IFPD approves grant proposal for fuel reduction

The Idyllwild Fire Protection District (IFPD) commissioners met for a special meeting Tuesday, Jan. 9. All commissioners were present to hear Chief Mark LaMont present a resolution regarding a grant application to be submitted to the state. The application asks for almost a million dollars to help IFPD complete work on the Bear Trap Fuels Reduction Project, which runs from Camp Emerson in Idyllwild to Pine Cove. The project is a minimum of 360 feet wide, including 30-foot buffer zones on each side to contain the planned control burns.

The grants are offered under the California Climate Investments Initiative, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency oversees them. The initiative offers many programs, two of which IFPD is applying for: Forest Health and Wildfire Prevention. LaMont explained that usually the board is asked to sign off on the conditions of a grant only after the application has been approved, but that in this case, a resolution agreeing to the district’s share of project funding was required up front.

Captain Paramedic Bob Clark, who has been working on the application, explained that although these grants do not require matching funds, including them increases the likelihood of success. In the proposal, $138,000 in personnel, labor and benefit costs paid by IFPD would be matched by $552,000 from the state, a 20/80 split. The grant would completely cover equipment and supplies, which IFPD has itemized out to a total of $427,000. LaMont said he expects to complete the work in the near future. “We are not letting the grass grow under our feet,” but the grant allows until 2030, and also permits periodic resubmissions.

The equipment in the proposal includes a chipper or “masticator” and its support vehicles: a track loader (these run on tracks instead of wheels and are better for difficult terrain), cargo and equipment trailers, and a RAM 4500 truck to deliver the track loader and masticator. These masticators are fearsome machines, reducing a tree with a 20-inch diameter trunk to mulch in seconds. A long arm allows the operator to bring the cutting head down on the tree from above. IFPD does not now have a chipper, and the acquisition would speed up the creation and maintenance of firebreaks.

The labor involved in writing the grant proposal itself can be concluded in the grantee’s matching costs, LaMont explained. This labor is considerable; the proposal includes three different quotes for the most expensive item, the track loader. Matching funds for labor may also be used for educational projects, like IFPD’s visits to Idyllwild School, and the Town Hall meetings that will announce and explain the upcoming control burns. Volunteer hours from groups like the Woodies also may be applied to IFPD’s contribution.

Grants have funded many IFPD projects and acquisitions. LaMont mentioned cardiac monitors, SCBAs (self-contained breathing apparatus that allows firemen to work in unbreathable conditions) and gurneys as among past purchases paid for by grants. The gurneys, he added, cost $27,000 each and have to be custom built to be compatible with a district’s vehicles and other equipment.

IFPD also is presently applying for another grant of over $1 million from the federal government, with the same matching formula.

The commissioners had a number of questions. Henry Sawicki asked whether the department would be required to buy electric vehicles or equipment to comply with the state’s climate goals. LaMont answered that “… we continue to be exempt because of need. There are not products at this time to help us remove the noxious fuel load. They don’t have an all electric masticator yet.”

This led to a longer conversation about methods that are no longer used in California, like Paraquat, a defoliant that renders firebreaks sterile for decades, and anchor chains pulled by bulldozers for clearing brush. Sawicki also asked about the estimated time for approval of the grant, which LaMont put at June or July.

Commissioner Stephanie Yost asked if Cal Fire was applying for similar grants and the chief assured her that it is.

The board unanimously approved the resolution. The next regular meeting of the IFPD board has been moved to 3 p.m. Tuesday. Jan. 30. At that meeting, the commissioners will elect officers for the coming year.