Plan Aims to Protect Northeast Nebraska from Wildfires

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May 18, 2015

Lincoln, Neb. — The Nebraska Forest Service intends to implement a Community Wildfire Protection Plan in northeast Nebraska. The plan provides a way for community leaders, fire departments and residents to identify possible issues and remedies for communities and infrastructure at risk from wildfires.

In Nebraska, four protection plans are in place: Pine Ridge, North Central, Loess Canyons and Wildcat Hills, which will be expanded this summer.

The plan must be developed collaboratively and agreed upon by local governments, fire departments and the Nebraska Forest Service with interested parties and any federal land-management agencies in the area. The forest service initiates the process to allow the agency to apply for grant funds to assist communities, agencies and landowners to complete fuels reduction projects.

The new project has been titled the Missouri River Northeast CWPP and includes Lewis and Clark Recreation Area. Twenty-seven fire districts in Knox, Cedar, Dixon and Dakota counties will be used as the community structure within the plan. The Wildcat Hills plan will be expanded from a single homeowner's association in the Gering fire district to an additional 25 fire districts in seven counties.

The Nebraska Forest Service has hired a forestry consultant, Kim Slezak of Milligan, to facilitate the plan. Kim completed the protection plan for the Loess Canyons area in southwest Nebraska last summer.

"We need input from the area experts, the community leaders and firefighters," she said. "They know the land. They know the local issues. Collaboration is imperative to achieve a true snapshot of conditions and resources at risk and to arrive at a workable CWPP that will benefit all citizens."

Local and county government officials, fire chiefs, emergency managers, Nebraska Game and Parks, the Natural Resource Districts, National Park Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will be contacted via email and invited to complete a survey for background information to use in each protection plan. 

For more information, visit http://www.nebcwpp.slezakag.com.


Kim Slezak
Nebraska Forest Service
402-629-4383
kim@slezakag.com

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