The Mendocino County Fire Safe Council Celebrates its 20th Anniversary

The Mendocino County Fire Safe Council is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Taking shape in 2003 and registered as a nonprofit corporation in March 2004, MCFSC has responded to the increased threat of major wildfires of recent years with tremendous growth, activity and creative projects to promote wildfire preparedness and safety throughout Mendocino County. 

Why MCFSC?

by Colin Wilson, MCFSC Co-Founder, Founding Board President, former Anderson Valley Fire Chief, and past President of the Mendocino County Fire Chiefs Association

In early 2003, Julie Rogers and I met on a committee to “Save the Ukiah Air Attack Base,” which had been slated for abandonment that year.  

I had recently worked on the Cedar Fire as an engine company officer, and was profoundly impacted by the huge losses in both lives and property. That experience made me realize that good prevention work would be of much greater value in saving lives and property than the best fire-suppression response.

Julie and I researched the various options for fire-safety organizations, and settled on pursuing a Fire Safe Council for Mendocino County. In cooperation with several other like-minded folks, we established a 501(c)(3) and began pursuing various grant opportunities. The rest is history.  

I have worked in several different roles dealing with fire suppression and prevention, and I feel that my work with the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council was one of the most rewarding accomplishments in my career.  

How MCFSC Began

by Julie Rogers, MCFSC Co-Founder and Founding Executive Director

 MCFSC began as an outgrowth of the successful effort in early 2003 to keep Cal Fire’s Ukiah Air Attack Base open. During that campaign, Chief Colin Wilson, then president of the Mendocino County Fire Chiefs Association, was one of our strongest advocates, and I helped coordinate the volunteer activities.  

During this effort I came to realize that many county residents were completely relying on air tankers—and fire engines—to save their properties from fire, instead of taking any actions themselves to prepare and defend their properties. I also learned that the air tankers, though wonderfully helpful, were not always immediately available, and that some remote properties were nearly an hour’s drive from the nearest fire station. 

So, after our success, I asked Chief Wilson if Mendocino County had a citizen-based wildfire preparedness effort. He responded, “No, but I wish we did.” We agreed to stay in touch toward that end. 

Later that year, he and I went to a two-day Firewise training, at which we learned about the concept of fire safe councils. We also began exploratory meetings with local fire chiefs toward creating such an organization for Mendocino County. Our first public meeting, in January 2004, garnered contributions of $1,200, which was our operating budget for the next year. 

In early 2005 the Allen-Heath Memorial Foundation granted us $14,000, our first significant funding. Having just learned that future federal grant funding for fire safe councils would require having a Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) in place, we used those funds to create the first Mendocino County CWPP. We held eleven public meetings around the county to gain local input, and the CAL FIRE Mendocino Unit contributed maps and data. Ours was the first in California to be a truly grassroots, locally-written CWPP—rather than one created by expensive non-local consultants, which soon became the norm. 

The Allen-Heath Memorial Foundation continued to grant us funding for eight years, providing the “glue” that held together our frugal operational budget. And our CWPP enabled us to gain nearly a million dollars of federal funding through 2012 for projects to improve wildfire preparedness around the county.  

 As the initiator and coordinator of our educational, motivational, and on-the-ground work, I soon realized that MCFSC would be ineffective unless we incorporated the results of the latest scientific findings into our work. So I reached out to learn from experts in two fields of study: (1) fire ecology, on the relationship between wildland fire and the environment; and (2) fire behavior as it relates to “home ignitions,” namely how fire spreads and causes buildings to ignite and burn. (It’s not what most people think: small burning embers falling on small flammable objects are the biggest culprits, not forests of mature trees.) 

The more I learned, and the more I applied this knowledge in our educational outreach, the more effective our work became. People began to understand the underlying concepts of how to prepare their homes and properties to resist negative impacts from wildland fires, while still respecting the natural environment. Our two editions of “Living with Wildfire in Mendocino County” contained easy-to-understand articles based on both science and common sense; and counties throughout California duplicated our articles in their publications.

I highly recommend reading and implementing the scientific findings of Dr. Jack Cohen, whose research on “home ignitions” is the basis of the Firewise program’s guidelines. With his help, in 2010 I created a Wildfire Risk Assessment specific to Mendocino County, with scoring that he assigned to various risk factors based on his decades of work. The University of California Cooperative Extension program also offers excellent resources and assistance.

MCFSC and the residents of Mendocino County would do well to continue basing their work not on popular ideas, or on what the media or even government agencies may say, but rather on solid science that demonstrates how people can live in harmony with their natural surroundings, all the while preparing themselves and their properties to “live with” wildland fires. 

