RICHMOND, R.I. — As climate-fueled disasters rise, municipalities are no longer asking if a catastrophe will strike but whether their communities will be prepared when it does. 

In Richmond, where a little more than 8,000 people live, Town Councilor Daniel Madnick is working to close gaps that recent wildfires and brushfires across the state revealed in the town’s environmental planning. 

Madnick proposed creating an environmental resiliency commission to prepare the town for threats, including drought, flooding, hurricanes and wildfires, while monitoring its hazard mitigation plan.

“We don’t have a board or commission that their sole focus is to make sure that we are prepared for any environmental issues that come,” he said during a May 19 town council meeting. 

The proposal is modeled after the Charlestown Climate Resilience Commission, which was established in 2021 and worked with state Rep. Megan Cotter, D-Exeter, Hopkinton, and Richmond, on forest management and fire prevention.

Cotter, who serves on the Northeastern Forest Fire Prevention Commission, urged the commission to reach out to Charlestown landowners with five acres or more to connect them with resources and federal funding available for private land management.

She encouraged the Town of Richmond to adopt a similar commission in 2025.

Madnick fears there’s a shortage of local expertise and wants to allow nonresidents with ties to the town to sit on the commission that will help shape environmental policy.

Town Councilor Michael Colasante said the community needs to put its best foot forward because it’s not a question of if a disaster will happen, but a matter of when.

He recalled when the hair on the back of his neck stood up as he watched acres of land burn in Exeter in 2023. He said a couple of months before the large brush fire broke out, he met with congressional and timber industry representatives in Washington, D.C., who warned that the state was not maintaining its forests and lacked the equipment, apparatus and training to respond to a fire.

“They were so ill-prepared for that,” Colasante said. 

During an April council meeting, a Richmond resident, Gary Stoner, warned of a “disaster in the making” tied to the lingering impacts of the Spongy moth infestation, which caused widespread tree mortality, and said he wanted the council to find solutions to address dead and falling trees.

The Richmond council is refining the commission’s language to define it as an advisory body before it moves to a public hearing.