Springfield City Council — June 8, 2026

0:03 I'm going to call the Springfield City Council work session to order with roll call. >> Mayor Van Gordon. >> Here. >> Councilor Weber. >> Here. >> Councilor Moe. >> Here. >> Councilor Roddy. >> Here. >> Councilor Quadros. >> Here. >> Councilor Buck. >> Here. >> And Councilor Stout. >> Here. Thank you. >> We have one item this evening, which is the Eugene-Springfield Community Wildfire Protection Plan update with Hannah Shaffer. >> Good evening, Mayor Van Gordon, city council members, city staff. I'm Travis Worthington, deputy chief of community risk reduction and resilience for Eugene-Springfield Fire. Today I have brought Hannah Shaffer, who is our wildfire preparedness manager. She's going to be presenting the CWPP,

0:48 Community Wildfire Protection Plan annex to the county plan, and take it away, Hannah. >> Awesome. Thank you, council. Yeah, today I'll just be providing an update on the Community Wildfire Protection Plan. I'll be saying CWPP to shorten it here on out. Oh, it's not on. Missed the first step. There we go. I'll be going over CWPP's purpose and our development process, our stakeholder and community engagement, diving into the actual risk assessment for the area, our action plan and items, and then finishing up with our plan implementation and maintenance.

1:36 So, CWPP's purpose is to establish a locally driven framework to reduce wildfire risk, protect lives and property, and strengthen community resilience. They initially began with the passage of the Federal Healthy Forests Restoration Act in 2003. These are non-regulatory plans. They act primarily as um an action-oriented planning tool. Um so nothing in this plan mandates um any like code enforcement or anything. It's strictly just a planning tool. Um it identifies wildfire hazards and priorities of concern. Uh it outlines coordinated strategies and partnerships uh to work with other agencies so we can um reduce fire risk in the area. Uh and this plan was uh developed in

2:23 support of the community wildfire risk grant by the Oregon State Fire Marshal. Uh and so we were able to hire a contractor based out of Oklahoma, I believe, um for most of the plan development. Uh and this is developed in alignment with federal and state uh wildfire planning frameworks. Um and so communities that develop and adopt a CWPP are granted priority for federally funded grants. Um and the exact contents uh and boundaries uh of a CWPP um are highly localized. Um and so a little bit different than maybe your

3:08 natural hazard mitigation plan, um but it does complement existing plans like the NHMP, other land use plans, um and other mitigation efforts in the federal, state, and local level. Uh this will be a part of Lane County CWPP, so it'll act as an annex to their plan. They are in the process of updating their plan currently and they're on track to most likely have that adopted by August. This city be CWPP has six goals. Um so goal one is to protect lives, property, and critical infrastructure. Goal two is to enhance wildfire resilience through community engagement and education. Goal three is to reduce hazardous fuels

3:53 and maintain resilient landscapes. Goal four is to improve emergency response and recovery capabilities. Goal five is to strengthen collaboration across jurisdictions and goal six is to support policy alignment and regulatory integration. So, we try to align the plan with these six goals. And getting into our stakeholder and community engagement, um we had a stakeholder committee. Uh so, we received active participation from cities of Springfield and Eugene, um especially the parks and rec departments of both cities and emergency management departments. Um Willamalane Parks and Recreation, Oregon Department of Forestry, Lane

4:38 County Emergency Management, Oregon State Fire Marshal, EWEB and Springfield Utility Board, um El Rapha, and uh US Forest Service, and BLM as well. We're still in some of the community engagement phase, um but one of the first things that we did was release a public survey. Um some of the survey results showed that more than 60% of respondents feel unprepared for a wildfire event. Um and I'm going to focus specifically on Springfield for this presentation just for time's sake. I'm not going to get too much into Eugene side, um but respondents identified that the Thurston Hills are facing the greatest uh wildfire risk in Springfield area.

