CARBONDALE-About a dozen people from local fire agencies and the public met Wednesday night at Southern Illinois University Carbondale's Agricultural Sciences building to discuss a Community Wildfire Protection Plan, an initiative to prepare rural landowners for the potential threat of wildfire.

"The CWPP allows subdivisions and homeowners associations the ability to have some hazardous fuel reduction treatments done around their houses," said Charles Ruffner, forestry professor at SIUC. "It's the opportunity to secure funding to have someone do that and make their subdivision more safe."

Initially, the Makanda Township and Murphysboro-Pomona-Somerset fire districts have been chosen to have a CWPP established because of their proximity to Cedar Lake, Carbondale's watershed, but Ruffner said as many as six to 10 protection plans could be supported in Southern Illinois.

'Hazardous fuel' refers to any flammable material that can ignite a wildfire, including fallen trees and brush. Organizers of the CWPP hope to make landowners aware of such hazards and encourage them to reduce the amount of risk on their property, most specifically within 30 feet of their home or other structures.

Members of the Forestry department have been hard at work building a risk assessment map of the region, identifying the highest-risk areas for fueling fire, which usually correlate to steeply sloped areas and spots with heavy amounts of hazardous fuel.

Having an organized and documented plan will also give the fire districts priority when attaining grant money from FEMA, paying for anything from removal of hazardous fuels to purchasing new fire engines.

The plan is still in the organizational stages, needing more assessment and community collaboration before it can be submitted, said Dennis Carril, a Forestry Consultant at SIUC.

"Tonight we were hoping to get the word out there, start the ball rolling, get people interested and show the importance of wildfire protection in the southern Illinois area," he said.

The group plans to meet again in the fall, possibly mid-September, and hold a 'Field Day', a demonstration at the Touch of Nature Environmental Center of how to reduce the risk of wildfires.

thomas.barker@thesouthern.com

618-351-5805