INTRODUCTION

The El Dorado County Fire Safe Council has received a grant for twenty-one thousand eight hundred and twenty-three dollars ($21,823) in funding from the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors using their Federal Forest Reserve (Title III) funds. These funds will be used to develop a Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) for the Grizzly Flats community.

The El Dorado County Fire Safe Council received a grant from the United States Forest Service in June 2003, under the Economic Recovery/National Fire Plan to do a Community Action Plan (CAP) for Grizzly Flats. This grant was completed and delivered to the residents of Grizzly Flats as well as an Evacuation Plan and a Biomass Utilization Plan, as per the grant requirements. Members of the El Dorado County Fire Safe Council identified the Grizzly Flats area as one of the highest priorities for wildfire safety planning during their strategic planning meetings. Grizzly Flats was also included as a high priority in the El Dorado County Wildfire Protection Plan adopted by the Council in November 2004. We have included this project as one in our long range planning for the El Dorado County Fire Safe Council. This community is identified in the Federal Register (dated 8/17/01) as a Community At Risk for wildfire. Because there has not been a major wildfire in this community for many years, the likelihood of one occurring within this general area is extremely high.

BACKGROUND

Grizzly Flats is an isolated rural community in south central El Dorado County. The community is surrounded on all sides by public land, mostly the Eldorado National Forest. Many residents have moved to Grizzly Flats because of its beauty, natural resources and isolation. Building of new homes in this community has increased dramatically over the past decade. The community of Grizzly Flats encompasses approximately 1,670 acres, is made of up 1,235 parcels with approximately 500 homes that have been built or are in the process of being build. Grizzly Flats has been identified in the Healthy Forests Initiative as one of seven proposed Environmental Assessment Demonstration Projects in the United States. This project is named the "Last Chance Fuels Reduction Project" and it was selected because past history indicates a high likelihood of a major wildfire occurring within this general area.

During the process of developing their Community Action Plan, a core group of community residents organized to form the Grizzly Flats Fire Safe Council in mid-2004. This Council has an approved set of Bylaws, elected governing officers and holds monthly meetings to organize fire safe projects and promote wild fire public education efforts. They have hand delivered the evacuation plan developed in the CAP along with other public education materials to permanent residents and have mailed this information to non-resident property owners. They have also held various community clean-up days, participated in fairs and other public special events, and have graduated over two dozen residents in the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training sponsored by the El Dorado County Office of Emergency Services. These CERT members will continue to work closely with many agencies in emergency and disaster preparedness.

Severe wildfires in recent years prompted several communities and Fire Safe Councils to independently craft plans for addressing wildfire risk in their immediate vicinity. A rush of similar planning efforts was spurred on by language in Title I of the Healthy Forest Restoration Act (HFRA) of November 2003, which defined CWPP and granted priority to fund hazardous fuel reduction projects in areas where a CWPP was in place. The development of the Grizzly Flats Community Wildfire Protection Plan (GFCWPP) is the next step in helping to make this community more fire safe and to define and prioritize specific fuels reduction projects for implementation.

PROPOSAL

The El Dorado County Wildfire Protection Plan provides specific guidelines for the development of community-based CWPPs. The EDCWPP is currently being digitized and will be available on the EDCFSC website at edcfiresafe.org in the near future. A CD containing the plan can be obtained by contacting the Executive Coordinator at board@edcfiresafe.org. Because the format and process for CWPP development in the HFRA was vague, the Society of American Foresters, the National Association of State Foresters, Communities Committee, Western Governors' Association, and the National Association of Counties combined their expertise to write and distribute a straight forward guide on how to create and implement CWPPs that are HFRA-compliant. "Preparing a Community Wildfire Protection Plan: A Handbook for Wildland-Urban Interface Communities" dated March 2004 has been included as an appendix in the EDCWPP (Appendix L) and can be downloaded at:

http://www.safnet.org/policyandpress/cwpphandbook.pdf

The Grizzly Flats Community Wildfire Protection Plan, when approved by the El Dorado County Fire Safe Council, will be incorporated into the EDCWPP and updated as necessary.

The Contractor will be hired as a subcontractor to the El Dorado County Fire Safe Council. Limited grant funds are available for postage, supplies and mileage.

RESPONSIBILITIES / SCOPE OF WORK

The Contractor for the Grizzly Flats Community Wildfire Protection Plan will be responsible for the following tasks in accordance with the EDCWPP:

1. Convene decision makers. Form a core team made up of representatives from the appropriate local governments, local fire authorities, and state and federal agencies responsible for management.

2. Involve Federal Agencies. Identify and engage local representatives of the Eldorado National Forest (ENF), California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF), and other management agencies as appropriate.

3. Engage Interested Parties. Contact and encourage active involvement in plan development from a broad range of interested organizations and stakeholders including the Grizzly Flats Fire Safe Council, the Grizzly Flats Community Services District (CSD) and others.

