AUSTIN (KXAN) -- As wildfires continue to force tens of thousands of evacuations in Los Angeles, and as the Austin Firefighters Association (AFA) has warned Austin needs to prepare for the chance of catastrophic fires itself, the city of Austin is turning an eye toward vegetation management and wildfire mitigation. "We've gotten a bunch of questions from folks about what is the city doing or what can a homeowner do to help protect their property," Austin City Council Member Paige Ellis said. "We definitely want to make sure that we are working in concert with our surrounding communities and sharing the resources, a lot of them already exist, to be able to get the information to folks that they need." On next week's Austin City Council agenda, the council has several items aimed at wildfire mitigation, including a $7.5 million contract to be divided among contractors to do vegetation management at natural areas managed by the Parks and Recreation Department (PARD). According to the city, PARD manages more than 12,500 acres of land, including greenbelts, parks and nature preserves. Inside Austin’s Agenda: What to expect from city council in 2025 "One of the contracts that we have coming to us is about vegetation management, trimming trees, making sure that underbrush is appropriately maintained. Those are some of the issues that we know are first and foremost for a lot of neighbors that live adjacent to city-owned land," Ellis said. "The risk is real, luckily we have a lot of great programs already in existence." Next week's agenda item points urgently to the PARD Land Management Plan: "the ecological condition of most PARD natural areas has been classified as ‘moderate’ to ‘very poor’ due to issues such as invasive species, loss of biodiversity, and hazardous wildfire fuel conditions. Poor ecological condition contributes to elevated likelihood of tree mortality and intense wildfire." Austin City Council is also scheduled to vote on an agreement with the federal government to study wildfire risk at "certain properties" managed by the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve. Austin metro ranks among highest wildfire risk in U.S., analysis shows "Significant change has occurred in this landscape since the Baylor Study was completed, including three severe droughts and two major winter storms. Updated information is needed to accurately capture the condition of wildland fire fuels and inform possible management strategies," the agenda item says. Is Austin truly at risk? AFA President Bob Nicks has a stark warning for you on that front: What you’re seeing play out in Los Angeles, is not out of the question for our city. “I think that they [Austinites] should internalize that what we see in LA…could happen to a large degree here in Austin, in the right conditions, and most conditions exist today,” Nicks told KXAN. Nicks pointed to Austin’s topography, specifically in northwest and west Austin where fuel loads are high. He also pointed to Austin’s often intensely dry conditions. “When we have the winds, we have the exact same conditions we are seeing in LA,” Nicks said. “And that’s why Austin is considered one of the five highest risk in the nation, the only one outside of California, by the way, nationally, to have the chance of catastrophic fires.” ‘Need to do something now’: President of AFA warns Austin could experience fires similar to LA The lone factor LA is seeing right now that Austin is not, Nicks explained, is high winds. In fact, gusts were predicted to reach near hurricane-force in some areas in California earlier this month. “We don’t have strong winds. But when strong winds exist — and that’s why we had the big Bastrop fires, we had a prevalence of strong winds going one direction for a while — and it does happen occasionally, all the conditions come together…it’ll be a condition similar to what we’re seeing in LA,” Nicks said.