Almost $500K awarded to improve Grant County’s wildfire resiliency
By Logan Bagett on Monday, May 8th, 2023 in Eastern/Southeast Oregon News More Top Stories
JOHN DAY – Grant County has been awarded nearly $500,000 to implement in the Community Wildfire Protection Plan to improve wildfire resiliency. Grant County Commissioner Jim Hamsher was on KJDY’s Coffee Time explaining to listeners how part of the award monies will be used:
“Yeah, I think we got almost $230,000 to help Firewise and the Community Wildfire Protection plan, and approximately $168,000 to help with the fuel reduction around our communities.”
$498,069 is set to make its way to Grant County Economic Development soon, according to Commissioner Hamsher.
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Find the full press release from the Oregon State Fire Marshall below:
(Press release from the Office of Oregon State Fire Marshall)
The Oregon State Fire Marshal (OSFM) announced the recipients of its competitive $18-million Community Wildfire Risk Reduction (CWRR) Grant. These funds will help communities across Oregon reach their goals of improving wildfire resiliency, using local programs and solutions.
In total, 106 organizations were offered grant funding, totaling $18 million. Projects receiving funding include community-wide wildfire defensible space programs, vegetation removal around buildings, community chipping programs, community education related to wildfire preparedness, equipment for vegetation removal, and staff to support these local efforts.
“This grant will allow communities to create proactive, local solutions to lessen the impacts of wildfire,” Oregon State Fire Marshal Mariana Ruiz-Temple said. “We know that wildfire can happen anywhere in Oregon. Investing in communities in all areas of our state will bring much-needed community risk reduction and resiliency projects and programs to life.”
The CWRR grant is funding local governments, special districts, structural fire service agencies, and non-governmental organizations to support wildfire risk reduction projects, equipment, and staff. In total, 161 entities applied to fund 269 projects totaling a requested $44.5 million, highlighting the need for these grants to support important work in communities across Oregon.
“We are excited that Sumpter was awarded funding through this grant,” Matt Armstrong with the City of Sumpter said. “We are a small town with limited resources; it makes it difficult to fund initiatives focused on preventing wildland fires. The funds will go a long way toward building defensible spaces. We are truly grateful and are looking forward to working with the OSFM.”
Applicants were scored through a diverse scoring committee with representatives from the OSFM, other state government agencies, non-governmental organizations, fire service agencies, special districts, and emergency management.
Projects were prioritized on:
- Impact in high wildfire-risk regions
- Communities with high social vulnerability
- Those in and around the built environment
- Providing defensible space and community resiliency
- Protecting people and communities
- Geographically diverse projects to ensure all areas of the state have the resources to improve community wildfire risk reduction and better prepare communities
For a list of recipients, click here. To learn more about how the OSFM is helping Oregonians, visit the Success Stories section on our website.
