Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Xochitl Torres Small recently announced $250 million to help at-risk communities protect their homes, businesses and infrastructure from catastrophic wildfire, made worse by the climate crisis.
The grant funding includes nearly $9.9 million for The Nature Conservancy to protect communities in Archuleta County and watersheds that provide irrigation and drinking water to downstream users in Santa Fe and Albuquerque, N.M., which get 50 percent and 90 percent of their clean water from these watersheds, respectively.
The Community Wildfire Defense Grant program will fund 158 projects to help communities in 31 states, two territories and 11 tribes develop community wildfire protection plans and remove overgrown vegetation that can fuel fires that threaten lives, livelihoods and resources.
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.
Other examples include nearly $10 million for the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma to get the equipment it needs 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.
Interest in the program has also grown since its first year, with more projects being funded in more states and among more tribes, thanks to an increase in applications, representing a nearly 20 percent increase in funding overall.
In total, the program is investing $1 billion over five years to assist at-risk communities through grants to local and tribal communities, nonprofit 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. The proposals are reviewed using guidelines within the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which 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.
“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 nonfederal land in communities that already have a community wildfire protection plan in place.”
The Forest Service will announce a third funding opportunity later this year.
More information about the funded proposals, as well as announcements about the grant program, is available on the Community Wildfire Defense Grants website.
