The approach we always used was to work with the community. We were there to provide assistance and help the people get what they wanted, rather than going in and imposing something. It turns out that's a good philosophy, but it's also the most effective way to get something done. Even in these wildland-urban mix communities where everybody's very independent, they're not independent of each other. They watch out for their neighbor and like working with their neighbor.
Locals are always in charge.
If there is interest, the groups recruit others and a holistic strategy for transforming the community from a disaster waiting to happen into one that fits more defensibly into its environment is mapped out. We try to relandscape the entire community, not just a house here and a house there. We'll draw a boundary around where a natural fire would be and that's the area we address. It can be tricky. To do that, you have to work across all these land ownerships where everyone has different objectives and perspectives on what ought to be done, and if you've got commercial timber land in there along with residential land and federal land, that mix can make it difficult.