Wildcat Community - Firewise/USA </head> <body bgcolor="#fff7E6"> <font face="arial" color="#002200"> <p align="center"><img src="wild-line.gif"></p> <h2 align="center">Wildcat Firewise Community - Our Story</h2> <p align="justify">The availability of water and fire protection are principal concerns of the residents in the mountain communities of Pickens and Dawson Counties. Each residential mountain community has worked individually to solve these problems. In the summer of 2004, members of each of the communities began discussing their concerns with other communities and found we all shared the same problems. Research uncovered information on the national Firewise program and that led to discussions about the program with the GA Forestry Commission, who oversees this program in GA.</p> <p align="justify">In September 2004 the leadership of four mountain Private Owner Association (POA) communities decided to have a joint meeting of all the members of these communities to learn about the Firewise Program and what it could do to help us solve our common problems. The GA Forestry Commission presented a program on Firewise and educated all the participants on the Urban-Forest interface issues. Before the night was over, the communities had formed a task force to begin meeting on joining the communities together into a Firewise Community.</p> <p align="justify">The task force met a few weeks later and formed the Wildcat Firewise Community, Inc. The Board of Directors of each POA approved the concept and gave their approval to proceed with the development of a Firewise Plan. Other mountain communities were approached to see if they wished to join the effort, one more community did.</p> <p align="justify">Over the period of 18 months, the Wildcat Firewise Board met numerous times to develop the joint community Firewise concept, a first for the nation. The GA Forestry Commission visited each community to determine their fire risks and to develop a recommended plan for reducing the those risks. The Wildcat Firewise Board worked with the plan provided by the GA Forestry Commission and developed a joint Firewise plan to help reduce the fire risks in our communities. Further, the board worked with the Emergency Management Managers from Pickens and Dawson Counties to help solve the water problems resulting in new emergency water supplies being built in the mountain area.</p> <p align="justify">In the summer of 2006, the Wildcat Firewise Community, Inc., consisting of five separate POA mountain communities became a reality after receiving national approval of our application.</p> <p align="justify">Today, the Wildcat Community, Inc. consists of nine (9) separate private homeowner or other type community spread over two counties banded together to improve emergency management on the mountain area. The Wildcat Community is further partnered with the Emergency Management organizations of Pickens and Dawson Counties and the GA Forestry Commission.</p> <div align="justify">The two counties in conjunction with Wildcat Community, Inc. are working to build a fire station on the mountain to enhance fire protection.</div> </font> </body> </html>