Major Investments from USFS and CAL FIRE Reduce Wildfire Risk and Spur Wood Innovations
California has received a critical boost from State and Federal grants for projects that support community wildfire defense, landscape health, workforce development, and wood products infrastructure. These investments will provide crucial funding for projects that will promote California’s wildfire resilience and climate-forward economy for years to come.
- On May 14 USDA Forest Service announced that California will receive over $40 million in Community Wildfire Defense Grants. The Community Wildfire Defense Grant Program will fund 15 projects across California to assist communities to plan for and mitigate wildfire risks to communities and build critical infrastructure to help confront the nations’s wildfire crisis.
- On May 15, the Forest Service announced Wood Innovations, Community Wood, and Wood Product Infrastructure Assistance funding for 26 projects totaling $12.7 million in California, including three tribal projects. The grants are meant to spark innovation, create new markets for wood products and renewable wood energy from sustainably sourced wood, and increase the capacity of wood processing facilities.
- CAL FIRE recently awarded Forest Health Grants to assist local and regional partners implement projects that span landscapes affected by eight catastrophic fires in the past decade. Beyond ecological resilience benefits, the investments provide jobs and private landowner support, predominantly to rural communities that have been most affected by wildfire.
- CAL FIRE is also supporting the wood products infrastructure with $17 million in Business and Workforce Development grant awards. 20 funded projects will increase capacity for utilizing forest biomass, workforce development and research and development into new uses for forest biomass, increasing the capacity for fuels treatments and helping the State to reach its forest management objectives.