JACKSON, Wyo. — The Jackson Hole Fire/EMS Department has updated the Community Wildfire Protection Plan and recommends that the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) boundary should extend to include all private property in the Town of Jackson and Teton County.
The proposed change would also ban the use of wood shakes in all parts of the Town and County.
Officials from Fire/EMS presented the updated plan to elected officials during a workshop at the May 6 Joint Information Meeting between the Town Council and Board of County Commissioners.
“Just because you are in the WUI does not mean you will have code requirements…it’s just an acknowledgment that you have wildfire risk.”
Raymond Lane, Jackson Hole Fire/EMS FIre Marshall
The discussion was informal and resulted in the Town Council passing a motion directing their staff to bring back more details about extending the boundary and a community outreach plan. The County Commissioners had no legal council at the meeting, so they shared an informal expression of support. Fire/EMS will bring the item back to elected officials during a future meeting before any changes are officially made.
The Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) was last updated in 2014 and needs to be updated at least every 10 years to avoid losing grant funding opportunities. Fire/EMS received grant funding through the Western States WUI grant for the CWPP update and contracted with Jensen Hughes, but the contract ends in July, so changes to the plan need to be made soon.
Fire Marshall Raymond Lane presented the new WUI boundary during the meeting and explained that extending the boundary will help mitigate risks before a fire starts. Lane pointed out that the WUI boundary set in 2014 included most of the county and portions of the town, including residential areas around Snow King and on the east side of Redmond Street.
According to the staff report, the proposed boundary will be defined by natural or man-made features to avoid parcels being split along the boundary, which Fire/EMS says is an “ongoing issue.”
“I think our risk [of wildfires] is greater than we think,” Lane said.
“In the event that we have a major fire here, Jackson Hole Fire/EMS and our federal partners together are not going to have enough manpower to protect every single structure that is in the ember fallout zone of that fire,” Lane said. “We are never going to have the manpower, it’s just not a reality. The point of us trying to do this is to give us a chance so these structures can stand alone.”
According to Fire/EMS, research shows that ember showers can travel 23 miles in the right conditions. The findings in the updated CWPP also note that populated areas in Teton County have, on average, greater wildfire risk than 84% of communities in the state.
The extension of the boundary will make all new construction subject to WUI code review, and Fire/EMS acknowledged that building costs for new construction could increase, but existing homes will likely have little to no compliance requirements.
“Just because you are in the WUI does not mean you will have code requirements,” Lane said. “A lot of the time, you actually end up with no requirements, it’s just an acknowledgment that you have wildfire risk.”
Lane explained that another common misconception about extending the boundary is that homeowner’s insurance could increase or be denied.
“When it comes to writing policies, if they are on the fence about a property, they will actually look at the CWPP for the community to see if it is updated and a well-written document,” Lane said. “We are on the same team here, so if they see the county and local government are doing the right thing by trying to build more wildfire-resistant [homes], they will write that policy.”
Tyler Sinclair, Town Manager, also spoke during the meeting, noting the town’s current policies and that the change might require additional staffing to manage compliance.
“Right now for the Town of Jackson, we do not issue permits for roofing, siding or decks,” Sinclair said. “With the addition of this [boundary extension] we are going to have to figure out what that looks like because my understanding is, we are going to need to check those things now. Whether that all comes over to the fire department or whether some of that stays with the building department, we’ll have to work through that.”