5:23 Priority concerns there are primarily evacuation safety and damage to their properties. Uh there is also strong interest in vegetation management assistance and getting assistance for financial and technical support as well. And getting into the actual risk assessment, um this can get really technical, so I'm going to try keep it as brief as I as possible. Um the purpose of the risk assessment is to establish a data-informed foundation uh and a tool for understanding the wildfire hazards in this area. So, we kind of use multiple data sets and have a layered approach and modeling that created one comprehensive risk map uh to identify where mitigation would be

6:09 most effective in the area. Um some of those um data sets and modeling come from the community wildfire risk reduction zones. So, that incorporates burn probability, fire intensity, and proximity to homes and structures. Another one is the Interagency Fuel Treatment Decision Support System. This uh used This was used to model potential fire behavior uh and spread under certain conditions like of weather, um wind patterns. Uh these layers are also publicly available. And then another one was LANDFIRE um which used vegetation and fuel characteristics. So, this is the overall wildfire risk map. Um and again, this shows where risk

6:55 reduction efforts would be most useful. Um so, this is just overall kind of showing the entire um wildland-urban interface zones, a bigger picture of Lane County. Um although the urban core of some of Eugene and Springfield are uh rated lower risk, um the outskirts area, uh specifically in the WUI zones, are moderate to high risk. Um the greatest vulnerabilities there are in the surrounding WUI areas. And then this map here um is associated risk rating for the entire metro area. And so, these areas identified um that were identified by fire personnel, um planning staff, land managers, and emergency management, Um

7:43 it shows direct exposure, um which is areas within a high burn probability um and intense fire behavior areas. Um think like more directly um in forested areas. And then indirect exposure, so um flying embers and uh like radiant heat from nearby fires. Um let's see. And then getting um into some specific areas within Eugene or sorry, Springfield. The Bob Straub Parkway and Thurston Hills area um was one of the highest areas of concern due to the proximity of homes to unmanaged vegetation. Um there's limited buffer zones around each

8:29 home, which creates a heightened risk of wildfire spread into those developed residential areas. Um in the right conditions, especially when there's those east driven east driven winds, um those can really accelerate rapid fire spread into the residential zones. Um and so as you can imagine, the Thurston Hills, it's also um pretty windy and steep. And so there's also some evacuation concerns there. And so we like to identify mitigation priorities for each risk area. >> [clears throat and cough] >> The first one would be to create defensible space around homes. Um since these are existing homes and we can't build them up perfectly to be prepared for fire, one of the um most

9:14 effective strategies to that is to create um defensible space around homes, which is essentially a buffer. And those can be 0 to 5 ft out from the home, 5 to 30 ft out from the home, and then 30 ft to 100 ft and beyond. Um the most important thing that we like to focus on is the first 0 to 5 ft around the home. So encouraging homeowners, creating incentives for them to be able to create that space around their home that's clear of any flammable vegetation. Also creating fuel breaks between developments um and natural areas um and promoting homeowner awareness uh through our proud fire program. Another area that's not quite in Eugene-Springfield Fire's jurisdiction

9:59 um but as we all know, wildfire doesn't really know boundary lines. Um I wanted to mention Doris Ranch and Willamette Heights. Um this was included in the CWPP due to their elevated fire risk, dense vegetation, and again more proximity to those residential areas. Um mitigation actions are similar to before um implementing fuel breaks along key roadways, thinning of some of the ladder fuels. Um ladder fuels meaning anything that's kind of an underbrush that connects direct directly up to tree crowns that can kind of creates a continual fuel load. Um and more defensible space awareness for homeowners.

10:45 Another area, again not quite in our jurisdiction but is of concern, is the McKenzie River area. Um this is a WUI area, has a lot of wildfire history. They provide transportation, utility, and water supply corridor for the region. Um the geography and wind patterns increase the fire susceptibility into Springfield. And so, for this, we just would really focus on collaboration with county efforts, which they're working on in their plan currently, um to plan for mutual aid, sheltering needs, uh and smoke incursion into the metro area, especially cuz a lot of folks will be evacuating down into Springfield from there. Um and also just partnering up with any landscape fuel fuel treatments that we can.

