Fire Adapted Community Town Hall Recording and Presentation Slides May 16, 2023

Big Sur StoryMap

The Big Sur StoryMap is a series of interactive two- and three-dimensional maps containing infrastructure, terrain, weather, fire history, and other information useful for becoming a fire adapted community.  These maps are presentations of local data contained in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). 

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Fire Adapted Community Town Hall Recording and Presentation Slides October 25, 2022


Fire Adapted Community

A fire adapted community is a community that understands its risk and takes action before, during and after the fire in order for their community to be more resilient to wildfire.  Fire adapted community members are informed and prepared, collaboratively planning and taking action to better live with wildland fire.

Fire Adapted Big Sur is co-aligned with the response zone of Big Sur Fire, located along the Big Sur coast in Monterey County, stretching from Post Mile Marker 58.3 to the San Luis Obispo County line.

Fire Adapted Community Coordinator

Responsible for facilitating the development and growth of a fire adapted community strategy by establishing and managing Firewise USA® recognition and coordinating citizen wildfire safety and resiliency activities.

The Fire Adapted Community Coordinator operates under the guidance of the Community Association of Big Sur (CABS).  Funding for this initial year is generously provided by Nepenthe, Post Ranch Inn, Alila Ventana Big Sur and Coastlands Mutual Water Company.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Origins


The National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy (Cohesive Strategy) is a strategic framework, rooted in science, that guides stakeholders to work collaboratively to make meaningful reductions in risk and learn to live with wildland fire.  


The three overarching goals are:  1) Restore and Maintain Landscapes. Landscapes across all jurisdictions are resilient to fire-related disturbances in accordance with management directives.  2) Fire Adapted Communities. Human populations and infrastructure can withstand a wildfire without loss of life and property.  3) Wildfire Response. All jurisdictions participate in making and implementing safe, effective, and efficient risk-based wildfire management decisions.  


A fire adapted community is a human community consisting of informed and prepared citizens collaboratively planning and taking action to safely coexist with wildland fire.  More fully, fire adapted communities are knowledgeable, engaged communities where actions of residents and agencies in relation to infrastructure, buildings, landscaping and the surrounding ecosystem lessen the need for extensive protection actions and enable the communities to safely accept fire as part of the surrounding landscape.


The national Firewise USA® recognition program,  a component of Fire Adapted Communities®, provides a collaborative framework to help neighbors in a geographic area get organized, find direction, and take action to increase the ignition resistance of their homes and community and to reduce wildfire risks at the local level.  Any community that meets a set of voluntary criteria on an annual basis and retains an “In Good Standing Status” may identify itself as being a Firewise USA® site.