Existing Firewise Communities
Recognized Firewise USA® sites in Mendocino County
Firewise Communities In Mendocino County
14 Firewise Communities in Good Standing:
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Black Bart Trail Firewise/Firesafe Community is located in Redwood Valley, Mendocino County, California. There are approximately 110 properties on two roads, Black Bart Trail East and West. Black Bart Northwest is a spur off of BBW. This is a rural, fire prone area (the Wildland Urban Interface). We have had a number of fires in the last 10 years. We send out a newsletter twice a year with information on how to harden your home, reduce the fuel on our properties and advice on evacuation planning and execution. We also have a Community Meeting once a year (except during two years of Covid) with a fun component, usually a speaker and refreshments. We also have volunteers that cut back the blackberries growing along a one-mile blacktop road. The balance of the 4 miles (approx.) is dirt road. We have had 2 chipper days.
Current Volunteer Hours and Investment Tracking
Black Bart Certificate of Good Standing
Black Bart Boundary Map -
Cherry Creek is a subdivision community east of Laytonville, CA. The area encompasses approximately 6,600 acres, mostly with single family and mobile homes. The land is privately owned and a road association collects yearly dues to maintain shared roads. Cherry Creek residents are primarily “off-grid” and are deep in the WUI, with significant, winding, unpaved roads and driveways separating them from a paved highway and one primary route to a paved highway.
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The Comptche Community Services District is an unincorporated community with approximately 350 households. It is located in West-Central Mendocino County at the junction of three roads. Comptche-Ukiah Road extends West from Comptche 15 miles to Mendocino, while to the East Orr Springs Road leads 30 miles to Ukiah and Flynn Creek Road leads Southwest 8 miles to State Route 128 in Navarro. The proposed Firewise USA Site Community Wildfire Action Plan was developed through input from the Comptche Disaster Preparedness group, local fire officials, and the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council. The goal of the Plan is to develop a strategy to incrementally outreach, educate, and implement efforts to make our neighborhood and the surrounding area more fire resilient.
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The Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians is a federally recognized Tribe located in the heart of Mendocino County, Redwood Valley, California, USA. The reservation is approximately 77 acres of trust land. The Federal Trust Land has an exterior boundary to the south by Forsythe Creek with some sections of the creek having Reservation land on both sides, and the exterior boundary to the East is the West Fork of the Russian River with a small section where both banks lie within the Reservation. This section includes the confluence with Salt Hollow Creek. The boundary on the West side is Highway 101.
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Feliz Creek was historically a single large cattle ranch. In the early 1980s, the land was subdivided and sold to private homeowners. As a result, most residences, excluding the original ranch structures, were constructed around the 1990s. It is located in the CAL FIRE Very High Severity Zone and has a significant fuel load in the area.
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McNab Ranch is 10,000 acres, with about 400 residents in a grass oak woodland. The common vegetation are manzanitas, oaks, shrubs, and grasses. Lot sizes are generally 40 acres with a few grandfathered in parcels that are smaller but greater than 1 acre.
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The neighborhood of Pine Mt is located in the southeast corner Willits, California (approximately 350 households, 1,000 residents). We are located within the wildland urban interface and intermix in the northern California Coast range.
We are a one-way-in, one-way-out community actively working to thin the maintain exit routes out of our neighborhood and establish additional ingress and egress routes for use during an emergency. Because we have only one way in and out of our neighborhood, we have placed strong emphasis on roadside thinning, defensible space, home hardening, and reflective signage. We have mapped our entire neighborhood, which covers roughly 10,000 acres.
The entire Pine Mt area was extensively logged in the 1950s and early 1960s and we now find ourselves living in an overgrown, 55-year-old forested community with multiple unmaintained logging roads and a dangerously high fuel load. When the logging was completed, the developer split the area into 127 1 to 5-acre parcels, installed a small reservoir and water system, and subdivided the outlying properties into 20-100-acre parcels. We have been significantly impacted by marijuana growers and the attendant land-use mismanagement and environmental damage, as well as many aging residents who are unable or unwilling to adopt Firewise-related principles. Nevertheless, we have had very good participation from many residents since we first established the Pine Mt Fire Safe Council in 2003.
This Firewise USA™ Site Community Wildfire Action Plan was developed through input received over the last year and after an extensive review of the large fires that affected the community from 2017 to 2022. The goal of the plan is to develop a strategy to incrementally outreach, educate, and implement efforts to make the neighborhoods in the Pine Mt neighborhood more fire resilient.
