Goals & Needs

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Wildfires in Southern California are a frightening reality for many residents. The newly formed Santa Monica Mountains Regional Fire Safe Council aims to connect residents and organizations working toward wildfire mitigation. The Grizzly Corp fellow will provide support in creating and delivering educational workshops, webinars, and community presentations about home hardening, defensible space, and Firewise USA. They will assist with tracking community outreach and creating educational material such as fliers, pamphlets, and newsletter articles. The fellow will need their own transportation for traveling around the Santa Monica Mountains to conduct Home Ignition Zone Evaluations and community outreach. The fellow will receive training on wildfire mitigation best practices, structure analysis, and Firewise USA, however they will be expected to work both independently and collaboratively within our small team. This position offers an exciting opportunity to build capacity and assist hundreds of people in reducing their wildfire risk.

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Capacity Building Projects

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Project #1: Wildfire Education

The Fellow will be trained to lead community presentations and workshops on topics such as home hardening, defensible space, and Firewise USA to both virtual and in person audiences.  If interested, they will have an opportunity to help develop specific presentations and workshops. SMMRFSC’s goal is to host 8 workshops next year.

 

Project #2: Community Outreach Tracking

The Fellow will help maintain a database of community outreach efforts. This will help direct outreach efforts and ensure that all communities within the region are being served. Our goal is to contact 50 neighborhoods next year and maintain a system for continued communication. 

 

Project #3: Outreach Material Development

Support community engagement by creating outreach materials such as fliers, pamphlets, and monthly newsletter articles. Fellow will have access to Canva for creating these resources.

 

Project #4: Firewise Community Development

Support staff in developing Firewise Communities. There are currently 4 Firewise communities in good standing in our area. The goal is to support 5-10 communities through the Firewise application process this coming year. Fellow will receive training in order to answer questions and walk community members through the application process.

 

Project #5: Wildfire Assessments

Conduct Home Ignition Zone Evaluations (HIZ) for residents. Our goal next year is to conduct 100 HIZ, so the Fellow will have an important role as part of our small team. We may also offer Community Wildfire Risk Assessments and the Fellow will have an opportunity to assist with these as well.

 

Project #6: City of Agoura Hills Planning

Assist with community meetings for the Community Wildfire Protection Plan for the city of Agoura Hills. CWPPs are an important way for communities to plan for wildfires and to become eligible for funding opportunities to implement this work.

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Organizational & Community Highlights

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The Santa Monica Mountains Regional Fire Safe Council (SMMRFSC) is an umbrella Fire Safe Council established with the mission to promote wildfire safety and community resilience in the communities of the Santa Monica Mountains through education, technical support, subject matter expertise, and community-driven action plans. The Santa Monica Mountains Regional Fire Safe Council has a large service area based off the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (SMMNRA) boundary, which is home to a biodiverse, fire-adapted landscape that experiences unnaturally high fire frequencies that threaten the resiliency of the local ecosystems and safety of all residing communities. The southern California region, including SMMNRA, is one of the most fire-prone environments in the world and has historically had more homes and land area burned per decade than any other region of the United States. SMMRFSC is very new, but fire safe councils are not and we follow the mission and guidance of California Fire Safe Council and neighboring Ventura Regional Fire Safe Council.

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