IFPD awarded State wildfire prevention grant

On Aug. 20, Gov. Gavin Newsom and Cal Fire announced the award
recipients for the fiscal 23-24 Wildfire Prevention Grants. The
Idyllwild Fire Protection District was awarded a $940,000 grant last
week.

Wildfire Prevention Grant projects include hazardous fuels reduction in
and near fire threatened communities to improve public health and safety
while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

IFPD’s grant was one of five awarded to Riverside County or one of its
jurisdictions. The total funding for these grants is about $7.3 million.
Several other grants include work in both Riverside and San Bernardino
Counties.

“I feel absolutely blessed,” said IFPD Fire Chief Mark LaMont. “We have
been supportive of preventive measures. More prevention requires less
suppression and dividends from the grant will reduce suppression needs
in the future. There will be less risk of huge fires and suppression in
the future.”

The funds will enable IFPD’s hand crews to do thinning, brush removal,
and other landscape work throughout the community. Some of the areas
where more thinning and fuel reduction may occur include along Highway
243, West Ridge, escape routes and maintenance of existing fuel breaks,
according to LaMont.

The grant will fund the purchase of some new equipment, including a
masticator, and labor costs.

“In addition to huge investments in personnel, equipment and technology,
proactively building community resilience to wildfires is another key
part of California’s strategy to reduce the impact of catastrophic
wildfires,” said Newsom in the press release announcing the grant
awards. “These investments support local fuel reduction, forest health
and other projects that build natural resilience and protect lives and
property in at-risk communities from the intensifying impacts of climate
change.”

When announcing the opening of the grant application period, Cal Fire
stressed that the objectives of the Wildfire Prevention Grants Program
are reduction of wildfire hazards around communities and infrastructure;
improvement of health and resilience of treated areas for increased
carbon sequestration; support for community wildfire planning; increased
public awareness and reduced human ignitions.

This is the largest single grant IFPD has received, according to LaMont.
They have been awarded grants from Firehouse Subs, but none were of this
magnitude. Captain Robert Clark and firefighter Brett Leseberg along
with Chief LaMont wrote and submitted the grant application.