MCFSC’s Early Days 

by Lauren Robertson, Pine Mountain Fire Safe Council/Firewise Community

I have been involved since the start, even before Julie Rogers and Colin Wilson decided to form the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council. Julie Rogers got involved in 2003 when CAL FIRE announced closure of its air support services at the Ukiah Airport, and helped lead a successful campaign to keep the tankers there. MCFSC grew out of that effort. 

In its earlier years, there wasn’t much money. Julie worked alone, with some help from occasional funding and volunteers. The Allen-Heath Memorial Foundation and other grants and donations provided annual funding. After Julie left, and before the major wildfires in this county began in 2017, there were other directors but little money or impetus for building up a strong MCFSC.

Our Pine Mountain Fire Safe Council (in Willits) started about the same time as MCFSC; it was the first Neighborhood Fire Safe Council in Mendocino County. We received an early $59,000 grant for chipping, mapping, signage, and educational mailings. The Black Bart Trail, Brooktrails (predecessor to Sherwood Firewise), and Robinson Creek FSCs were other early active groups. 

Mark Tolbert, one of CAL FIRE’s Battalion Chiefs, was extremely supportive of the FSC concept. Pine Mountain qualified as a Firewise Community (a local fire safe council with significant organization and activity) in 2013, with a great deal of help from Jeff Tunnell of the Ukiah BLM office. Just prior to the 2017 fires, Tricia Austin became CAL FIRE’s Fire Prevention Specialist, and remains extremely supportive of the FSC concept. 

Several major wildfires in recent years have gotten everyone’s attention, and there are still a lot of people, including the MCFSC, working to decide what to do and how to do it.

MCFSC’s Recent History

by Mary Buckley, MCFSC Staff

In 2018, spurred by the October 2017 Redwood Complex Fire and other record-breaking wildfires sweeping through the state, the Mendocino County Resource Conservation District took MCFSC under its wing and took steps to reactivate it. Megan McClure, the MCRCD executive director at the time, began to revive its funding and activities, and Scott Cratty was hired as MCFSC’s executive director in January 2020.

Since that point, MCFSC has become independent again, and has gained solid support from the County of Mendocino, Community Foundation of Mendocino County, CAL FIRE, the State Coastal Conservancy, the California Fire Safe Council, PG&E, MCFSC members, and other supporters and funders. The number of MCFSC’s affiliated Neighborhood Fire Safe Councils (NFSCs) has grown from 18 in 2019 to more than 70; its annual budget is in the millions; it is now an employer with a staff of ten, including its own crew and equipment; and programs continue to be expanded and created.

Current programs and activities include: free Community Chipper Days and Home Assessments, free Defensible-Space Assistance for Income-Eligible seniors and persons with disabilities (DSAFIE); custom reflective address signs; Micro-Grants funding for small, strategic wildfire-safety projects for NFSCs and fire departments; sponsorship and support of many kinds for affiliated NFSCs; abundant home-hardening and defensible-space information, including such features as an in-house-produced how-to video series, available on its ever-improving website, and a list of local contractors, some of whom offer discounts to MCFSC members; targeted mapping projects; project-planning coordination with CAL FIRE, fire chiefs, NFSCs and other groups countywide; commitment to a forest-stewardship approach in its implementation projects; outreach in many forms including new or updated publications and mailings, radio interviews, monthly newsletter, media articles, blog and Facebook posts, booths at community events; educational outreach to local schools; and more.

Twenty years from its founding, in a fast-changing world of environmental and other crises, a revitalized MCFSC continues to grow and strive to improve. Membership and donations to MCFSC support its ongoing work in support of its mission “To inform, empower and mobilize county residents to survive and thrive in wildfire-prone environments.”

MCFSC Today and Tomorrow

by Nancy Armstrong-Frost, President of the Board of Directors

MCFSC is committed to helping our community through whatever impacts severe weather and climate change may bring to our wildfire-prone environment. We continue assisting residents and neighborhoods with our programs promoting home safety, roadside clearing, education, outreach and community resilience.  

An area of growth I’m most proud of is our Micro-Grant Program, now in its third year. This program supports local fire agencies and fire safe councils throughout the county to enable projects such as emergency water supplies, equipment, prescribed burning and community education. 

The reinvigoration and growth of the MCFSC over the last five years has been tremendous. Leading our phenomenal staff, Executive Director Scott Cratty has been able to productively expand our programs and activities. I’m proud of our efforts to help community members across the entire county prepare their homes and neighborhoods for wildfire. 

Thank you for continuing to support MCFSC’s tremendous work preparing our community for each and every wildfire season. 

For more information, or to donate and/or contact the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council, visit firesafemendocino.org or email admin@firesafemendocino.org.