The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday accepted a $1,040,466.20 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to plan fire mitigation efforts involving 1,200 homes at Woodpecker Ravine southeast of Grass Valley.
The funding will be used to assess the resilience of the homes in the area to wildfire and the ability of firefighters to safely defend the region. It will also fund the design of defensible space treatments - a mix of vegetation that could provide fuel breaks to slow the spread of flames - and will complement the Woodpecker Ravine shaded fuel break treatment funded by CAL FIRE. Finally, the grant will be used for community engagement, youth and community education and for compliance with environmental regulations.
In a later phase of the project, the County Office of Emergency Services will offer home-owners cost-share incentives to create and maintain defensible space and harden (fireproof) their homes.
The grant comes from FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) Program, which is part of the agency’s move to shift focus from reactive disaster spending to prevention. The Board of Supervisors has already accepted over $6 million in two CAL FIRE grants that will be used as match for the project.
Sandwiched between Highway 49 and 174 and bounded at the top and bottom by Empire Mine State Historic Park and Mount Olive Road, Woodpecker Ravine is within the high and very high fire hazard severity zones.
Learn more about the County’s Woodpecker Ravine projects at www.readynevadacounty.org/woodpeckerravine.
