During Fire Prevention Week – Sunday, Oct. 5 through Saturday, Oct. 11 — Blue Hill Peninsula residents can help their towns prioritize actions to reduce the risk of wildfire. An anonymous survey is helping the towns identify concerns that it can factor into a planning process now under way.
All nine towns on the Blue Hill Peninsula are collaborating on drafting the Blue Hill Peninsula Community Wildfire Protection Plan. At the start of the 18-month planning process, the town’s consultant, SWCA Environmental Consultants of Scarborough, has prepared a survey to help community members identify their concerns and recommend priorities for action.
The link for the survey, open now, is https://forms.microsoft.com/r/m2q46Syhd4.
“The survey made us aware of what we need to do — and how little we know!” a homeowner in Brooksville commented after taking the 10-minute online survey when it was launched in July.
The Blue Hill Peninsula Community Wildfire Protection Plan is designed to help property owners understand ways to make their homes more resilient to wildfire.
Each town has appointed its fire chief and other community members to serve on an oversight committee to guide the planning process.
One of the oversight committee’s members, Tommy Morris, an assistant chief of the Brooklin Fire Department and head of the Hancock County Firefighters’ Association, stressed the value of the survey, “The more we learn from this survey about our residents’ concerns and what they already know, the better we can improve our fire-prevention activities.”
The Blue Hill Peninsula Community Wildfire Protection Plan is funded by Congressionally Directed Spending from the US Forest Service of the US Department of Agriculture that U.S. Sen. Susan Collins and U.S. Sen. Angus King secured for the nine towns in March 2024.
Voluntary participation in the survey is a key component of community members’ engagement with town officials, firefighters, emergency responders, property owners and all who seek to reduce the risk of wildfire. Residents of the nine towns on the Blue Hill Peninsula will have the opportunity to review and comment on the Community Wildfire Protection Plan, which is expected to be drafted in the late fall of 2026.