11:35 And then for the action plan portion of the CWPP, um, we list action items associated with each of the six goals that I mentioned um in the beginning. And then we list the agencies that will collaborate on each action. These are rated from high, medium to low um based on the anticipated impact um and feasibility of given items. And I just wanted to go over a couple um specific action items for each of those goals. Um I won't read them word for word for time's sake. Um but goal one, protect lives, property, and critical infrastructure. Um one of them is to integrate uh the community wildfire risk reduction zone data into local GIS platforms um and

12:21 just really localize that to provide more education uh to community members um and then completing more risk assessment specifically for critical infrastructure. And then goal two there, um enhancing wildfire resilience through community engagement. Um one goal that we have is to offer more preparedness resources uh in Spanish and create more local resources as well. We currently pull a lot of our um resources from state and federal, but we'd like to start developing more localized. Goal three, reduce hazardous fuels and maintain resilient landscapes. Um implementing fuel reduction projects on properties um larger properties and then reducing

13:06 fuels along parks um primarily trail corridors for emergency access. Goal four, improve emergency response and recovery capabilities. Um creating and publicizing uh evacuation route maps, um making sure folks are um knowledgeable of those, and then uh uh pre-designate and equip temporary evacuation centers and defensible space and backup power. That's one that I see um really feasible for Springfield specifically just because a lot of folks are going to be evacuating to this area if a wildfire event were to occur up the McKenzie. And then goal five, strengthen collaboration across jurisdictions. Um once the CWPP is adopted, we hope to hold regular interagency um coordination

13:52 meetings uh to kind of hold each action item accountable and check in with each other, and then also partner up on grant applications. And then finally goal six, um support policy alignment and regulatory integration. Um this one will be a little bit longer to achieve. Um Oregon State Fire Marshal currently has model code available for local jurisdictions to adopt. So that could be certain home hardening codes or defensible space codes. Um and so we would like to get a review team together to sort of look at those and see what can Eugene and Springfield um maybe start incorporating. Um and that would be like towards the end of 2029. And then something maybe a little bit sooner than that in 2027, um implement a

14:40 standardized process to distribute defensible space materials um to residential permit applicants. Um and this would just be educational and for their awareness on um things that they can do to lessen their wildfire risk. And then to wrap up our plan implementation and maintenance plans. So CWPPs are intended to be a living document um updated every five years. Uh Eugene-Springfield Fire will serve as the lead agency uh for maintaining and coordinating these efforts. Uh our outreach and education are going to continue throughout the summer months. We have a lot of presentations um and events lined up for us to attend and talk about the plan and wildfire preparedness.

15:26 And then, um, when the plan is adopted, we'll get an advisory committee together. Um, that's made up of stakeholders, and that, uh, committee will be responsible for evaluating progress on action items, um, providing collaboration on multi-agency grant applications, um, identifying community outreach opportunities, partnering up on um, fuel treatment projects, identifying, um, new, like, risks, uh, and then any needed mapping updates, working together to update those. And so, that kind of wraps up the overview of the plan. Um, I know that was a lot of information all at once, so we'd be happy to answer any of your questions, hear any of your comments,

16:11 take any of your feedback. Yeah, thank you. >> All right, Councilmember Stockholm. Thank you. As one who lives in Thurston, I very much appreciate your attentiveness to that. Um, I I have a question. Uh, a topic that comes up frequently is dead trees. I know we had this with the ice storms. How does that How might dead trees play a role in whether it's fuel breaks or just general preparedness? Is that a signi- Is that a significant thing that residents would look at, or are you saying that just all trees are basically going to burn the same? >> Yeah, I mean, dead trees, um, are pretty dry, and so they are more flammable than a healthy live tree. Um, it really depends on how close they are in proximity to other structures and other vegetation as well. Um, I

16:57 mentioned ladder fuels before, and so if there's a lot of underbrush around the dead tree and other vegetation that could spread, um, that's when it's really concerning, or if it's close to a home or kind of over top of a roof, um, that would is when it's the most concerning, and you'd want to take care of it. >> A- And so, I think, um, I'm asking your expertise as in terms of a policy directive. I don't know if we have a certain fee that we require certain homeowners to pay when they are felling a tree, but I'm curious on a city level if we are enabling our citizens to be able to take down dead trees. Would it make a meaningful difference is basically all dead trees that we had close to some of these interface lands were easily able to be removed. Would that make it any substantial difference

