Molly Mowery, AICP’s Post

Expand your hazard planning knowledge! Check out this new article by the APA Tech Division that features four recommended tools to help planners visualize, communicate, and mitigate the growing risk of extreme heat. See link below for the full article.

Being a “wildfire planner” I see many stories about wildfire in my news feed. Occasionally, a story about another hazard captures my interest. In this case, I’ve been following the news about Rancho Palos Verdes in Southern California where residents are experiencing an acceleration of land movement. Some caveats – I’m not a geologist, and I don’t live in the area. I also feel huge empathy for people dealing with this situation, as there is no easy solution. But I think there is always room to explore what we can learn from other hazards, so here are a few thoughts related to this story (and some relevance to wildfire!): 1)  When hazards are connected, life gets more complicated. We often think about singular hazard events but sometimes hazards are related or can have cascading effects. In this case, land movement is threatening utility poles and raising wildfire risk in the area so local power was shut off indefinitely (already there was a small vegetation fire last week). 2)  Although what may seem to be a sudden problem, today’s challenges can be traced back decades. We also see this relative to wildfire, where development has been occurring in some high hazard areas for more than a half century without any mitigation requirements. Thankfully, at least in California, this has changed for new development in fire hazard severity zones--but this is not the case in many other areas of the country. 3)  There may be situations where there is only so much that can be done to mitigate the current threat to an acceptable level of safety. In this community, the roads are buckling and land is sliding at a rate that appears to be accelerating quickly with no easy ways to engineer an appropriate solution. Unfortunately, some of the communities we see in wildfire prone areas also have very severe limitations, including poor access and water supply and vulnerable housing stock – again, many pre-dating today’s regulations (in California). Some of this can be mitigated through retrofits, but often at a significant cost. 4)  Insurance is an ongoing concern for property owners. This article highlights the challenging situation that local residents find themselves in with potentially not having coverage in the event their home is damaged or destroyed from a landslide. Challenges with insurance coverage for other hazards – flood, wildfires – have also been occurring for over a decade in many states; a longer discussion than can be done here. These events serve as reminders of how important land use planning and hazard mitigation decisions are when planning our communities. With increasing climate uncertainty in the future, we also need to be prepared to make upfront mitigation investments, evaluate feasible retrofits, and consider potential long-term displacement. https://lnkd.in/d-ZjXrXU

It's always a good day when I can get out in the field to learn more about wildfire response and suppression activities and post-fire effects. Thanks Ben Yellin (Elk Creek Fire Protection District) and John Mandl (Inter-Canyon Fire Protection District) for the excellent tour! That hike wasn't easy and makes me appreciate even more what wildland firefighters do on the front lines. #QuarryFire #wildfires #postfire

Sharing out for interested colleagues: FEMA Releases National Resilience Guidance (NRG). The NRG offers a unifying vision of resilience and the principles and steps all communities and organizations can take to increase their resilience in every sector and discipline. National resilience is a complex topic and building it requires whole community effort. This Guidance will help everyone understand and fulfill their critical roles related to increasing national resilience. With the goal of increasing community and national resilience, the Guidance: -Promotes a common understanding of resilience. -Emphasizes the critical relationship between chronic community stressors and acute shocks. -Addresses the roles of individuals, organizations and all levels of government. -Provides an actionable approach to resilience planning and implementation. -Incorporates a community resilience maturity model that walks through concrete steps to build resilience.   FEMA will host a series of 60-minute webinar sessions in September and October to discuss the NRG and additional resources available to help new and experienced resilience practitioners improve their communities’ resilience. To view the document and learn more about the webinar sessions, visit the FEMA website at https://lnkd.in/gHuaeTGA

Great to see so many friends and meet new colleagues this week in Vegas! Thanks Desert Research Institute for hosting a fantastic and thought-provoking summit. Michele Steinberg, Timothy Brown, David Shew, Forest Schafer, Tamara Wall, Bob Roper, Scott Farley (and more!)

We often get asked by communities what the economic benefits are to investing in mitigation before a disaster. Thanks Daniel Kaniewski for sharing this new resource from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to reinforce the importance of proactively paying for mitigation and the savings that occurs. This highlight is especially relevant for our work: "After $83 million of investments in resilience and preparedness for a major wildfire, Santa Fe would save 388 jobs, keep almost $45 million of output, and preserve more than $20 million of income in the area."

So grateful for our continued opportunity to collaborate with California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) to spread knowledge about land use planning for wildfires across the state!

A few months ago I had the opportunity to chat with Steve Wolf, director of The Fire Break podcast series. We talked about all things land use planning, wildfire, and more. Thanks Steve Wolf for inviting me on your show and letting me share my thoughts! https://lnkd.in/g6QEcK3T

Five years later, we are still gleaning insights and lessons from the 2018 Camp Fire; this article by photographer and journalist J. Matt (Places Journal) takes a deep dive into the factors that led up to the fire, a raw look at long-term recovery in Paradise, and opportunities to help other communities avoid similar disasters.