Umatilla County to devise a wildfire protection plan
By Terry Murry on Friday, October 20th, 2023 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
UMATILLA COUNTY – Umatilla County Emergency Manager Sage DeLong recently received a grant to host a series of town halls to discuss what steps need to be taken to reduce the risk of wildfires. He says input from the people that live in the area is vital to creating a five-year Community Wildfire Protection Plan.
“You have flat plains and then you have forests, you have wind-driven runs,” he said. “There is a lot of uniqueness.”
DeLong said that there will also be meetings with all of the fire protection agencies in the area.
“You have a lot of agencies,” he said. “You have Tribal, federal, state, and county. Just bringing all of those parties together and figuring out a plan we can mitigate some of those risks and help the citizens out.”
He said that community input is of paramount importance to forming the plan.
“I urge everybody out there to come to the town halls, speak about what kind of project you guys want done,” he said. “That’s kind of the most important part. Then, we’ll take all of that and we’ll put it into a plan.”
Details for those town halls that will start in January 2024 are still being set and will be announced in the near future.
