Wildfire Resiliency
APWC’s wildfire resiliency projects aim to lower hazardous fuel loads, restore forest health, and safeguard nearby vulnerable communities by using mosaic thinning and slash treatments around ecological anchors—large, multi-aged trees. This work addresses new threats from widespread conifer mortality and more than a century of wildfire exclusion. These projects also foster continued private landowner fuel management, decrease smoke and fire risk, and support a resilient, sustainable watershed.
Our Wildfire Resiliency Projects
Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP)
The Applegate Fire Plan, the first Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) in the nation, was created by the Applegate Partnership in 2002. In late 2023, APWC secured a multi-year US Forest Service Community Wildfire Defense Grant to update the CWPP. An updated CWPP is needed to coordinate current and planned projects, assess the wildfire risk to the built environment, direct the limited resources to the areas of greatest need, provide residents with a voice in shaping the document, and detail the changes to the landscape that have occurred over the past 21 years.
Applegate & Williams Valley Fuels Reduction Project
The goal of the Applegate and Williams Valley Fuels Reduction project was to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire on two private properties in Provolt, Oregon, and the surrounding landscape, by removing accumulated fuels near structures and at strategic locations along the primary ingress and egress route in the Applegate Valley - Highway 238. In 2022-2023, APWC utilized Oregon Department of Forestry’s Small Forestland Grant funds to complete 58 acres of non-commercial thinning, 23 acres of blackberry removal, and outreach to 150 landowners.
Upper Applegate All-Lands Wildfire Resiliency Project (UAAWRP)
In 2023, APWC partnered with the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) to create a Conservation Implementation Strategy to provide landowners in the Upper Applegate with Environmental Quality Incentives Program funding to contract fuels reduction treatments. APWC also received several additional grants to increase the pace and scale of fuels reduction treatments in the initial UAAWRP footprint.
Rogue Valley Prescribed Burn Association
APWC also provides outreach assistance for the Rogue Valley Prescribed Burn Association (RVPBA).
For more information on RVPBA wildfire resiliency efforts, visit their website at
www.roguevalleypba.com