State selects and funds 94 wildfire projects to build community and climate resilience

What you need to know: California’s Wildfire Prevention Grants Program has enabled over 450 wildfire resilience projects in the last five years that focus on increasing the protection of people, structures, communities and the environment.

SACRAMENTO — As part of the Newsom Administration’s key priorities to bolster the state’s wildfire response and resilience efforts, CAL FIRE has announced grants for 94 local wildfire prevention projects across California, supported by $90.8 million in funding.

Over the last five years, CAL FIRE has awarded more than $450 million in its Wildfire Prevention Grants Program to over 450 projects across the state.

“In addition to huge investments in personnel, equipment and technology, proactively building community resilience to wildfires is another key part of California’s strategy to reduce the impact of catastrophic wildfires. These investments support local fuel reduction, forest health and other projects that build natural resilience and protect lives and property in at-risk communities from the intensifying impacts of climate change.”

Governor Gavin Newsom

Wildfire Prevention Grant projects include hazardous fuels reduction and wildfire prevention planning and education, with an emphasis on improving public health and safety while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Over two-thirds of the projects are awards to communities that are low-income and disadvantaged.

The 94 local projects that are receiving awards in this latest round are located across the state, including in:

Alameda County to support tree trimming and removal along evacuation routes within the City of Oakland, while doubling as a significant fuel break along these vulnerable corridors.
Fresno County for a project removing 12,000 dead or dying hazard trees and 50,000 cubic yards of ground fuels, to improve protection for at least 1,000 habitable structures. Funding will also support wildfire prevention education for property owners.
Mendocino County to remove hazardous vegetation along roads and driveways serving around 300 habitable structures near Leggett in an area that has not burned in the last half-century, to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire, reduce the rate of spread of fire, create safe ingress and egress and reduce the forest fuel load along roadways.
Nevada and Placer counties Tahoe Truckee Airport District for fuel reduction projects near Truckee that will improve forest health and restore the landscape to a more fire resilient condition through maintenance on existing fuel breaks and prescribed burning, which would decrease fire intensity and improve forest health by reducing fuel loads and ladder fuels.
Orange County for a multi-phased project to remove hazardous fuels, including 953 eucalyptus species on interior slopes to safeguard 1,228 single family homes.
Riverside County to increase defensible space and roadside protection between habitable structures and open spaces within Murrieta, improving fire safety for more than 115,000 residents and in excess of 32,000 structures within the city.
San Luis Obispo County for 19 wildfire prevention projects in nine wildland urban interface communities, treating hazardous vegetation through prescribed grazing, shaded fuel breaks, roadside clearance, forest thinning and prescribed fire.
Santa Cruz County for roadside fuel reduction projects on critical evacuation routes, and funding a county-wide chipping program to support residents’ defensible space requirements and reducing wildfire impact on properties.
Siskiyou County to protect habitable structures within the City of Weed and surrounding areas through fuels reduction, thinning and burning to reduce the fuel loading and fire hazard near communities already impacted by the Mill Fire in 2022.

The Wildfire Prevention Grants Program furthers California’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan and is funded in part through California Climate Investments, which puts cap-and-trade dollars to work.

For a full list of the Wildfire Prevention Grants, visit CAL FIRE’s website.