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The Rancho Navarro Homeowners Association is a CA planned development with 127 dwellings, approximately ten acres each. It is situated in a redwood forest, roughly ten miles from the Pacific Ocean at the “Deep End” of the Anderson Valley. The Firewise boundary also encompasses Camp Navarro, a seasonal camp for youth. This proposed Firewise USA™ Site Community Wildfire Action Plan was developed through input received during the 2024 Firewise Assessment. The goal of the Plan is to develop a strategy to incrementally outreach, educate, and implement efforts to make our neighborhood and the surrounding area more fire resilient.
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Sherwood Firewise Communities serves the 5,500 residents northwest of Willits, CA served by only one road as an Emergency Access Route (EAR). The area is heavily forested and has been identified as a high fire risk area. SFC was organized to provide Education for Emergency Preparedness, establish an early warning system, perform Home Hardening and Defensible Space evaluations and facilitate remediation, develop/upgrade other EAR’s and coordinate several fuel reduction programs. This proposed Firewise USA™ Site Community Wildfire Action Plan was developed through input received during the Spring 2019 Firewise Assessment and community forums, where we gathered concerns from residents and fire departments. The goal of the Plan is to develop a strategy to build our organization, educate, and implement efforts to make our neighborhood and the surrounding area more fire resilient.
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Southern Boonville is located approximately two miles south of downtown Boonville. It is adjacent to the Boonville CAL FIRE station and comprises 9 dwellings. The area has steep slopes, with an elevation high of 1,100 feet and crosses the Robinson Creek.
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The Upper Deerwood neighborhood is situated East of the city of Ukiah, in Eastern Mendocino County, CA. It lies midslope between the Russian River drainage and the Myacamas Mountains. The terrain is predominantly a series of ridgetops and steep canyons orientated Northeast to Southwest and is bisected by Howard Creek. Most of the structures are located on or near the ridge tops with heavily vegetated canyons in between. Vegetation is primarily mature Oak/grass woodland with intermixed brush fields and meadows. There are pockets of conifers. Most of the vegetation is at the mature and overmature stage. The undeveloped canyons are overstocked with vegetation. The community is bordered on the North side by the Army Corps of Engineers Lake Mendocino unit.
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The Western Hills Firewise Community is made up of 2,000 dwellings in the Western part of Ukiah. It is a wildland urban interface community with a mix of urban and rural housing. The vegetation is predominantly oak woodlands but with areas of pine canopy, redwoods, and also some chaparral. The hills to the west are steep east facing slopes. There is a lot of drainages facing into the valley and the eastern part of the boundary is relatively flat. The Western Hills is an already established Neighborhood Fire Safe Council with a robust organized system with road representatives who meet monthly to disseminate information and create cohesion within the boundary. The Ukiah Valley Fire Department and CAL FIRE are currently implementing large scale fuel reduction projects that span the western hills of Ukiah.
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Whale Gulch takes its name from the 4 mile gulch that starts from the Pacific Ocean at the south and rises north to the top of Chemise Mountain, an elevation of 2500 feet. This remote unincorporated area is located in the northwestern most section of Mendocino County and is bordered by rural Southern Humboldt County to the north and east. The terrain of Whale Gulch is extremely steep, rugged and heavily forested. The contour of the gulch runs parallel with the ocean and divides the two watersheds that run through the area.
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Yorkville is an unincorporated community in Mendocino County, California. It is located 7.5 miles southwest of Hopland and on the Sonoma County border line. It is a coastal mountain range with elevation ranging from 500 to 3,000 ft.
4 Firewise Communities in the Process of Becoming Firewise:
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In progress..
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String Creek and Tartar Canyon Firewise Community is located approximately 13 miles northeast of the town of Willits. The entire boundary is designated within the “Very High” Fire Hazard Severity Zone, with the most likely threat of fire coming from the west and traveling east to the community. The most recent fire in the area occurred in 1945 and the lack of subsequent fires has led to high fuel loading in the area. The boundary consists of mostly steep, up to 50 degree slopes with the main creek drainage flowing west to east. The area along the creek has some flat ground to it but predominantly, the area has steep hillsides. The fuels in the area are about 80% Douglas Fir/ Tan Oak. Most of the canopy is 90% closed. The remaining fuels are some grass/ oak woodland.
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In progress…
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With 43 acres in the park, the Woods is a large area to manage and control during normal times, more difficult during emergency events/incidents. The Woods is divided into 8 Emergency Zones to facilitate the span of control and distribution of information to and from residents. The role of Zone Captains and Co-Captains has been established as a vital link in the Emergency Communications network and span of control during emergencies!
The map below shows the boundaries of Mendocino County Firewise Communities.
If you do not see a Firewise Community where you live, learn how to start one!
For questions about Firewise or the Volunteer Hours and Investment tracking form, email Eva King.