Risk assessments mandated by state for climate-related hazards.
Updated Nov. 7, 2025
Six years ago, Marsha Devine made the move from Sacramento to Bellingham in part because of the wildfire risk. The smoke was at times unbearable, she said, and the fires came uncomfortably close to her home.
While there is less risk in Pacific Northwest, Devine found herself living adjacent to a field of overgrown grass brushing up to her wooden fence with no mitigation efforts from officials and no plan should it ignite.
As part of the comprehensive state planning process due by the end of the year, House Bill 1181 mandates that counties must now incorporate climate-related hazard assessments. The comprehensive plan, required under the Growth Management Act, contains long-range policies, visions and goals for each community. It is intended as the centerpiece guide to county decision-making, codes and day-to-day actions.
Whatcom County council members are currently submitting amendments to the climate element to be voted upon before final approval of the plan by December.
According to the Whatcom County Climate Action Plan, fires scorching 20 acres or more occur every 5–10 years on average, mostly in the east side of the county. In the Chuckanut Mountains, the average is every 40 years. This is expected to increase in the coming decades. By the 2050s, summers are predicted to be 6.6 degrees hotter than the baseline of 68 degrees, and 11 degrees by 2100.
While the climate action plans of San Juan and Skagit counties also assessed wildfire and drought risk, the heavily forested areas of east Whatcom were of most concern.
However, Bellingham is not exempt. Some environmentalists have called the Sehome Arboretum — and homes within a two-mile radius — a disaster waiting to happen.
Earlier this year, a Department of Natural Resources communications officer told Salish Current the department would spend an estimated $221.3 million on wildfire suppression, with costs going up annually.
Since then, a budget shortfall has led lawmakers to slash wildfire preparedness funding to $60 million for the next two years.
Simple step?
For Devine’s street, in the expanding Cordata neighborhood of North Bellingham, a simple weed abatement ordinance would mitigate much of the risk, she said.
“I’ve lived in cities up and down the California west coast, Los Angeles area, the Bay Area and Sacramento, and I’ve never lived in a place that did not have a weed abatement ordinance. Never,” she said. “If you’re from California and you see vegetation like that, you get really nervous. It is pretty, the waving dry grass, amber waves of grain. But what I see is fuel.”
Sacramento’s weed abatement program was initiated in 1969.
“This is not, ‘oh, yeah, we have a climate catastrophe’,” Devine said. “That was before the first Earth Day. It’s just ‘dry weeds cause fire, so we need to do something about it’.”
Devine said the risk is more obvious to outsiders than locals, who are less concerned because of the amount of rain.
“We love the rain, but it made springtime really nerve-wracking because grass grows, and it inevitably dries out.”
While a conservation easement requires the area to be maintained, there is no enforcement mechanism to do so. The grass pasture bordering Devine’s property is a common area to be maintained by a separate HOA for homes that haven’t been built yet.
According to Devine, “it’s just been a game of keep-away.”
A 2023 Whatcom Conservation District Wildfire Risk Property Assessment indicated significant fire risk for Devine’s property and recommended it be maintained. However, once again there was no enforcement mechanism to do so.
“The fire marshal did say, ‘we don’t have the resources to do anything about it, so just keep your go bag ready,’” Devine said.
The property assessment form provided guidance, including preparing a “go bag.”
Assessment and policy gap
In theory, the climate assessment would inform county policy, said council staffer Kirsten Smith, but the council has not reached that point yet.
None of the amendments made to the climate element of the comprehensive plan regard wildfires, said Whatcom County Climate Action Manager Laura Clemens at a meeting Wednesday of the council Committee as a Whole. However, DNR is in the process of making a new wildfire hazard map statewide which will include a risk evaluation map.
This map will not be completed by the comprehensive plan deadline, Clemens said, but it is not addressed further in the county comprehensive plan because DNR is the state-designated agency responsible for wildfire risk.
There haven’t been discussion or ordinances regarding weed management at the city level either, said David Brauhn, Bellingham’s assistant communications director. While he acknowledged that “temperature, humidity, wind and other weather extremes are predicted to increase over the coming years,” no related policy discussions have been planned.
He recommends following Firewise principles, a neighbor-led approach to mitigating fire risk.
However, Devine said she was told by a Whatcom Conservation District specialist that, due to close proximity of the houses in her neighborhood, Firewise home-hardening techniques such as smaller screens on vents and metal soffits might not have much effect, and that the risk of homes catching fire one-by-one due to radiant heat is significant. [Ed.: Edited to clarify why Firewise tactics might not be effective in the neighborhood.]
“The city is very good at having lots of plans, bicycle plans and pedestrian plans and all that,” she said. “But as far as actually doing what needs to be done, it falls short. I thought I was moving into a really forward-thinking area.”
— By Sam Fletcher
Also read in Salish Current:
• “Neighbors helping neighbors against wildfire risk,” May 5, 2025
• “Local counties face climate vulnerabilities,” March 21, 2025
• “How islands respond to threats of climate change,” Oct. 7, 2024
• “Wildfire fighting is on a year-round cycle,” Dec. 13, 2023
• “Prepared for the worst, local agencies plan wildfire-fighting strategies,” Aug. 5, 2021