Wildfire Resilience Planning Services

Rincon is leading a comprehensive Wildfire Hazard and Risk Assessment (WHRA) covering 84,000 acres in the Ramona Community Planning Area and 10,000 acres of Barona tribal lands. To protect tribal data sovereignty, a Data Management Workplan guides secure data collection, storage, and consent-driven engagement. 

Working closely with tribal leaders, Rincon is identifying climate vulnerabilities, adaptive capacity, and opportunities to integrate Traditional Knowledges into a Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment. The WHRA uses historical fire weather data, highlighting Santa Ana wind events and late-season dry fuels, to model worst-case scenarios. Combined with Highly Valued Resources and Assets (HVRAs) and ignition data, this analysis pinpoints priority areas for wildfire mitigation. 

The results support long-term planning, grant funding, and program development. Rincon has already partnered with the Ramona Band of Mission Indians on a CAL FIRE Tribal Wildfire Resilience grant application to establish a fuels management program and implement roadside fuel reduction in collaboration with CAL FIRE San Diego.

Rincon is leading development of the Ventura County Regional Priority Plan (RPP) for the Ventura County Resource Conservation District, in partnership with the Ventura Regional Fire Safe Council, Ventura County Wildfire Collaborative, and an RPP Advisory Group. Funded by the State Coastal Conservancy’s Wildfire Resilience Program, the RPP will guide wildfire risk mitigation and forest resilience across the county. 

The plan identifies and prioritizes wildfire resilience projects that reduce risk, restore ecosystems, and support future funding. It complements the Ventura County Community Wildfire Protection Plan by providing a broader framework for aligning fuels management, ecological restoration, and community protection strategies. 

Rincon is compiling candidate projects, refining them through extensive community engagement, and gathering detailed data on project scope, land ownership, benefits, and readiness. This inclusive process, grounded in collaboration with Tribes, CBOs, and agencies, ensures the RPP reflects local knowledge and promotes equitable, strategic wildfire resilience across Ventura County. 

Rincon is supporting the San Luis Obispo County Community Fire Safe Council (SLO FSC), with CAL FIRE funding, to develop a groundbreaking Fireshed Report and online Fireshed Dashboard. This initiative introduces a consistent, countywide framework for wildfire planning based on natural fire behavior rather than political boundaries. 

Rincon led the delineation of firesheds by facilitating a Technical Advisory Group of local fire agencies, CAL FIRE, Cal Poly, and wildfire experts. The process integrated diverse datasets, including elevation, hydrology, ignition modeling, evacuation routes, and WUI mapping. 

The resulting firesheds reflect ecological, social, and hazard conditions, enabling a more holistic understanding of wildfire risk. The GIS-based Fireshed Dashboard provides an accessible planning tool to visualize wildfire dynamics and support alignment across mitigation, restoration, emergency response, and funding efforts that empower agencies to act strategically and collaboratively. 

• See article for more details: California Special District Magazine Vol. 20, Issue 3, May-June 2025, Pg. 24 Thinking Like Fire: Fireshed Approach to Wildfire Planning   

Rincon supported the Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District in developing a Fuel Management and Fire Mitigation Plan for the 3,400-acre Garland Ranch Regional Park.  

The plan assessed landscape health and provided actionable short- and long-term strategies for fuel reduction tailored to the park’s unique needs.  Rincon also created an interactive web portal to support a more transparent public planning process and engagement with the community. The platform includes an interactive page introducing the Plan with maps and graphics that convey technical concepts in a more visual and compelling format when presented to the community. The digital platform also includes a reference library, project-specific documentation, and additional materials for the community to access and download relevant information easily when desired. This interactive web portal won the Environmental Business Journal (EBJ) 2022 Project Merit Award for Fire Management.

With funding from the CAL FIRE Wildfire Prevention Grant Program, Rincon worked with Conservation Concierges (a local NGO) to develop the Bell Canyon Fuel Reduction Project Specific Analysis (PSA) using the California Vegetation Treatment Program (CalVTP) Programmatic Environmental Impact Report (PEIR) for CEQA compliance. Through collaboration with the Ventura County Fire Protection District (CEQA Lead Agency) and the Bell Canyon Fire Safe Council, Rincon developed the PSA to provide compliance for 750 acres of grasslands and shrublands in and around the community of Bell Canyon. This neighborhood was burned over by the 2018 Woolsey Fire and as a result, multiple families lost their homes.  

The success of this project was due in large part to the collaboration of multiple agencies including CAL FIRE Southern Region Grants, Los Angeles County Fire Department, CAL FIRE San Luis Obispo, and VCFPD and project partners including Conservation Concierges, Sure-Fire Training, and the Bell Canyon Fire Safe Council.   

With CAL FIRE Wildfire Prevention Grant funding, Rincon supported the Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACFD) in preparing a CEQA-compliant Project Specific Analysis (PSA) for the 482.6-acre Foothill Fuel Reduction Project in La Cañada Flintridge and La Crescenta-Montrose, just outside of the 2025 Eaton Fire boundary. 

As an addendum to the CalVTP PEIR, the PSA enables manual and mechanical clearing, prescribed fire, and grazing in steep canyons adjacent to the Angeles National Forest—an area entirely within a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone. The project will reduce hazardous fuels, improve defensible space, and create fuel breaks to protect over 40,000 residents and critical infrastructure. Rincon coordinated with state and federal wildlife agencies to address special-status species protections and completed the PSA on an accelerated timeline to meet grant deadlines, resulting in LACFD’s first shovel-ready CalVTP project for implementation in summer 2025.