Dispatch from the Drawing Board: Applegate CWPP public meetings prompt doodles and dialogue

By Amelia Liberatore

We held five public meetings throughout the Applegate watershed in October to jumpstart dialogue between the CWPP planning team and Applegate residents. Together we sipped wine at Apricity Vineyard near Wilderville, we braved a power outage in Applegate, we faced the rain in Williams and Murphy, and filled the fire station in Ruch!  

Photo: This map shows the five neighborhood regions of the Applegate watershed for the CWPP. Public meetings are held in Wilderville, Murphy, Williams, Applegate, and Ruch. Map by Dylan Goldey, SOFRC.

If you live in the Applegate, you are an integral part of the CWPP development process. This plan will guide wildfire preparedness, response, and recovery throughout the watershed. That includes specific landscape projects, such as thinning and prescribed fire. It also includes actions you can take on your own, such as creating an evacuation plan with your household, your business, or your neighbors. To create a well-informed plan, we need your input. No one knows the Applegate like the people who live here.  

This first round of public meetings was a successful start to the development process. Community members shared important details about critical infrastructure and important gathering places, favorite hiking trails and salmon spawning sites, and areas of high tree mortality that could be thinned before they fuel a firestorm. In all, 68 people attended the public meetings and about 45 of you took the survey during the meeting. Thank you! Your participation is so valuable to this project.  

Photo: Applegate public meeting at the Applegate Community Church. 

Each of the five public meetings had the same format. First, a presentation from the CWPP Team explained the purpose of the CWPP and how public input will be included in the development process. Then attendees had a chance to take the CWPP survey and ask questions. In the second half of the meeting, we got down to the doodling and the dialogue. We asked attendees to circle areas of important habitat, valued recreation areas, and places with high tree mortality or overgrown vegetation (especially along roadsides). The results are stunning! 

Photo: an example of map drawings from the Williams public meeting. 

These doodles may look messy to some, but to us, it’s valuable data. We are now translating these drawings into a digital form to work with our powerful decision support tool, Vibrant Planet. Vibrant Planet will help us combine public input with agency input so that we can analyze potential projects that will meet the needs of many.  

During the second round of public meetings, the CWPP Team will present current findings that arise from the survey, these map drawings, agency input, and our research. We will share potential project areas in each of the five Applegate neighborhoods and discuss with you whether these potential projects will protect the places you love and mitigate the risks that you are worried about.  

There will be a third and final round of public meetings in the spring. At that time, we will share the results of the CWPP process and give you a sneak peek of the document before it goes to print.   

If you missed this first round of meetings, don’t worry! You can still contribute to the CWPP development process by taking the survey and encouraging your friends and neighbors to do the same. We currently have about 100 responses. Help us get to 101! If you have any questions about the survey, please contact Bella Witherspoon (bwitherspoon@sofrc.org).  

Applegate CWPP Survey: tinyurl.com/avcwppsurvey  
Upcoming public meetings: www.applegatepartnership.org/cwpp-events