WREN sings at Senate Local Government Committee
The WREN testified remotely as OPPOSED to SB 6279 at the Senate Local Government Committee on January 29th. SB 6279 directs the State Building Code Council to adopt the International Wildland Interface Code and assumes a still to be established mapping by DNR will be adequately detailed to reflect conditions across rural Washington. Verbal testimony was a bit different as I reacted on the fly to those testifying before me, but made substantially the same points as the written testimony submitted within the 24 hour window after the hearing.
WREN TESTIMONY:
For the record, Sue Lani Madsen, President of the Washington Rural Environmental Network, dedicated to amplifying rural voices, signed in OPPOSED on SB 6279.
The State Building Code Council amendment process is designed for technical public health and safety considerations in the built environment and is not the appropriate place to work through tailoring the WUI code to support Washington’s diverse communities.
The International Wildland Urban Interface Code relies heavily on two mitigation measures – hardening building construction and prescribing defensible space. While both are useful strategies, they fail to recognize other variables in both defensive and offensive wildfire mitigation. Wildfire disasters referenced by staff in their briefing occurred in urban areas, where tree canopies are encouraged as a key part of reducing energy consumption, yet they are not called WUI. This matters to rural Washingtonians, where broadly defined maps of risk areas will further limit access to insurance.
Washington has ten federally defined climate zones, over three dozen fire weather zones and over 300 fire protection districts providing first response. In 2023, DNR reported 95% of all wildfire starts are kept to ten acres or less by those first responders. Incorporating the resources currently providing good results matters in creating maps, on a district by district basis if not watershed by watershed or parcel by parcel basis.
DNR has now prepared a much-improved Risk Map. The Hazard Map referenced in this legislation exists only in draft form and needs work to look at the full picture of risk and response. Meaningful landscape level mitigation will require different strategies in different places. While the State Building Code Council is a competent resource for evaluating building construction requirements, landscape level design beyond the built environment is not in their bailiwick.
