The east cascades region of chelan county washington has been identified infire models as an area with some of the highest fire risk in the united states

The Cascadia Conservation District was awarded a $900,000 cooperative agreement from the U.S. Department of the Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service under the National Fire Plan-Wildland Urban Interface Community Fire Assistance program (CFDA 15.674). This funding will support the implementation of fuels treatment projects on private lands adjacent to power line corridors in the East Cascades region of Chelan County, Washington. The goal is to reduce the risk of wildfire damage to critical utility infrastructure and enhance community fire resilience within the high-risk Leavenworth area. Key activities will include working with private landowners to develop forest management plans and provide cost-share assistance for implementing hazardous fuels reduction treatments. The project will be implemented over a 4-year period from September 2023 through September 2027. This cooperative agreement represents a long-term, sustained investment to address the significant scale of wildfire risk mitigation needs in the region that exceed traditional funding sources.

Local partnerships have been formed to collaboratively reduce fuels within the forest, but additional funds are needed to support private lands treatments at the urban-wildland interface to keep up with the scale of the issue and with expediency to limit the impact of the next fire. IT is important that the program is implemented with private landowners with 5 or more acres that are adjacent to the 140 miles of chelan county public utility district (PUD) powerlines. Prioritizing program implementation within these areas, with the chelan county PUD as a partner, will protect utility infrastructure from fire damage as well as prevent any ignition as a result of high fuel loading near utilities infrastructure. The partners involved will also work with landowners within the utility corridors to develop forest plans for their entire properties and offer additional cost-share programs through the nrcs, DNR, or conservation district to further improve fuel loading and build more fire resilient communities within the project area surrounding the leavenworth area in washington. Treatment needs far exceed traditional funding sources requiring long term sustained investment sufficient to work with many landowners over several years.