Tribal Nations Take the Lead: Creating the First Multi-Tribal Hazard Mitigation Plan

By day, smoke from fires choked out the sun, leaving the land and its people in a suffocating haze. By night, the sky lit up as the flames marched ever closer. Between 2015 and 2018, wildfires burned nearly three-quarters of Lake County, California. The Tribal Nations that live in the area—as they have for almost 12,000 years—dealt with the worst effects of these events. Some of the fires forced the Tribes to evacuate. Other times, both tribal and non-tribal residents sheltered in place to protect themselves.

At the same time, the declining water quality in Clear Lake threatened Tribes’ cultural heritage. Loss of wetlands, fertilizer runoff, and other changes altered the ecosystem. Aquatic weeds and algae spread, devastating the native fish populations that were a food source for the Tribes.

Threats seemed to grow by the day, and the health of the land and lake were getting worse. The Tribes’ traditions and future were at stake.

The Tribes looked to hazard mitigation planning as a way to protect people, property, and culture. Five Tribal Nations came together to create their own tribal Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP). This is a key step in getting access to many forms of federal funding to help with much-needed projects to reduce risk. The Tribes that participated were:

• Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians
• Elem Indian Colony
• Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake
• Robinson Rancheria
• Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians

The idea to work on this tribal plan came from talks with the Hinthil Environmental Resources Consortium (HERC). HERC is a group of Tribes that surround Clear Lake in Lake County. Its goal is to protect the environment. Patricia Franklin, Tribal Project Coordinator for the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians, shared, “The tribal community felt more comfortable going to their local tribal government offices rather than attending a meeting to give input at a county meeting location.”

All five Tribes agreed to help to draft a plan. Representatives from each tribe would make up the project team. Now, there was a new challenge: There were no other mitigation plans to reference that covered multiple Tribes. FEMA’s 2017 Tribal Mitigation Plan Review Guide allows Tribal Nations to work with one another on a single plan. However, the requirements were a better fit for planning for one Tribal Nation at a time. There was no template or guidance on how to start. This plan would be the first of its kind.

The group began by initiating the process to get FEMA grant funding to support the plan. The tribes had worked together in the past on many grant-funded projects. They decided that the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians would take the lead on the process, since they had written a mitigation plan before. In 2018, the Scotts Valley Band was awarded funds through FEMA’s Pre-Disaster Mitigation Grant Program.

From the very beginning, the project team wanted each Tribal Nation to be involved in every step of the process. This began as early as hiring a consultant. The group wanted to make sure the plan developer knew this would be a unique process. They also invited the county to participate in the planning process, even though the county already had a mitigation plan in place.

The project team connected with FEMA throughout the planning process. In 2018, Patricia Franklin attended a FEMA local hazard mitigation training. Patricia recalled, “When I attended a training in Santa Rosa, California, and met the team that included JoAnn Scordino from FEMA Region 9, it was definitely a game changer. The FEMA team came to Lake County and put on a training for the Tribes on what mitigation planning is and differences between Tribes and other organizations or governments.”

Along the way, the group faced obstacles well beyond their control. First, California instituted Public Safety Power Shut-Offs (PSPS) in 2019 and 2020 to reduce the risk of wildfire. This caused the planning team to reschedule public meetings. The COVID-19 pandemic hit its peak when the Tribes were scheduling public meetings, so they needed to change how these were carried out. While virtual outreach usually boosts participation, here the attendance decreased. Patricia Franklin stated that this was because the public, at that time, did not have the technology they needed to attend. The Tribal Nations pushed through these challenges and continued to work on their plan.

In 2021, the first multi-tribal mitigation plan received FEMA approval. The Tribal Nations formally adopted the plan in the next months.

The plan began with a foreword that described the area’s history and culture. The Tribal Nations wanted to include this key piece of context. It served as a reminder of the struggles the faced by Tribal Nationsover the centuries. It explained their culture and relationship with nature, and how those have shaped current conditions.

Each Tribal Nation has its own annex in the plan. These include the tribe’s unique risks and actions to prepare them for future disasters. Each had this space to describe and map their risks, discuss their capabilities, and detail their mitigation projects. The power shutoffs from early in the plan’s development informed many’ priority projects. This work includes making sure that critical facilities have generators or solar power to make up for unexpected power losses. There is also an interest in finding new ways to share information on disasters and adding more emergency shelters when disasters are on the horizon. The Scotts Valley Band is applying for grants to obtain land to help address climate adaptation concerns.

In planning, the process is often just as important as the final plan itself. The choice to invite the county to the process was a key moment for building relationships. Two tribal members now sit on the Lake County Board of Supervisors. This gives them oversight on how the area will grow and develop.

Each tribe shares the vision and goals set forth in the Hazard Mitigation Plan. The partnerships they continue to build will protect the well-being of their communities for future generations.

1. Develop the plan that works best for you. Mitigation plans come in all shapes and sizes. There is no standard template for the planning process or the plan itself. This might mean trying something that has not been done before. For the Lake County Tribal Nations, this meant creating a new type of plan.
2. Hazard mitigation planning is a chance to deepen partnerships. The planning process relied on close coordination between the Tribal Nations and their county, state, and federal partners. Partnering with FEMA throughout the process made the best steps clear and led to a strong plan. Many of the Tribes’ mitigation actions rely on inter-tribal coordination and close work with state and federal agencies. This also played a role in future collaboration and integration with other tribal planning work.

• Elem Indian Colony Public Notification of Upcoming Multi-Tribal Hazard Mitigation Plan Meetings: November 12, 2019
• Clear Lake Environmental Research Center: Fire and Forestry Program
• FEMA Tribal Mitigation Planning Policy Updates

An approved Hazard Mitigation Plan is also required for certain kinds of non-emergency disaster funding. To learn more about how to fund eligible projects, review the Mitigation Planning and Grants information on FEMA.gov.