USDA Focuses On Wildfire Risk  

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced the USDA Forest Service is investing $200 million in 58 projects through the Community Wildfire Defense Grant Program. These investments, thanks to Congressionally mandated funding, help at-risk communities plan for and reduce wildfire risk, protecting homes, businesses and infrastructure.

“These grants are about putting real resources directly in the hands of the people who know their lands and communities best. By empowering them, we are protecting homes, businesses, and infrastructure while securing the future of our great American landscape,” Rollins says. “Keeping forests healthy, resilient, and productive doesn’t come from Washington. It comes from us standing alongside the people and communities we serve, and supporting practical, science-based management that ensures the future of the forests and rural prosperity.”

“No single organization can address the severe wildfire threats we face today. It is imperative that we work together to protect our forests and communities,” adds Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz. “For those communities that already have plans in place, these investments will enable immediate, collaborative action to reduce wildfire risk.”

The selected projects span 22 states and two tribes. In total, the program is investing $1 billion over five years to assist at-risk communities, including tribal communities, nonprofit organizations, state forestry agencies with planning for and mitigating wildfire risks on lands not managed by federal agencies.

The Forest Service will announce a fourth funding opportunity later this year.

Grant proposals undergo a competitive selection process that includes review panels made up of state forestry agencies, tribal representatives, and other partners. The proposals prioritize at-risk communities that have been impacted by a severe disaster, are at a high or very high potential for wildfire hazard and are classified as low income.  

The following are a few examples of the larger grant awards:

• In California, Southern Humboldt Wildfire Risk Reduction Project—$9.8 million

This project joins together experienced partners to leverage their individual capacity to implement fuels reduction projects on private lands at a landscape scale. The project will promote fire-adapted communities and resilient landscapes, improve public safety by providing strategic fuel treatments on private lands, conduct outreach and education, and establish a regional workforce and wildfire mitigation partnership. Project components include 2,155 acres of treatment, including roadside fuels reduction to improve community evacuation routes and emergency response access, shaded fuel breaks along strategic ridges and roads, prescribed fire units, and defensible space.

• In Washington, Reducing Hazardous Fuel Conditions within the Yakama Indian Reservation—$9.6 million

This project is focused on treating hazardous fuels and restoring fire-adapted forests on private lands within the Yakama Indian Reservation in southern Yakima County. To address these issues, a combination of fuels reduction treatments will take place within a portion of 4,894 acres owned and managed by Columbia Land Trust. Fuels treatments will focus on reducing surface, ladder, and crown fuels through a combination of mechanical thinning and prescribed fire activities. The WA DNR Forest Resilience Data and Mapping System identifies the specific project area to have high to extremely high wildfire hazard potential. This project would result in strategic fuel breaks that would reduce the risk of sending high severity wildfire onto tribal, public, and private lands with commercially important timber and habitat. It will also reduce risk to nearby rural residential communities.

• In Oregon, Hazardous Fuels Reduction Project: Safeguarding Our Communities at Highest Risk of Wildfires—$6 million

This project will enable Douglas County to complete targeted hazardous fuels reduction work along 21 road systems, totaling 117.5 road miles. Contracted ground crews will use backpack sprayers to target cut stumps and resprouts from noxious weeds and encroaching brush and trees within roadside (dry) ditches (~100 treatment acres). This work will coincide with hazard tree felling and limb removal within County rights-of-way. Hazard tree removals, crown reductions, and large canopy limb removals work will be completed by qualified tree companies. County crews will complete roadside mowing, some tree trimming, brushing, and chipping. Equipment purchased with this proposal includes a diamond mower with articulating head, which will enable the county to maintain roads from dense and encroaching weeds and brush after the treatments are complete.