17:43 to the fire preparedness? I think that's the question. >> I mean yeah, I definitely think so. I know that a lot of people have concerns about neighboring properties and so I think if there's some sort of accessibility that would you know, make it easier more affordable for those to be removed. I think that would be a huge help in terms of lessening the wildfire risk. >> Councilor Radley. >> Thank you. So when I was reading through the plan and I think it's on page 26. There's a chart that was like total incidents by fire category and there was some some narrative and stuff in there too. Because when I think about wildfires and we talk about them it's often this conversation we talk about

18:28 like vegetation and defensible spaces. But then when I was looking at I'm like oh there's quite a few other causes for fires you know, including vehicles. There was a whole section that says outside rubbish and I'm like is that like people just with messy things and you know, so I just and it might be bigger than this meeting, but I'm just curious as to how I mean is there an opportunity for us to do some educational programming? Is it you know, to the point about the dead trees? Like I think there are other things that maybe people aren't thinking about that are adding to the wildfire risk. So there was kind of a question in there about those other things and what are we doing about them? >> Right. Yeah, on the east side of the sorry west side of the Cascades,

19:13 um most fires are human-caused. So, the leading cause is escaped debris piles, which I know in certain parts of Eugene and Springfield, um open burning is completely prohibited all year long. Um in some of the urban growth boundary areas, it is it is open um for burning during certain times of the year. Um and so, there is that prevention um education and awareness that we're also trying to spread, especially as it gets closer to 4th of July. Um so, yeah, east of the Cascades, there's a lot of lightning and storms involved that can cause fires, but west of the Cascades, it's primarily um human-caused. Um and so, yeah, if there's any uh prevention education uh we're trying to really put that out, especially as we get into the

19:58 summer months. I know um in Eugene, we closed down Skinner Butte parking lot due to some of the hazardous activity that occurs up there. Um and so, we're trying to find the causes common causes that happen around here and try and figure out ways to address those. >> That's work. Um I definitely appreciate uh you know, your comments on the Thurston Hills area. Um it's it's definitely something personal for me. That's um my property is right up against um where the Warehouse Road there. So, um I I want to first say I really appreciate all the work. I mean, it's it's evident Well, Amazon cleared out a lot of that brush up those uh along the property line last year,

20:43 and I'm sure that was uh that was something you guys were involved in. So, thank you for that. I I know that there's a lack of understanding in a lot of those neighborhoods as to where we were to have um a wildfire heading to town that you know, there was some concern like this could get into those residential areas. How that evacuation would go, what options would people do, what would people do, how would they do that. It's something I've had a lot of conversations in in in my neighborhoods about, and the most common answer is, I don't know, I've not really ever thought about it, which is probably the worst answer that they could have, and and they they recognize it, so I think that in terms of

21:30 preparedness, um, my concern and my feedback would be, I don't know that some of those neighborhoods out there are have given it significant thought and are prepared or have some sort of plan, and so anything we can do to help with that, um, to sign or just create like start thinking about it or what that would look like, I think that would be good cuz there's some real physical barriers there in some of those neighborhoods. There's one one entrance and exit, and if you have 100 homes, that's going to be a problem. So, what do you do? And there's solutions, but they just haven't been flushed out. So, those are just some thoughts that I have. >> Thanks, Counselor Buck. Yeah, we were able to get, um, partner with Willamette Lane and offer some fuels reduction sites at Bob Art's

22:16 Park. Um, that had pretty good turnout from from the area. We sent out mailers to, um, a lot of homes in the Thurston Hills area, um, but I think, yeah, there there could be a lot more awareness in terms of like wildfire preparedness and evacuation safety in those areas. >> Uh, Counselor Quadros. >> So, the survey indicated that the community felt like there was strong interest in vegetation management. What in your mind, um, do they think that means? Is that defensible space? What what what would that really look like? >> Yeah, so defensible space, so creating that buffer around their homes. There's a lot of excess vegetation, and so a lot of residents struggle with what to do with that vegetation, how to dispose of

23:02 it, um getting assistance doing the work, uh either it's unaffordable, um they're not able to do it themselves if they can't afford to hire someone to do it. So, getting assistance with that, um and again, like disposing of it has a lot of fees, um and so providing uh programs for them to be able to get the necessary work done around their homes is what I think that they're referring to. >> Um thank you for doing this, right? It's a really important step for us as a community. I've got a couple of questions and one piece of slight feedback. When I looked at the maps, the color coding, especially when you're talking about how uh how fire transitions, you're using a

