Honeydew

Honeydew is situated in the southwestern portion of the county, approximately 22 miles west of Highway 101 and Humboldt Redwoods State Park. The majority of this community, which has a population of about 400 people, lives within the Wildland-Urban Interface.

Becoming Firewise


Honeydew became a nationally recognized Firewise Community in 2011 and has maintained its Firewise status since then. The Honeydew Firewise Board works in conjunction with the Lower Mattole Fire Safe Council (LMFSC), the Mattole Restoration Council and the Honeydew Volunteer Fire Company (VFC) to improve fire-safety in this area.
Firemen Outside of Tent
Community Activities
Honeydew’s annual Firewise Day is typically incorporated into the community’s annual music festival, The Roll on the Mattole, which benefits the Honeydew VFC.
People at Fair
Fire-safe Efforts
Fire-safe efforts in this community have included creating and distributing educational brochures for landowners on how to make their homes more fire-resilient, creating and maintaining a fire atlas, which is a mapping system of the area that enables emergency responders to locate incident sites more easily. This system improves the visibility of street and address signs, which facilitates emergency response.
Through the LMFSC and the Mattole Restoration Council, the community of Honeydew has also participated in the Fire-adapted Landscapes and Safe Homes (FLASH) Program, a rebate program that reimburses landowners for reducing hazardous wildfire fuels on their properties.

Action Tools
Honeydew's Firewise community wildfire assessments (PDF) and action plan (PDF) are excellent tools for communities to learn about wildfire hazards in their area and collaboratively identify actions to reduce those hazards.