1.1 Project Background

A key element of the Healthy Forests Initiative announced by the White House in 2002 is the implementation of core components of the National Fire Plan Collaborative Approach for Reducing Wildland Fire Risks to Communities and the Environment 10-Year Comprehensive Strategy. Federal agencies and western state governors adopted the Plan in the spring of 2002, in collaboration with county commissioners, state foresters, and tribal officials. The Plan calls for more active forest and rangeland management to reduce wildfire hazards in the wildland-urban interface.

The Healthy Forest Restoration Act (H.R. 1904) was signed into law in December of 2003. The act creates provisions for expanding the activities outlined in the National Fire Plan. In the same year the Nevada Fire Safe Council received National Fire Plan funding through the Department of Interior Bureau of Land Management to conduct a Community Risk/Hazard Assessment in at risk communities across Nevada. The communities to be assessed are among those named in the 2001 Federal Register list of communities at risk within the vicinity of Federal lands (66 FR 160) The list identifies Nevada communities adjacent to Federal lands that are most vulnerable to wildfire threat in Nevada.

Resource Concepts, Inc. (RCI), a Carson City consulting firm, was selected to conduct the Community Risk/Hazard Assessments. During 2004, the RCI Project Team, consisting of fire behavior specialists, foresters, rangeland fuels specialists, and field technicians, visited over 250 communities in seventeen Nevada counties to assess both the risk of ignition and the potential fire behavior hazard within the wildland-urban interface, places where homes and wildland meet. Procedures accepted by Nevada’s wildland fire agencies were used to reach consistent and objective evaluations in each community.

The specific goals of the Nevada Community Risk/Hazard Assessment Project are to:

• Assess the wildfire hazards present in each community on the Federal Register list of Communities at risk in Nevada.
• Identify firefighting resource needs (equipment and infrastructure).
• Conduct fuel hazard mapping for high fuel hazard communities.
• Describe proposed risk and hazard mitigation projects in enough detail to aid communities in applying for future implementation funds.
• Distribute assessment results and proposed mitigation project descriptions to each County in a format that will be easily updated and useful for public meetings and other public education activities.

The community risk/hazard assessments were conducted systematically. The RCI Project Team observed and recorded the factors that influence the risk of wildfire ignition along the wildland-urban interface and catalogued features that can have an influence on hazardous conditions in the event of a wildfire. Interviews with local fire agency and emergency response personnel were completed to assess the availability of suppression resources and identify opportunities for increased community preparedness.

A description of the existing fuel hazard and fire behavior potential is discussed for each community. Photo points and fuel hazard maps are presented for Belmont, Carvers, Ione, and Manhattan, where the fuel hazard in the interface area is high or extreme.

The results of the assessments are formatted to facilitate ease of reference and reproduction for individual communities. A glossary of wildland fire terms is included in Appendix A. Each community is mapped and ignition risks, hazards, and proposed mitigation projects are described for each community. The proposed mitigation projects are presented in a separate map if the recommendation can be graphically represented. These tools will aid local, state, and federal agencies in strategic planning, raising public awareness, and securing funding to implement risk and hazard reduction projects. Mitigating the risks and hazards identified by these assessments is not only crucial to the long term goals of the National Fire Plan, but it is also crucial to the short and long-term viability of Nevada communities, natural resources, infrastructures, and watersheds.

Numerous agencies and individuals were involved in the planning and implementation of this effort. Special thanks and acknowledgement are given to:

• Nevada Fire Safe Council (NFSC)
• Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
• Forest Service (FS)
• Nevada Division of Forestry (NDF)
• University of Nevada Cooperative Extension (UNCE)
• Nevada Association of Counties (NACO)
• Nevada’s Counties
• Fire Chiefs and firefighters statewide

1.2 Communities Assessed

The communities listed below are within Nye County and identified in the Federal Register (66 FR 160) as communities at risk of wildfire within the vicinity of federal lands and are included in this assessment:

• Amargosa Valley
• Hadley (Round Mountain)
• Beatty
• Ione
• Belmont
• Manhattan
• Carvers
• Pahrump
• Gabbs
• Tonopah

In recent years the Round Mountain Gold Mine has expanded operations into the original Round Mountain townsite. To accommodate this expansion, the Hadley subdivision was created about ten miles (by road) to the west of historic Round Mountain and is where the majority of Round Mountain residents and all businesses can now be found. The assessment results presented in this report are exclusive to the Hadley community.

1.3 Communities Not Assessed

1.3.1 Yomba Reservation

The Yomba Reservation was not assessed. Tribal officials did not respond to repeated requests for their authorization to proceed with interviews and site assessments on tribal lands.

There may be additional rural areas or small subdivisions within Nye County that were not included on the Federal Register list, thus they were not included in the scope of this project. Conditions in and around some of these communities may warrant future individual hazard/risk assessments. However, many of the recommendations developed for similar communities in this report may apply to additional areas.