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Rewrite of Wildland Urban Interface Guidelines
Announcement Letter
November 2, 2007
Greetings,
Last fall we began talks about rewriting the Fire Protection Guidelines for Wildland Urban Residential Interface Development. A group of interested parties was developed and we were preparing for a first meeting when the 2007 Legislature began talking about changes to the laws regarding developments in the Wildland Urban Interface. With the Legislature working on possible new directions, it was decided to wait until a later time so we could comply with any changes brought by the Legislature.
The legislature is done, and fire season is mostly over, so we are now working to pull the group together and begin work on the update that will have lasting effects on development in the Wildland Urban Interface across the state of Montana. During its 2007 session the legislature, within SB 51, required the DNRC to adopt administrative rules regarding development in the Wildland Urban Interface. I anticipate a need for the working group to discuss development of those rules.
Currently Montana has Fire Protection Guidelines for Wildland Urban Residential Interface Development, that were developed in 1991. However, in the years since the Guidelines were completed, new technologies have been developed and new scientific discoveries made, therefore the Guidelines need to be updated to reflect these changes. In 1991 your group or agency was either a participant or invited to participate in the process to create the Guidelines, and you are now invited to join the effort to update them. An outgrowth of updating the Guidelines will be the development and adoption of the administrative rules I mentioned in the preceding paragraph.
I would like to schedule a meeting before the first of the year where we can all sit down, draw up a plan and start the process. I would suggest a day in the week of December 10, 2007. Please respond to Pat Cross by November 28, 2007 with your preferred dates and dates when you cannot make the meeting. As for where the meeting will be held, once we determine which groups want to be involved we will pick a fairly central location and make appropriate meeting arrangements.
I am enclosing a list of the groups that were part of the original effort or that we are inviting. If you have suggestions of organizations or individuals not on this list that should be invited to be a part of this process, please send them to Pat Cross as soon as possible.
If you have any other questions, comments or concerns, please feel free to contact Pat Cross at (406) 542-4251.
Thanks in advance for your participation.
Sincerely,
Ted Mead
Chief, Fire and Aviation Management Bureau
Montana DNRC
