City of Corona Community Wildfire Protection Plan

As wildfire severity increases, communities need a plan to help prepare for, reduce the risk of, and adapt to wildland fire events. Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPPs) help accomplish these goals by providing recommendations that are intended to reduce, but not eliminate, the extreme severity or risk of wildland fire. The "2021 City of Corona CWPP" is Corona’s first city specific CWPP.

The development of the CWPP is rooted in facilitated collaboration among local, state, and federal officials, as well as non-governmental stakeholders and private citizens. The 2021 City of Corona CWPP identifies potential priority areas where mitigation measures are needed to protect from wildfire the irreplaceable life, property, and critical infrastructure within the City. This document is advisory, not mandatory. 

The plan has been aligned with the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy (Cohesive Strategy) and its Phase III Western Regional Action Plan by adhering to the nation-wide goal “To safely and effectively extinguish fire, when needed; use fire where allowable; manage our natural resources; and as a Nation, live with wildland fire.” (Forest and Rangelands 2014:3). 

The primary, national goals in achieving this vision are: 

• Restore and maintain landscapes: Landscapes across all jurisdictions are resilient to fire-related disturbances in accordance with management objectives.
• Fire-adapted communities: Human populations and infrastructure can withstand a wildfire without loss of life and property. 
• Wildfire response: All jurisdictions participate in making and implementing safe, effective, efficient risk-based wildfire management decisions.
• For more information on the Cohesive Strategy, please visit  here 

This CWPP has been, and all future updates will be developed in response to the federal Healthy Forests Restoration Act (HFRA) of 2003.  

The 2021 City of Corona CWPP meets the requirements of the HFRA by addressing the following: 

1. Having been developed collaboratively by multiple agencies at the state and local levels in consultation with federal agencies and other interested parties. 
2. Prioritizing and identifying fuel reduction treatments and recommending the types and methods of treatments to protect at-risk communities and pertinent infrastructure. 
3. Suggesting multi-party mitigation, monitoring, and outreach. 
4. Recommending measures and action items that residents and communities can take to reduce the ignitability of structures.
5. Soliciting input from the public on the draft CWPP

To view the HFRA, please visit  here 

We would like to formally thank the Task Force and all stakeholders for contributing their time and expertise throughout the planning process. Your participation has contributed to creating resilient landscapes, implementing public education, reducing structural ignitability, and ensuring safe and effective wildfire response. 

This section provides information on community values within the City of Corona that may be at risk from wildfire. The CWPP seeks to develop mitigation measures that protect these vulnerable assets.

The public are invited to provide suggestions on other values in the City that they would like to see protected as a part of this planning process. Please provide your suggestions to  firesafecorona@coronaca.gov .

The planning team used the City’s risk assessment in addition to critical infrastructure data to develop a preliminary list of values at risk from wildland fire. The data is also supplemented with Highly Valued Resources and Assets (HRVA) data, which is a dataset that is being gathered nationwide and available through IFTDSS. Values at risk can include natural, social, and cultural resources. 

It is important to note that although the identification of values at risk can inform treatment recommendations, a number of factors must be considered in order to fully prioritize areas for treatment. These factors include appropriateness of treatment, land ownership constraints, locations of ongoing projects, available resources, and other physical, social, or ecological barriers to treatment.

The scope of this CWPP does not allow determination of the absolute natural, socioeconomic, and cultural values that could be impacted by wildfire in the planning area. In terms of socioeconomic values, the impact due to wildfire would cross many scales and sectors of the economy and call upon resources locally, regionally, and nationally. Potential values at risk that may be identified are listed below.

The information on this tab is designed to ensure that CWPPs remain current and facilitate long-term sustainability of the Plan.

Developing an action plan and an assessment strategy that identifies roles and responsibilities, funding needs, and timetables for completing highest-priority projects is an important step in organizing the implementation of the 2021 City of Corona CWPP. The  recommendation tables  identify tentative timelines and monitoring protocols.

Risk reduction work on the ground, for the most part, is often not attainable in a few months—or even years. The amount of money and effort invested in implementing a plan such as this requires that there be a means to describe, quantitatively or qualitatively, if the goals and objectives expressed in this plan are being accomplished according to expectations. This section will present a suite of recommended monitoring strategies intended to help track progress, evaluate work accomplished, and assist planners in adaptive management.

As the CWPP evolves over time, there may be a need to track changes in policy, requirements, stakeholders, and levels of preparedness. These can be significant for any future revisions and/or addendums to the CWPP.

Click  here  to view recommended monitoring strategies, both quantifiable and non-quantifiable, for assessing the progress of the CWPP and increasing sustainability. It must be emphasized that these strategies are 1) not exhaustive and 2) dependent on available funds and personnel to implement them.

The most important part of choosing a monitoring program is selecting a method appropriate to the people, place, and available time. Several levels of monitoring activities meet different objectives, have different levels of time intensity, and are appropriate for different groups of people. Click  here  to see the four levels of monitoring.

The HFRA allows for maximum flexibility in the CWPP planning process, permitting the Task Force to determine the time frame for updating the CWPP; it is suggested that a formal revision be made on the fifth anniversary of signing and every 5 years following. The Task Force members are encouraged to meet on an annual basis to review the project list, discuss project successes, and strategize regarding project implementation funding. Updates to the story map are encouraged more frequently, in order to provide the public the most up to date information on wildfire planning and mitigation.

This Story Map will remain as a conduit for information exchange between the City, CWPP Task Force, and the City of Corona public. As revisions are made to the CWPP over time, the Story Map will be revised to accommodate those revisions.

Click  here  to view the CWPP glossary. 

Click  here  to view the CWPP references.