Description
The Community Wildfire Defense Grant is a program that assists at-risk local communities and Indian Tribes with planning and mitigating against the risk created by wildfire. The program is authorized in Public Law 117-58 and prioritizes at-risk communities in areas identified as having high or very high wildfire hazard potential, are low-income, and/or have been impacted by a severe disaster.
The program aims to help communities implement the three goals of the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy:
1. Restore and Maintain Landscapes: Landscapes are resilient to fire, insect, disease, invasive species, and climate change disturbances, in accordance with management objectives.
2. Create Fire Adapted Communities: Human populations and infrastructure are as prepared as possible to receive, respond to, and recover from wildland fire.
3. Improve Wildfire Response: All jurisdictions participate in making and implementing safe, effective, efficient risk-based wildfire management decisions.
Key points:
- Eligible applicants include local governments, special district governments, nonprofits, and Indian Tribes.
- The program provides funding for the development and revision of Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPP) and the implementation of projects described in a CWPP that is less than ten years old.
- The program requires a minimum and maximum funding level, with a minimum of $25,000 and a maximum of $10,000,000.
- The program has a cost-sharing requirement, with a 10% match required for CWPP development and/or revision projects, and a 25% match required for planning projects.
- The program has a project evaluation and selection process, with applications evaluated based on criteria such as collaboration, landscape impact, project sustainability, low-income community, impacted by a severe disaster, and high or very high wildfire hazard potential.