Wildfire season doesn’t announce itself. One dry summer, an unmanaged hillside, or an overgrown park can quickly become a serious wildfire problem. Luckily, a little attention now can go a long way to help manage your wildfire risk. These four areas are key to protecting your entity from wildfires.

1. Clear a zone around your buildings
   Start within 30 feet of your owned structures. Remove dead plants, dry leaves, and accumulated vegetation. Be certain to pay special attention under decks and along fences as well as around buildings and sheds with fuel and chemical storage areas. Dry vegetation acts as pure kindling and won’t take much to set on fire.
2. Manage your trees and shrubs
   Trim tree branches that hang over rooftops and trim lower branches to give 6-10 feet of space from the tree trunk to the canopy to prevent fire from climbing the tree and spreading. Keep shrubs spaced and trimmed so fire cannot easily travel from plant to plant.
3. Protection beyond your buildings
   Parks, trailheads, maintenance yards, and right-of-way corridors all need inspection and maintenance. Mow dry grass, remove brush piles and clear debris from drainage areas. These are overlooked areas that can serve as ignition, fire fuel, and pathways for fire to spread.
4. Have a plan – and actually use it
   Reviewing your disaster plan isn’t just a good risk management idea – it’s an RMSA Member Standard. Dust it off before wildfire season and make sure it reflects current staff, contacts, and conditions.

If wildfire is your community’s biggest disaster risk, consider going a step further and running a tabletop exercise with your team. Walking through a scenario on paper is one of the best ways to identify gaps before a real emergency exposes them. Make sure staff know evacuation routes and their roles if evacuation is ordered. And don’t go it alone – your county emergency management office and local fire department are key partners.