Chelan County is modifying an agreement with the U.S. Forest Service for the Stemilt Partnership fuels reduction project that reduced the area of the work to about 700 acres from nearly 900 acres. County Commissioner Kevin Overbay says it allows them to use the freed up money for other projects.
“Put that towards a landscape assessment of more than 25,000 acres, so that we can fully understand what actually needs to be done, where it needs to be done and how it needs to be done up in that basin.”
Chelan County Commissioners are also working on their Chelan County Wildfire Protection Plan as the wildfire season looms.
Overbay says they’ve made a comprehensive plan for the entire county.
“And with those things that are unique to specific areas, i.e. like the Stemilt, the Entiat Watershed or the Lake Chelan Watershed pieces, we’d still have the ability to have some unique qualities to [our plan] but it’s an overall plan for wildfire preparedness.”