Placer County is seeking applications from rural Lincoln and Sheridan area residents interested in being at-large public representatives on the new Greater Lincoln Fire Safe Council.

Both at-large members must be property or business owners within the rural Lincoln area. One of the two at-large members will serve as a representative of agricultural interests.

The Placer County Board of Supervisors established the Greater Lincoln Council last year to:

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Communicate with area residents about the risks associated with living in a wildland-urban interface,
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Motivate the public to take steps to protect their homes and properties and
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Reduce wildfire fuels through coordinated action.

The council serves unincorporated areas bounded on the west by the Placer-Sutter county line and on the north by Placer County’s borders with Yuba and Nevada counties and by the Bear River. The eastern boundary is a north-south line that includes a stretch of Mt. Pleasant Road and Gold Hill Road. The southern boundary runs north of the Town of Loomis and the cities of Rocklin and Roseville. West of Roseville, the fire safe council’s boundary heads due west from the western end of Blue Oaks Boulevard.

The community of Sheridan is within the boundaries of the council’s service area.

Creation of the fire safe council was a high-priority action item called for in a 2010 update of the Placer County Local Hazard Mitigation Plan. The plan notes that the devastating Gladding Fire in 2008 demonstrated that rural Lincoln needed a fire safe council to help coordinate efforts to prevent catastrophic wildfires.

Program Manager Rui Cunha of the county Office of Emergency Services emphasized that experts consider setting up fire safe councils a best-management practice, noting the councils are effective at coordinating community-preparedness efforts.

“Where the councils are functioning well, communities take a more deliberate approach to reducing fire hazards in their areas,” he said.

The Greater Lincoln Council will have seven members, including the two at-large public members, four representatives from the area’s volunteer fire departments and one representative of the Placer Land Trust.

Placer County also has fire safe councils that serve Greater Auburn, Foresthill, the area from Meadow Vista to Emigrant Gap and North Lake Tahoe.

Application forms for the at-large seats can be downloaded from the county website by clicking this link: Application or picked up at the Clerk of the Board’s Office, 175 Fulweiler Ave., in Auburn.

Completed applications should be delivered to the Clerk of the Board’s Office in person or by mail. The mailing address is 175 Fulweiler Ave., Auburn, CA 95603.

For more information, call the office at 530-889-4020.