Denise Gauny

For Tahoe Donner Board of Directors

Wildfire Protection Is Priority # 1

To protect our community from wildfire, Tahoe Donner can’t go it alone and we can’t wait until it’s too late!

Tahoe Donner set the standard for world-class wildfire preparedness. With climate change escalating fire risk, our preparedness initiatives need to keep pace:

  • Supplement association resources with grant funding

  • Ensure vigilance against emerging risks

  • Continue strong defensible space standards

  • Prioritize common area wildfire fuel reduction

  • Improve wildfire early detection, rapid response

  • Address evacuation vulnerabilities, bottlenecks, signage

  • Advance planning for 3rd emergency evacuation route

  • Connect members with home hardening rebates

As Vice Chair, and now as Chair-elect of the Truckee Fire Protection District Measure T Citizens Oversight Committee, I built effective working relationships with our regional fire district team, and I partnered with Tahoe Donner’s General Manager and Director of Land Management to promote our community’s safety.  Through my fire district public service, I know that, even as we strengthen our defensible space and forest management programs, we must also partner regionally to achieve Tahoe Donner’s wildfire preparedness goals:

  • Form public/private partnerships to further Tahoe Donner’s wildfire safety

  • Improve our emergency preparedness and evacuation infrastructure

  • Support state level efforts to improve your access to wildfire insurance

Partnering For Fire Safety

In 2021, Truckee voters approved Measure T, a local initiative to provide funding for the Truckee Fire Protection District’s wildfire preparedness and prevention efforts. As vice-chair of the Measure T Citizens Oversight Committee, I worked with Tahoe Donner’s Land Management Team to make sure Tahoe Donner gets its fair share of the funding. Now as chair-elect, to protect the public trust I will lead the committee in detailed financial reviews to ensure that the funds collected are spent in strict accordance with Measure T’s legal requirements.

Thanks to the Measure T partnership, Tahoe Donner has already been able to access public grants for wildfire fuel reduction, buy new equipment to clear high risk wildfire zones, and extend association resources by working with the Fire District to run our yard-waste chipping program. Tahoe Donner has also benefited from Measure T funding for critical wildfire fuel reduction work just outside of our community’s border. 

If elected to Tahoe Donner’s board, I will build upon this public/private partnership model, both regionally and statewide, to benefit Tahoe Donner’s wildfire preparedness and to advocate for your interests as homeowners in a high-risk wildfire zone. 

Emergency Infrastructure + 3rd Egress

To increase our wildfire safety, we need to partner with the town and regional agencies to improve our emergency preparedness and evacuation infrastructure. 

Tahoe Donner’s board got it right when it recently sent a letter to the town council proposing a public/private partnership to use a portion of our property tax dollars to “identify and implement emergency preparedness infrastructure improvements that will contribute to a minimum 30% decrease in evacuation model times” for Tahoe Donner. With the town’s cooperation, as soon as this summer we could improve our evacuation signage, complete evacuation route defensible space work, and undertake a feasibility study to identify new emergency egress and access options for Tahoe Donner.

To improve our emergency preparedness and evacuation infrastructure, we need to strengthen existing partnerships and build new public/private partnerships. My Fire District public service has given me the knowledge and key working relationships needed to take Tahoe Donner’s emergency preparedness public/private partnerships to the next level. 

Improving Wildfire Insurance Access

To protect our community and our access to insurance, it’s more important than ever that Tahoe Donner maintain its position as a preeminent forest management and defensible space leader. However, with policies being canceled and coverage becoming unaffordable and even unobtainable, it’s also time for Tahoe Donner to support state level efforts to protect your access to quality, affordable wildfire insurance. 

Currently, insurance companies unfairly ignore the millions of dollars Tahoe Donner and its members continue to invest in defensible space, wildfire resilience, and forest health. SB-1060 is a bill currently working its way through the state senate. If enacted into law, insurance companies would need to consider how home hardening, defensible space, and other fire prevention activities reduce wildfire risk when making decisions about rates, availability, and cancellations. That should result in greater insurance availability and security for Tahoe Donner members.

With your support, as your next board member I will work to create regional and statewide political partnerships to defend and promote your interests as Tahoe Donner homeowners, including your access to quality, affordable wildfire insurance.