Chelan County, WA Environmental Rules: Defensible Space (2026)

77 is Chelan County's critical areas ordinance, covering wetlands, fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas, geologically hazardous areas and frequently flooded areas across unincorporated Chelan County. 040 lists exemptions and 'allowed uses,' actions permitted inside a critical area or its buffer without a full critical area report unless the administrator says otherwise. Subsection (2)(F)(iv), captioned 'Fire Protection,' lets the owner of a legally established existing structure request vegetation removal recommended through an adopted wildfire protection plan, or by the Washington Department of Natural Resources, the Cascadia Conservation District, or a similar agency.

The provision is limited by its own terms: it exists to support fire suppression and cannot be used to clear ground for new trails or yard areas, and the administrator can still require a critical area report. Before signing off, the administrator has to weigh four things: whether the proposal actually reduces fire risk or fire spread for the site and its neighbors; whether the critical area buffer could instead be handled through buffer averaging; whether the vegetation removal requested is the minimum necessary to achieve defensible space or fuels reduction, not more; and whether the vegetation and habitat impact needs mitigation to avoid a net loss of critical area function.

The same subsection separately allows minor removal of invasive, noxious and nonnative vegetation with hand tools without administrator sign-off, and allows removing hazard trees that threaten public safety with floodplain administrator approval, provided cut material stays in wetland or habitat buffers unless disease or safety requires hauling it out.