Deschutes County is offering a total of $50,000 to help with neighborhood-scale vegetation removal to reduce wildfire risk, the County announced in a press release Thursday.
The funding comes from the annual Fall Fuel Reduction Grant Program. Applications opened Sept. 1 and are due by Sept. 30, although late submissions might be considered if funding is still available, according to a County website.
Lauren Street, community wildfire protection supervisor with Deschutes County, said close to 30 projects have already applied for funding. The County publicized the application period through a newsletter with local wildfire resilience groups, but didn’t broaden outreach to the general public until this week.
That’s partially because the County has about half as much funding for the program than last year, Street said, because a grant from the Oregon State Fire Marshal’s Office expired. Other funding comes from state lottery funds.
Typically, the County awards grants in the $100 to $5,000 range. The County says projects must focus on reducing wildland fuels or improving defensible space around structures, and must encompass more than one or two properties. Eligible activities could include equipment rental, supplies for community work parties, contracting fees or debris disposal fees.
Applicants will be notified in November whether they have been awarded a grant.
The types of applicants vary, from neighborhood associations to Firewise communities to road districts, said Lauren Street, community wildfire protection supervisor with Deschutes County. Because hiring a contractor to do fuels reduction work usually only goes so far with the grant funding available, many communities rely on volunteer hours and work parties to spread the funds as far as they can.
“They’ve really gotten creative in how they’re using these funds,” Street told the Source.
During an event this spring called FireFree, when the Deschutes County landfill allows people to dump yard debris free of charge, community members disposed of 43,711 cubic yards of leaves, pine needles, branches and other debris, enough to cover a football field about 20 feet deep, according to a press release.
This summer, Oregon saw its worst fire season on record in terms of acreage, with blazes burning more than 2.5 million acres, blanketing Central Oregon in smoke.
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