Community Engagement Site
The webpage serves as a central location for all information related to the 2024-2025 update to Gallatin County’s Hazard Mitigation and Community Wildfire Protection Plan. The document is the official document covering the cities of Belgrade, Bozeman Three Forks; towns of Manhattan and West Yellowstone; unincorporated areas of Gallatin County and the Madison County portion of Big Sky.
Background
The Hazard Mitigation Act of 2000 created the authority for a risk based approach towards reducing hazards. The Act also requires states, counties and cities to have a FEMA approved mitigation plan (updated every 5 years) in order to be eligible for non-emergency federal assistance. There are several programs that this applies to, but generally these are the programs that address repetitive loss issues, wildfire projects, building retrofits, waterway projects to address flooding, emergency power and many more. These programs are often available to jurisdictions on an annual basis and following presidential declared incidents that trigger the Stafford Act.
During the planning process participants will identify the hazards present in our communities, provide those identified hazards a relative ranking and identify potential projects that can minimize the impact of the identified hazards. Identifying projects doesn’t automatically mean they will be conducted (it’s not an obligation), but rather identifies them as potential options that communities can work towards. Federal mitigation funding can only be utilized for identified projects, so we want to be thorough.
Community Wildfire Protection Plans are similar while focusing on wildfire risk and mitigation actions that can be taken to reduce the impacts from wildfire. They were created by the Healthy Forest Restoration Act in 2003 and largely focus on reducing wildfire impacts in the built environment. Because of the similarities, we combined the two plans into a single document in 2021 and plan to further integrate it into a single cohesive document in 2025. An important component that will come out of the CWPP portion is an update to our wildland urban interface boundary. This boundary has impacts on the land owners and the adjacent land management agencies.
Process
The following outlines the general process we have lined out. Some steps may have some overlap in timing.
- update of base data in plan
- Hazard Identification and Evaluation Workshops
- Document editing, data and GIS refinements
- Wildfire modeling
- Project identification
- Draft document review
- Gallatin County
- State of Montana
- Federal Emergency Management Agency
- Plan Adoption
- Belgrade
- Bozeman
- Manhattan
- Three Forks
- West Yellowstone
- Gallatin County
- Madison County
2020 Hazard Summaries
- County Summary
- Belgrade
- Big Sky
- Three Forks & Manhattan
- West Yellowstone
2021 Wildland Urban Interface Boundary
How You Can Participate
Fill out our online form and we’ll let you know when events are occurring.
Hazard Identification and Evaluation Workshops
The first round of community meetings will be in fall of 2024. Details will be listed here once they are setup.
Community | Date &Time | Location | More Info |
Belgrade (Calendar Invite) | Tuesday, October 8, 2024 11:00-1:00 |
Central Valley Fire District 215 Wings Way |
|
Bozeman (Calendar Invite) | Wednesday, October 9, 2024 11:00-1:00 |
Gallatin County Coordination Center 219 E Tamarack |
|
Manhattan & Amsterdam (Calendar Invite) | Wednesday, October 16, 2024 11:00-1:00 |
Manhattan Town Hall 206 S Sixth |
|
Three Forks, Willow Creek & Clarkston (Calendar Invite) | Thursday, October 10, 2024 11:00-1:00 |
Three Forks Ambulance Station 2 E Hickory |
|
West Yellowstone (Calendar Invite) | Monday, October 7, 2024 11:00-1:00 |
West Yellowstone City Hall 440 Yellowstone, West Yellowstone |
|
Big Sky (Calendar Invite) | Tuesday, October 15, 2024 | Big Sky Fire Station 1 650 Rainbow Trout |
Planning Documents
Reference Documents
Hazard Mitigation Plans
Community Wildfire Protection Plans
- National Association of State Foresters CWPP Briefing Paper
- Community Guide to Preparing and Implementing a CWPP
- Healthy Forest Restoration Act
- CWPP Handbook
- International Association of Fire Chiefs CWPP Leaders Guide
- International Association of Fire Chiefs CWPP Leaders Guide Supplement
Existing Plans
Draft Products
Final Draft Combined Documents
Wildfire Mapping
Hazard Mitigation & Community Wildfire Protection Plan
Contact Information
Gallatin County
Patrick Lonergan
406-548-0111
patrick@www.readygallatin.com