Upper Clear Creek Watershed Pre-Wildfire Planning
In 2021, the Upper Clear Creek Watershed Pre-Wildfire Planning study was completed by Matrix Design, Inc.
Clear Creek Watershed Wildfire Risk
With no major fires in the Clear Creek basin in over 100 years, our watershed is particularly vulnerable to catastrophic wildfire and post‐wildfire flooding and water quality impairments, debris flows, and economic impacts. Communities in the watershed and communities dependent on Clear Creek for water resources face increasing wildfire risk. To assess risks to residents, water supply, and infrastructure, an engineering study for the upper Clear Creek watershed was conducted by Matrix Design, Inc. in the Fall 2019 through Spring of 2021. The study included existing Community Wildfire Protection Plans, new stakeholder input from 2020 meetings, and engineering risk-analysis methods to identify projects that can be completed in Clear Creek Watershed to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire AND to reduce the risk of post-fire catastrophe like flooding, debris flows, and water quality impacts.
Identified Mitigation Projects
The Pre-Wildfire Planning Study identified locations where risk-mitigation work would have the highest impact, ranking the risk-level in each sub-watershed area and identifying specific project locations for targeted mitigation. Mitigation projects include forest management, stream restoration, stream corridor preservation, water quality and debris flow facilities, and flood risk reduction. A stakeholder coalition worked over a series of two meetings during the study to define a desired future of the upper Clear Creek watershed. This future vision also helped stakeholders develop their core values, which included social and political issues along with engineering, environmental, and physical ones. These stakeholder values continue to drive work in the watershed as the Partnership’s founding values.
Learn more about identified risks and projects through the map below or read the Final Pre-Wildfire Planning Study Report.
Map of Identified Projects and Sub-Watershed Risk (click to open in new tab)
Map Tips
LEGEND: The middle button in the upper-right corner of map opens the legend, providing a guide to the visual information provided.
DETAILS FOR A PROJECT OR SUB-WATERSHED: Click on a project or sub-basin to view a pop-up with more information on each site.
If you click on a project, there will be two pages in the pop-up: project info and sub-watershed info. Use the arrow in the bottom-right of pop-up to page between project and sub-watershed info.
TURN LAYERS ON OR OFF: The bottom right button opens and provides layer options to show on the map.
County-level parcel (landownership) layers are off by default, but available in the layer menu.
National Hydrography Data (NHD) is used to add streams to the map.
Sub-watershed catchments were developed with a target area of 5 square miles, the typical sub-watershed size used by USFS Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) teams in post-fire assessments. See the UCCWA Pre-Wildfire Planning Study for more information.
Sub-Watershed Risk Score - Map Table Explanation
In the map of identified projects and sub-watershed risk, you can view a table of sub-watershed risk scores by clicking on the watershed area. The table below explains more about each of these scores.
