fire department serving a remote area of Northern Mendocino County with a variety of emergency services. The WVFD response area is a recreation destination which includes 34 miles of iconic Highway 1 and several parks. Besides Highway 1 there is only one other paved road that connects the service area to other communities. These roads are vulnerable to service disruption due to wildfire and geotechnical hazards. Like other rural emergency response organizations, WVFD has internal capacity limitations.
2024
2025
8/27/2025
Project Attributes
General Information
Project Description Narrative (1,000 character limit)
As demands for emergency response capabilities and hazard mitigation activities
have grown, WVFD has identified several geospatial needs that are not being met by currently available data sources. Many of the source datasets are intended to be covered by large scale programs that are managed by County, State and Federal agencies. Existing approaches to maintaining these datasets have resulted in long term data quality issues. At this point a major upgrade to WVFD’s spatial asset inventory will improve operational capacity and facilitate future hazard mitigation work. This project will allow WVFD to respond to emergencies more quickly, accurately and effectively. The project will be implemented through a user-need driven data stewardship approach that will update spatial assets and provide methods for ongoing local data stewardship that will be responsive to the operational needs of the department.
Solutions
Capacity - Data and Planning, Capacity - Technical Assistance, Community Health and Safety - Community Emergency Planning, Community Health and Safety - Fire-Safe Roads
Spatial Information
Tribal Region
None
Project Size (Acres)
9000
acres
Location
unable to complete this page, Westport is DAC and has 3 watershed in its project area
Westport is a disadvantaged community, RCAC conducted a survey in 2023 and verified it is a dissadvantaged community
South portion of Usal Creek up to Usal Beach
Organizations
Contacts
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Project Benefit Performance Measures
Expected Project Benefit Performance Measures
| Capacity Enhancement - # of projects | 1 count | |
| Capacity Enhancement - Type(s) of CE | Type: Technical Assistance | 1 |
| Community Health and Safety - # of projects | Project type: Firefighting readiness improvement | 1 count |
| Environmental justice and social equity - # of projects | Activity focus: Capacity building | 1 count |
| Jobs created or retained (FTE) | 0.1 | |
| Technical Assistance - Type(s) of TA | Type of Technical Assistance: Organizational development/strategic planning | 1 |
| Technical Assistance - Type(s) of TA | Type of Technical Assistance: GIS/mapping | 1 |
| Technical Assistance - Type(s) of TA | Type of Technical Assistance: Plan development/Project Design | 1 |
Reported Project Benefit Performance Measures
Reported Project Benefit Performance Measures are not relevant for Projects in the Planning/Design stage.
Financials
Budget
| Comment: | None provided |
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Reported Expenditures
No Expenditures have been reported for this Project.
| Note: | None provided |
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Project Types
Project Types
We are applying for TA to obtain maps of our project area to develop metrics while planning for work to be done. Our project area is rugged with few roads, mostly private. Thus we need lidar and other specialized imagery analysis to determine number of miles etc, types of vegetation etc for adaptive management, and to create maps for planning and execution of our projects.
We are applying for assistance in obtaining TA capacity building to create a Westport Volunteer FD Area of Influence CWPP. It is our intention to be inclusive and expansive in obtaining input in the planning and design process and create a living document for use in obtaining funding, executing projects and monitoring impact. Potential input providers include Wailaki, Cahto, agencies, WVFD Area of Influence Landowners, Businesses (such as Mendocino Redwood Company, Event Venues, Redwood Forest Foundation/Usal Forest), stores, hotels, wineries, campgrounds, Parks, Save the Redwoods League, BLM
We are applying for TA to develop CWPP planning. We expect to build local capacity and more job tracks for our SDAC community. including Grant writers, grant Administration and reporting, project management, licenced environmental and forest professionals, fuel reduction supervisors and crews, as well as accountanting and bookkeeping, community organizers and community facilitators.
It is our intention to develope a plan that creates more local employment opportunities and local business and NGO income in wildfire protection and wildfire resiliency for local employers and professional / technical / skilled labor career tracks for locals. Westport worked with RCAC in 2023 to survey our community and we did document we are DAC.
It is our planning intention to conduct faciliated discussion, round tables, work days, workshops, webinars, flyers, events and other collaborative relationship building processes to expand our SDAC community's relationship with each other, our neighbors, businesses, public land managers, and logging companies, as well as tribal nations, supporting agencies and organizations locally and nearby with our neighboring communities. RCAC conducted an income survey of Westport in 2023 and verified it is a DAC community.
It is our planing intention to include beneficial fire, fuel management, biochar. We will also plan for obtaining a greater understanding and facilitate methods that are feasible to longterm maintenance through replanting strategic native species selection and other traditional indiginous approaches, as well as iterative forest health management in restoration. We will enable our tribal populations to conduct and demonstrate indigenous practices to develop BMPs for sustainable change.
It is our intention to develop plans and projects that include emergency planning, evacuation planning, engage CERT and Red Cross, and reduce catastrophic wildfires through fuel reduction and fuel breaks. We will plan for emergency shelters, routes, and evacuee support, home hardening and community fuel breaks as well as CERT and Red Cross trailers, facilies, kitchens and shower trailers and other support/training. Our comunity has already started to work in this direction. In summer, we can have 7000 overnight visitors (tourists) in our area of influence.
In the long term WVFD and Westport County Water District are working together to plan funding for improvements and upgrades to water distribution / waste water processing and storage and each WVFD or WCWD facility. A CWPP for Westport VFD could include improvements to the private roads to allow safer emergency vehicle road egress, ingress, turn arounds as well as solar power storage, upgraded public utility drinking water storage and delivery and waste water management and internet connectivity.
CA is still learning about the longterm impacts of fuel reduction and other fire resiliency practices. There is much to learn in reducing the maintenance burden of completed fire reliancy work. The coastal zone is partiularly complex, diverse, dynamic and sensitive to changes. Our planning team would be well suited to work together to improve post resiliency treatment BMP's together. WVFD Area of Influence includes 3 entire watershed PODS of Juan Creek Frontal Pacific Ocean, Cottonena Creek and Wages Creek and the south portion of Usal Creek POD for HUC 12, HUC 8 is Big-Novaro-Gualala.
The coast is heavily impacted by shifting and extreme weather and climate events. Its extensive forests and shoreline have unique emission and sequestration qualities and are sensitive to sea level changes. These qualities are important to understanding ecosystem conservation and restoration.
Project Details
Attachments
WVFD TA Grant Supplementary Information and Certificate of Authority
- Uploaded On
- 12/17/2023
- File Type
- Description
- WVFD TA Grant Supplementary Information and Certificate of Authority. Includes presence of HU watershed pods and status of SDAC in Supplementary Info because those layer were not working in the entry of location pages as per request of Rose Roberts.
Westport VFD Certificate of Authority
- Uploaded On
- 12/16/2023
- File Type
- Description
- Westport VFD Certificate of Authority for this NCRP TA grant application
WVFD Organization Statement of Qualifications
- Uploaded On
- 12/16/2023
- File Type
- Description
- Westport Volunteer Fire Department Statement of Qualifications
WVFD Fuel Reduction Supplementary Information
- Uploaded On
- 12/17/2023
- File Type
- Description
- Background information on WVFD and Prior Fire History, Community Demographics, Description of the Area of Influence, Experience in Implementing Fuel Mitigation Programs, Public Lands and Parks in Area of Influence
No attachments
Notes
No Notes entered.