CMUA hosted its second-annual Wildfire Mitigation Forum on Tuesday, November 19, 2024, bringing together POUs, state agencies and industry experts to discuss evolving approaches to wildfire risk mitigation and prevention strategies.
 
CMUA Director of Energy Derek Dolfie opened the forum, which featured two main sessions focused on addressing wildfire risks in POU territories and strengthening partnerships between utilities and wildfire agencies.
 
Randy Howard, general manager of the Northern California Power Agency (NCPA), highlighted the increasing challenges utilities face as climate conditions worsen. Howard, who also serves on the Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council, detailed ongoing work with federal agencies to streamline permitting processes and improve liability frameworks for utilities operating in federal lands. "Things are only getting hotter and they are getting hotter for longer durations," Howard noted, emphasizing how changing precipitation patterns and extreme temperatures are affecting utility infrastructure and operations.
 
Jeff Fuentes, deputy chief of Cal Fire's Wildfire Forecast & Threat Intelligence Integration Center (WFTIIC), showcased new technological tools helping utilities and emergency responders better predict and respond to fire risks. The Center serves as California's central hub for wildfire forecasting and threat intelligence, aggregating data from multiple sources to provide unified assessments and recommendations. Fuentes demonstrated several new mapping tools that offer utilities enhanced visibility into fire conditions across their service territories.
 
The forum's second session focused on strengthening partnerships between utilities and wildfire agencies. Mark Wenzel, supervisor of the Wildfire Safety Advisory Board (WSAB) Unit, outlined the board's evolving role in reviewing utility wildfire mitigation plans and fostering collaboration between investor-owned and publicly owned utilities. Wenzel emphasized the board's commitment to "identifying and reducing wildfire risk" while working to build more collaborative relationships with external partners.
 
Cal Fire Deputy Chief Shaun Fairbanks discussed his department's utility wildfire mitigation program, which helps ensure compliance with state regulations while providing training and technical assistance to utilities. Fairbanks highlighted the importance of coordinating inspections and standardizing approaches across agencies to improve efficiency.
 
To wrap up the presentations, Amanda Smith and Kelly McCarty from vegetation management company ArborWorks provided an industry perspective on vegetation management strategies, emphasizing the need to balance compliance-based and risk-based approaches. They detailed how changing conditions are affecting traditional tree maintenance cycles and discussed new technologies and methods for identifying and mitigating vegetation risks before they cause problems.
 
A key theme throughout the forum was the increasing need for coordination between agencies and utilities to address wildfire risks effectively. The event concluded with discussion about ways to improve environmental review processes while maintaining essential protections, and strategies for managing increasing vegetation management costs and debris disposal challenges.