23:49 lot of greens and in my head I was thinking, "Oh, those areas were fine." Right? Like and you know, a lot of the greens are saying, "Oh, no, it's it's essentially a grass fire or it's a tree fire in these areas." And they're between two high exposure fires. When I read it originally, I looked at it and said, "Oh, those areas are fine." And then I went, "Oh, wait a minute. No, they're not saying they're fine. They're just saying describing the transition risk to me." The other question that I have is when I think about the two groups of risks that we have around fire prevention and essentially ice storms, right? They're on two collective ends. How does the work that we do, is there any way that work we do in your action plan from a preparedness perspective with fire helps prepare us for the ice

24:34 question? >> Yeah. Yeah, I think that they're definitely complimentary. Um you know, when I go out and I recommend people clear out any vegetation around their home, especially overhanging branches to their roofs, I always say, "This isn't just for wildfire as well. It's for to prepare for potential ice storms that we experienced in 2024." Um so, trying to prevent that from happening again. This plan also complements the natural hazard mitigation plan for um, Springfield and Lane County as well. Um, and so a lot of actions kind of overlap in that way. >> And what's the number one thing you want the public to hear from this, right? It can be so easily focused on what I am in Lane in the sort of the wilderness area,

25:19 but if I own a home in Thurston or own a home, you know, down Bob Straub, what should I be taking away from this plan? >> Yeah, it's it's your home. Um, you you can take the actions to make your home more wildfire prepared. No one's going to come out and do it for you right now. Um, it's it's your responsibility. Um, and I think there are resources out there to help understand how those can be done. We offer free risk assessments where we go out and assess and make recommendations for how they can better prepare their home. And so I would recommend to look out for that. Um, and also like being really involved in your neighborhood, trying to spread the message to your neighbors and community. Um, making sure that they are aware of this um,

26:05 upcoming fire season and things that they can do to prepare their home. >> Are we partnering with um, the insurance industry here because the insurance industry has a vested interest, right? In reducing wildfire uh, risk across the city. >> Yeah, we're not partnering with insurance um, agencies. Uh, there are some agencies that are kind of doing their own thing when it comes to wildfire. Um, I personally don't own a home, but I hear it all the time that um, they had someone come out from their insurance agency to do a risk assessment and they were able to get um, maybe some reduced uh, costs associated with that. Um, Chief, do you know more on that? >> Yeah, something else on that we're starting to see as a trend in the state is insurance companies asking the policy

26:50 holder, have you had a defensible space and did you do the work that was recommended out of defensible space. So, we envision in the next few years of legislation that that's going to be something that we're going to have to be on the lookout for as insurance companies actually looking for policy holders to have had a defensible space, and what have they done to also harden their homes. >> Okay, and then lastly um so much of this is driven by sort of utility infrastructure overlays, right? Like and I know right that that's So, what's the conversation with the utilities been around managing vegetation, you know, what do they call them like selective brownouts when it's windy at a certain point, or maybe even burying regional infrastructure where where appropriate? >> Yeah, I know on the utility side um I

27:36 know we have like pre-fire season check-ins, and they do talk about public safety power shut-offs. Um and so on those high really high wildfire risk days on red flag days, they will sometimes do those um to prevent any ignitions from happening. Um and then in this plan any action items such as underlining um or anything like that those are prioritized actions, and we do have a lot of um some critical infrastructure assessments to still be done throughout this process. Um but yeah, I think in EWEB um and Springfield Utility Board is is pretty active um and wanting to partner up, and they take it very seriously. >> All right, great. And I maybe have one comment for the chief, and maybe I can get your answer uh when when we get

28:21 done. Um when I think about wildfire risk, some of it is just in vehicles with especially towing camping material, you know, other other trailers. Is patrol intervening if they see something that is like an active wild because somebody's got a loose chain creating sparks, right? Like would would patrol stop somebody if that was happening? Okay, good. All right, any other questions? Thank you. This is really helpful. >> Thank you. >> Thanks for your time. >> That is the only work session item. I'm going to go ahead and adjourn the work session. We are going to reconvene in a seated executive session as soon as we can change over the room to a completely different meeting.