JACKSON, Wyo. — On Monday, June 2, Town Council unanimously approved the Jackson Hole Fire/EMS and Emergency Management 2025-2030 Region 8 Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP) as an official planning document to guide the Town’s efforts in reducing risks associated with natural hazards.
The current plan, adopted in 2020, expired on May 29. Emergency Management Coordinator Rich Ochs told Town Council that the mitigation plan is written every five years.
“This is two plans in one,” Ochs said. “It shows potential hazards and the mitigation steps that can be taken to make the community safer.”
According to staff notes, the HMP is a multi-jurisdictional plan covering Teton County and the Town of Jackson. It identifies strategies to reduce long-term risks from natural hazards. Specific to the Town of Jackson, strategies identified include stormwater management, flood mitigation along Flat Creek, advocating for wildfire mitigation measures near Town, updating hazardous slope building regulations and maintaining the latest building codes.
Mayor Arne Jorgensen said that the mitigation plan is “a very serious document.”
“The hazards we face are real,” Jorgensen said. “This planning is important. There’s risk here. This landscape moves and it’s one of the things that makes it so special.”
The planning process was coordinated through the Local Emergency Planning Committee and is consistent with FEMA’s Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 framework.
