Regional Priority Plan
Photo Credit: Mike Eliason
Dear Friends,
Ten days ago, with the Alisal fire still smoldering and rain in the forecast, I had flashbacks to the Thomas Fire and subsequent debris flow. It was a visceral feeling that brought me back to that morning in January of 2018 when we woke up to mud and debris in our yard and a neighborhood that was hard to recognize. That experience was seared into all of us, and I don’t think we’ll ever be the same.
Last week we celebrated first responder’s day, when we recognize those who show up to help when bad things happen. We were happy to see Abe Powell and the Santa Barbara Bucket Brigade recognized by Google for how they showed up in 2018 and how they’ve been increasing our community capacity to show up and do the work that needs to be done before, during and after local disasters. By enabling others to show up and make a difference, the Bucket Brigade is building community resilience.
At the same time Abe and 5 co-founders launched the Bucket Brigade, Anna Olsen was updating a regional Homeowner’s Guide to Fire and wondering what else she could do to help prepare the community for wildfires. Anna is the executive director of the Cachuma Resource Conservation District (CRCD). The CRCD is a little known but critical local organization that helps landowners, agencies, nonprofits and funders implement conservation, restoration and land management projects that benefit our lands, water, wildlife and the productivity of working farms and ranches.
Anna began asking others what wildfire-related work they were doing and what they thought needed to be done. She struggled to find answers and high impact opportunities. So when the Coastal Conservancy announced they had funding to support community planning for ecosystem and wildfire resilience, she realized it would be a great opportunity to identify, prioritize and begin to implement wildfire resilience projects.
Photo Credit: Mike Eliason
Anna pulled together a group of local partners, gathered input from community leaders and wildfire experts, and applied for and received funding to create a Regional Priority Plan (RPP) for ecosystem health and wildfire resilience. Through a year-long community engagement process, the team identified 50 priority projects representing the distilled wisdom of dozens of community leaders. Rob Hazard, Fire Marshall for Santa Barbara County Fire Department and close RPP collaborator, said: “If we implement the projects in the RPP over the next ten years we'll be 90 percent of the way to building resilience to wildfire.” To view the RPP, please visit: www.sbcwildfireresilience.org
The next steps are clear. We need to implement these projects as soon as we can, and that means all us from the County to the CRCD to the Bucket Brigade and others. Anna is enthusiastic about where we are headed, saying, “We now have a planning tool that any organization can take and use to help find beneficial projects so we will be able to take advantage of the fire funding becoming available.” All of us here at LegacyWorks are excited to be working as part of the RPP partnership with Anna, Sharyn, Rachel, Christina, Rob, and many others to make this happen.
We welcome you to join us. If you’d like to make a big difference in our community’s resilience to wildfire and the climate crisis, please reach out to us to chat. With gratitude for all the leaders committed to building resilience, Carl and the LegacyWorks team
To contact the partners with requests, questions, or suggestions, please email info@sbcwildfireresilience.org.