Author: Jason Fuller
Is your community one of the 60,000+ communities identified across the United States as being at risk of a wildfire? Would federal funding help you protect your community from these wildfires?
The Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) is the zone where a transition from unoccupied land to human development occurs, i.e. where your communities back up, or intermingle with, undeveloped lands or vegetative fuels. The USFA states that over 3,000 structures were lost, on average, every year between 2002 and 2016, and the WUI area continues to grow by approximately 2 million acres per year. Wildfires can run rampant through a community that has ample fuel, and no plans to combat the blaze.
PCG is proud to notify you of an opportunity for grant funding through the federal government’s “Community Wildfire Defense Grants.” These grants, with only approximately 10% of the $150 million available allocated so far, are available to communities that either need to develop/revise a Community Wildfire Protection Plan, or those who need to implement a previously created plan that is less than ten years old!
Required matching funds are low at 10% for the development/revision of a new plan or 25% for the funding of a previously established plan. Low income/underserved communities are eligible to have these matching funds waived! Following the steps found at the Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network makes applying for the grants relatively simple and will lead you through the step-by-step process. Some of the eligible projects include: home assessments, prescribed fire training, staff support for the community, vegetation and fuel management, and more.
More information on what the Wildland Urban Interface is can be found here. Check out this list to see if your community is on the federal list of areas at a “high risk from wildfires”.
If you need any assistance with the grant application process, our PCG team is always happy to help. You can use the button below to schedule a free 15-minute consultation with one of our experts.