4. Establish a Community Base Map. Using the Community Action Plan as a starting point, work with partners to establish a base line map of the community that defines the Community WUI and displays inhabited areas at risk, forested areas that contain critical human infrastructure, and forest areas at risk for large scale fire disturbances.

5. Recommended Step 5.a by the EDCFSC: Develop a Community Hazard Assessment and Defensibility Analysis (See Hazard Assessment & Defensibility Analysis in Appendix E.)
   Work with partners to:
    

   1. Describe potential fire spread (a function of the fuel complex, etc., using CDF and ENF Hazard Severity Zone determinations).

   2. Describe protection capabilities, access, fire support infrastructure, and the potential for urban conflagration.

   3. Determine First Run Damage Potential expressed in numbers of structures to be defended or likely to be lost.
       

   Step 5.b: Develop a Community Risk Assessment. Work with partners to develop a community risk assessment that considers the risk of fire ignitions, homes, businesses, and essential infrastructure at risk, local preparedness capability and adequacy of evacuation routes, staging areas and firefighter safety. The ISO rating for the agency providing structural fire protection shall be considered here. Rate the level of risk for each factor and incorporate into the base map as appropriate.

6. Establish Community Priorities and Recommendations. Use the base map and community risk assessment to facilitate a collaborative community discussion that leads to the identification of local priorities for fuel treatment, reducing structural ignitability, and other issues of interest, such as improving fire response. This process will be on-going and consist of a minimum of three public community meetings.

7. Develop an Action Plan and Assessment Strategy. Develop a detailed implementation strategy to accompany the Plan as well as monitoring plan that will ensure its long term success and maintenance.

8. Finalize Community CWPP. Finalize the CWPP and communicate the results to community and key partners. After the final CWPP is presented to the community, request that the plan be put on the next scheduled meeting of the Board of Directors of the EDCFSC for approval and incorporation into the EDCWPP. Upon approval, the Contractor will submit hard copies to all stakeholders and a CD that contains the digitized plan to be placed on the EDCFSC website.

9. Provide a methodology for plan update. The Contractor will make formal recommendations for a process to update the plan with accomplishments, revision of priorities if necessary and a recommended schedule for the review process.

10. Work with the EDCFSC Executive Coordinator to identify sources of funding for projects that were identified and recommended in the GFCWPP.

QUALIFICATIONS

Applicants must meet the following qualifications:

• Applicant must have a California licensed Registered Professional Forester as part of their RFP response team.

• Demonstrated experience in interfacing with people from various backgrounds, building concensus, and conducting/coordinating public meetings.

• Demonstrated ablity to incorporate data from various sources and integrate into meaningful information for plan development and capability to provide a digitized plan on an CD as a final project deliverable.

• Demonstrated experience in preparing CWPPs or local Fire Safe Plans.

• Demonstrated relevant experience and technical competence in fuels management, wildfire prevention, forest management and emergency evacuation planning.

• Demonstrated relevant experience and technical competence in working with the United States Forest Service, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the California Forest Practice Act and related environmental regulations.

• Demonstrated experience working in the Sierra Nevada region/Wildland Urban Interface.

• Preferred, but not required, knowledge of the Grizzly Flats community area and surrounding public and private land.

EVALUATION

Members of the El Dorado County Fire Safe Council Board of Directors and the Grizzly Flats Fire Safe Council will evaluate the proposals. If necessary, qualifying candidates may be asked to interview with a panel of FSC representatives.

AVAILABLE FUNDS

The maximum amount of funds available for the Contracted Services in this grant is $18,000.00. There is additional money in the grant for travel, printing, supplies, maps and postage. The selected candidate must acknowledge and affirmatively indicate that he/she can provide the tasks outlined in the Scope of Work within this amount.

PROPOSAL FORMAT

A qualifying proposal must address the following items:

1. Name and address of the respondent to the RFP.

2. Contact person and phone number.

3. Concept paper outlining Contractor's approach to accomplishing proposed scope of work within designated time line.

4. Resumes of all staff who will work on the program and their hourly rates, if applicable.

5. Relevant experience and technical competence.

6. Proposed budget and billing rates.

7. Three references who have knowledge of the respondent's work.
    

PROJECT MILESTONES
 
 

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION

One original and three copies must be mailed to the El Dorado County Fire Safe Council, P.O. Box 1011, Diamond Springs, CA 95619 and postmarked no later than April 22, 2005. . Receipt of the proposal will be acknowledged via email, if available, or by fax. No proposals will be accepted after this deadline. Address any questions to the contact person listed on the first page.

NONDISCRIMINATION

The program or activities conducted under this agreement will be in compliance with the nondiscrimination provisions contained in Titles VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended; the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987 (Public Law 100-259); and other nondiscrimination statutes: namely, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, and the American's with Disabilities Act of 1990. They will also be in accordance with regulations of the Secretary of Agriculture (7CFR-15, Subparts A & B), which provide that no person in the United States shall on the grounds of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, marital or family status, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be otherwise subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture or any agency thereof.