Firewise workdays help Whidbey neighborhoods reduce wildfire risk

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, May 12, 2026

Whidbey residents prepared their homes for a potentially intense wildfire season.

Fuel reduction efforts took place in communities across the island as part of Firewise Community Workdays last week. Fire crews from the Department of Natural Resources, or DNR, used chainsaws, chipped wood and removed overgrowth to create defensible spaces around houses.

Maddie Buehrer, a natural resource planner with the Whidbey Island Conservation District, explained that the district functions as a middleman between communities and the DNR to coordinate these workdays. This year, four communities in Oak Harbor, Coupeville and Langley — including an RV park — benefited.

Participation is voluntary and homeowners have a say in how much vegetation is cleared, Buehrer explained, as the work is non-regulatory and not reported as part of the National Fire Protection Association’s Firewise USA program.

The process of becoming officially recognized as Firewise includes forming a committee to represent a community, conducting wildfire risk assessments and completing risk reduction efforts annually, according to the NFPA.

Fire crews worked in Pondilla Estates in Coupeville on Wednesday. The neighborhood is a regular participant in Firewise Community Workdays, save for Eileen Schnarr’s home.

It became the focus of the day’s efforts because the previous owners of the home, surrounded by trees and overlooking Lake Pondilla, opted out of the workdays. Vegetation needed to be cleared, as did foliage lining an adjacent path to Fort Ebey State Park to allow emergency vehicles to pass through.

Living there with her family of four, Schnarr felt overwhelmed at the prospect of completing fuel reduction work herself. Crews planned to wrap up the work fairly quickly, she said.

“Definitely alleviates a lot of pressure that I might feel, especially knowing more about fire prevention and responsibility as a neighbor,” Schnarr said.

Fuel reduction continued at Polnell Landing, a North End neighborhood newer to Firewise Community Workdays, on Thursday.

Residents Lance and Rebecca Hoffman estimated about half the neighborhood participated this year. With experience fighting wildfires, the Hoffmans are familiar with how fast fires can spread in heavily wooded areas like their neighborhood and supportive of efforts to bring awareness to fire prevention.

“People think of the west side of the Cascades as not being as fire-centric as the east side of the Cascades,” Rebecca Hoffman said. “So just helping bring awareness of how easily fires spread, even in the areas where you don’t traditionally get fires.”

Fuel reduction is particularly important in the Hoffmans’ neighborhood, where there is only one way in and out. The exit could be blocked in the event of a fire, Lance Hoffman explained.

“When an emergency hits, you don’t want to be trying to figure it out at that point,” he added.

Like Schnarr, the Hoffmans are grateful for the DNR’s help. Their home sits on two acres of land, and both work full-time. Finding the time to clear vegetation would be challenging. Rebecca Hoffman added that the work is pertinent experience for DNR crews, anyway, in preparation for wildfire season.

“You’re looking at a several year project, just weekends, you know, cleaning this out,” Lance Hoffman said. “And when you got 20 guys coming in that are like, ‘Feed us, give us water and we’ll help out.’ It’s nice.”