HWMO started ramping up its West Maui Community Wildfire Protection Plan efforts by holding meetings with the West Maui Fire Task Force and the West Maui Mountains Watershed Partnership (WMMWP). In order for us to better understand the issues at hand in West Maui, members from these groups provided input regarding wildfire concerns of theirs and possible resolutions for those specific issues.
These meetings were an important early step in this giant collaborative effort that will later involve a wider range of community input. In the end, the West Maui CWPP will identify, prioritize, and bring funding towards projects to reduce the threat of wildfire to West Maui communities.
As described by our own Elizabeth Pickett in a recent Lahaina News article:
"CWPPs are meant to tie into existing or planned projects. Many communities are developing disaster plans or long-range community plans, and the CWPP is meant to complement those plans.
"It will be a useful tool for community members to help make West Maui's neighborhoods and natural areas fire-safe. Wildfires tie into many natural resource, municipal and community issues, so this is an important opportunity for communities to learn, have their voices heard and get involved."
Banner photo: West Maui Fire Task Force with our very own Ilene Grossman (on left) and Elizabeth Pickett (on right).