Kaua‘i Fire Department to Hold Islandwide Wildfire Protection Workshops March 2026

The Kaua‘i Fire Department announced on Feb. 23 that it will hold a series of Community Wildfire Protection Plan workshops across the island in early March 2026 to gather public input, identify local wildfire risks and values at risk, and finalize the community CWPP. The announcement did not list town-by-town locations or times; KFD said workshops will be held islandwide and intended to feed into community wildfire protection planning.

The workshops come after a 2024 Kaua‘i CWPP Update that the Hawaii Wildfire Mitigation Organization spearheaded and as Kaua‘i looks back to the island’s June 2009 CWPP. The 2009 plan, which Dlnr Hawaii records as collaboratively developed, states it “identifies and prioritizes areas for hazardous fuel reduction treatments and recommends the types and methods of treatment that will protect Kauai,” and “recommends measures to reduce the ignitability of structures throughout the area addressed by the Plan.” The 2009 plan credited Kaua‘i Fire Department staff including Chief Robert Westerman and Captain David Bukoski and named contributors from Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and Hawaii State Division of Forestry and Wildlife.

Risk data and historical impacts underscore the urgency behind the outreach. Since 2000, roughly 30% of all fires on Kaua‘i have been wildfires, and past wildfires “have closed major highways, and threatened homes,” Dlnr Hawaii notes. Ignitions on Kaua‘i occur most often near the coasts where agricultural lands, grass and brush dominate, and Pacific Fire Exchange warns that “increased precipitation may lead to a surplus of vegetation growth, becoming potential fuel during subsequent drier periods.” Pacific Fire Exchange also highlights the island’s landscape challenges - steep slopes, rough terrain, difficult access, and a large percentage of highly ignitable invasive grasses - and points out that Mount Waiʻaleʻale remains one of the wettest places on earth even as wildfire risk persists.

The county and state agencies listed as principal stakeholders for CWPP development include Kaua‘i Fire Department, the State Division of Forestry and Wildlife, Kaua‘i County Civil Defense Agency, Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, plus large landowners such as Grove Farm and Kauai Coffee Company and residents. HWMO emphasizes the planning and funding role of CWPPs: “CWPPs are a great planning tool for communities and have become a prerequisite for receiving federal funding for wildfire protection projects,” and the plans assess values at risk including “safety, natural resource protection, recreation, scenic values, and economic assets.”

Kaua‘i Fire Department’s community outreach history includes a free Fire Prevention Week event in October 2025 that partnered with Kaua‘i Emergency Management Agency, Kaua‘i Police Department, Firewise Hawai‘i and DOFAW. Kaua‘i Fire Department Chief Michael Gibson said of that event, “This event is a valuable opportunity to bring our partners and community together to focus on preventing both home fires and dangerous wildfires.” The department lists Prevention Capt. Kaeo Kinoshita as a community contact (808-241-1982, jkinoshita@kauai.gov) for prevention events; KFD has yet to publish the full March workshop schedule, agenda or confirmed participant list for the CWPP sessions.

The March 2026 workshops will determine priorities for hazardous fuel reduction, structure ignitability measures and the next steps toward implementing projects that can qualify for federal funding. Kaua‘i fire planners and conservation partners will use public input from the islandwide sessions to finalize the community wildfire protection plan and prioritize projects that protect roads, homes, watersheds and cultural resources.