Recently, Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Xochitl Torres Small announced $250 million to help at-risk communities protect their homes, businesses and infrastructure from catastrophic wildfire, made worse by the climate crisis.
“Last year, over two million Americans across the country were displaced by extreme weather and climate-fueled disasters, including wildfires,” said Assistant to the President and National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi.
Now in its second year, the Community Wildfire Defense Grant program helps communities in the wildland-urban interface maintain resilient landscapes, create fire-adapted communities, and ensure safe, effective wildfire response — all goals of the unifying National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy and aligned with the objectives of the National Climate Resilience Framework.
Examples include nearly $10 million for the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma to get the equipment they need to reduce wildfire risk through prescribed fire, thinning, and to educate and train firefighters and the communities they serve. Wasco County in Oregon is receiving nearly $6 million to create fuel breaks and defensible space to protect Maupin, Pine Grove, Tygh Valley and other communities.
In Colorado, The Nature Conservancy will use nearly $9.9 million to protect communities in Archuleta County and watersheds that provide irrigation and drinking water to downstream users in Santa Fe and Albuquerque, New Mexico, which get 50% and 90% of their clean water from these watersheds, respectively.
In total, the program is investing $1 billion over five years to assist at-risk communities through grants to local and Tribal communities, non-profit organizations, state forestry agencies, and Alaska Native Corporations, with planning for and mitigating wildfire risks on lands not managed by federal agencies.
The USDA’s Forest Service collaborated with Tribes and States through an interagency working group to develop the Community Wildfire Defense Grant program. Grant proposals undergo a competitive selection process that includes review panels made up of State forestry agencies, Tribal representatives, and other organizations.
“We recognize the difference this program is already having on reducing wildfire risk. This second round of investments will help communities develop community wildfire protection plans, which serve as roadmaps for addressing local wildfire risks,” said Forest Service Chief Randy Moore. “They also will fund projects to lower wildfire risk on non-federal land in communities that already have a community wildfire protection plan in place.”
Along with establishing the Community Wildfire Defense Grant Program, President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides an historic $3.5 billion investment in wildfire management through a suite of programs aimed at reducing wildfire risks, detecting wildfires, instituting firefighter workforce reforms, and increasing pay for federal wildland firefighters.
