$5.9m grant to help South Wasco County

The funding is part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and is funneled through the U.S. Forest Service’s Community Wildfire Defense Program.

There are three goals for the funding, which was awarded in May. First is hiring a wildfire coordinator to work with all the involved local fire districts and other land management agencies on the wildfire resilience projects that are included in the county’s Community Wildfire Protection Plan.

Second is supporting residential risk reduction for south county. Across numerous agencies there will be a project to create defensible space around houses and cut the expense of removing hazard trees around houses, Bordelon said.

She noted the Wasco County Planning Department was the main applicant for the grant, which has multiple other agencies on board also, including Oregon Department of Forestry and many of the local fire districts.

There’s also funding for education on community risk reduction and funding for projects to expand fuel breaks along priority roads by removing and treating vegetation.

The third goal is to improve fire resilience in the forest. The grant includes funds for fuel treatment to reduce wildfire hazard on the White River Wildlife Refuge, which is positioned between the Mt. Hood National Forest and the communities around the Wamic area, she said.

Oregon State University and the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) will also offer voluntary forest health and wildfire resiliency assessments for private, nonindustrial small woodland owners in south county.

It would allow landowners the option to have the technicians from ODF to “assess forest conditions and provide landowners with maps of their specific property and considerations for prioritizing areas for fuels treatments,” Bordelon said.

Fuels treatments include thinning, developing fuel breaks, removing brush, or other activities to modify the vegetation available to burn in a fire.

Having that information mapped would offer landowners a decision-making tool, and better position the county to apply for further grants to reduce landowners’ costs for doing those fuels treatment.

Wasco County updated its Community Wildfire Protection Plan as a precursor to applying for the grant. Hood River County is in the process of updating its plan, which will make the county eligible for this same grant in the future, Bordelon said.