MC Fire Safe Council funds local projects
Micro-grants help neighborhood groups and local fire departments achieve their wild firesafety goals.
To promote local action toward countywide wildfire safety, the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council (MCFSC) is pleased to announce that its Micro-Grant Program will award a total of $50,000 to fund wildfire-safety projects proposed by its affiliated Neighborhood Fire Safe Councils and local Fire Departments countywide.
The micro-grants, ranging in amounts from $2,000 to $6,000, will help local groups accomplish a wide range of wildfire-safety projects and purchases. MCFSC received over $105,000 total in requests and, after making some challenging decisions, awarded funding for the following proposals:
-Bell Springs Fire Safe Council (North County)—installation of three water tanks in key locations.
-Black Bart Fire Safe Council/ Firewise Community (Redwood Valley)—evacuation signs indicating alternate access routes.
-Comptche Volunteer Fire Department and Disaster Preparedness Team—water system infrastructure to make seven acre-feet of pond water available to firefighters near central Comptche.
-Hopland Fire Protection District—purchase of responder friendly gate padlocks to speed fire department response time.
-Laytonville Fire Department/ Long Valley Fire Protection District—education, implementation, and enforcement of weed abatement in identified hazard areas.
-Redwood Coast Fire Protection District (South Coast)—installation of a large, strategically located water tank.
-Ridgewood Fire Safe Council
(Willits)—creation of saferefuge shelters where evacuation may be difficult or impossible.
-Signal Ridge Fire Safe Council (Anderson Valley)—installation of a standpipe to make pond water available to firefighters at the roadside below, for improved speed and effectiveness.
-South Coast Fire Protection District—an interactive mapping project that will help responders identify and reach areas of need.
-String Creek/Tartar Canyon Fire Safe Council (Willits area)—removal of hazardous dead trees along a main single-access road.
-Westport Fire Department (North Coast)—purchase of fuel-reduction equipment to reduce overgrown vegetation fuel loads.
Most of these proposals include additional matching inputs of volunteer time or other funds to round out the budget. These matches act as leverage to get the job done through cooperative effort from multiple sources. Local organizing remains one of our best strategies for successful wildfire outcomes, and proposals that showed thorough preparation and motivation tended to score higher in the ratings.
MCFSC will continue to work with applications that were declined or partially funded, to strengthen them for future applications or assist in finding other relevant grants or ways to implement those projects. The Mendocino County Fire Safe Council strives to assist any local group motivated toward achieving their own locally identified fire-safety goals, and encourages local organizers to bring projects that might need extra help to be completed.
If your neighborhood was not prepared to participate in this round of funding, it may be time to start getting organized so that MCFSC can help your neighborhood prepare for wildfire. Find out how by going to the MCFSC website at https://firesafemendocino.org/ and looking in the Prepare your Neighborhood
menu tab. Or, if you become an MCFSC member, you will receive important updates in MCFSC’s email newsletters.
For more details on the funding round that just occurred, see MCFSC’s MicroGrant Program Guidelines and Application Form at https://firesafemendocino. org/micro-grant-program/ — or contact the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council at 707-462-3662,