Cascade Locks Community Wildfire Protection Plan, January 2005. (Hood River County.)This Community Wildfire Protection Plan covers the City of Cascade Locks and its urban growth boundary. The purpose of the plan is to identify and assess wildfire hazards, wildfire risk factors, and to develop a strategy to reduce the potential for wildfire damage in the planning area. Major findings of the planning process are: • Approximately two-thirds of the planning area is considered to have a high wildfire hazard rating. These areas generally have large trees with heavy brush underneath. The underbrush is often thick providing a ladder fuel effect which would help fire reach into the crowns of the larger trees. Only about 3% of the planning area is rated as having a low wildfire hazard. • There are serious wildfire risk factors in the planning area: the railroad, I-84, fireworks, lightning, power lines, debris burning, discarded cigarettes, and house fires. • Creating a defensible space around individual homes is the most important action homeowners can take to improve the odds of saving their property during a wildfire event. • About 30 percent of the homes in the planning area are considered to have a high hazard rating. Most homes within the planning area need some form of fuel treatment to make them more fire-resistant during a wildfire. • Many homes have construction material which would make them vulnerable in a wildfire situation. • Some residential areas are served by only one means of access presenting serious limitations for escape during a wildfire emergency. Several action items, or projects, designed to reduce wildfire hazards are presented. The plan recommends the creation of a City Wildfire Protection Council to oversee and provide leadership in the implementation of wildfire hazard reduction projects. Other projects include the creation of defensible space for individual homes and developments, access improvements, establishment of a brush disposal site, hazard reduction along the railroad and on adjacent National Forest System lands, and the creation of materials to better inform citizens about wildfire hazards. This plan offers advice to homeowners and local officials on how to make the planning area less vulnerable to wildfires. Some of the strategy presented would be accomplished with available public funding and some would be done by individuals taking responsibility for the work on their property. The plan recommends adoption by the city of wildfire protection standards for existing homes and new developments.