U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack launched a new $1 billion Community Wildfire Defense Grant program. This new, five-year, competitive program funded by President Biden’s historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is designed to assist at-risk communities, including Tribal communities, non-profit organizations, state forestry agencies and Alaska Native corporations with planning for and mitigating wildfire risks.
The program launch comes at an important time as shifting development patterns, land and fire management decisions, and climate change have turned fire “seasons” into fire “years” with increasingly destructive fires. Applications will be available in the coming days.
Secretary Vilsack made the announcement during his keynote address at the Western Governors’ Association’s 2022 annual meeting where discussions focused on wildfire threats, restoring burned landscapes and the effects of drought in the West.
Individual grants will fund up to $250,000 to create and update community wildfire protection plans or conduct outreach and education, and up to $10 million for associated infrastructure and resilience projects. Local and Tribal governments are encouraged to conduct planning exercises to assist their communities with wildfire preparedness, response and adaptation efforts. Projects must be completed within five years of the award obligation. The number of projects selected will be determined by available funding, which is $200 million annually.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law also provides an historic $8.25 billion investment for wildfire management, through a suite of programs aimed at reducing wildfire risks, detecting wildfires, instituting firefighter workforce reforms and landmark pay increases for federal wildland firefighters.
