The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors has approved more than $3.7 million in grants to fund 20 vegetation management projects that promise to help reduce fire risk.
The funds will come from the PG&E settlement awarded to the county as a result of the 2017 Sonoma Complex Fires lawsuit. In 2020, the board voted to allocate $25 million of the $149 million settlement toward vegetation management activities.
Board chair Lynda Hopkins said the programs will help landowners and communities clear critical access roads, create defensible space around structures, form much-needed shaded fuel breaks and educate the community on wildfire safety and reducing fire risks.
County official said the 20 programs were selected from among 89 applicants totaling more than $16 million in requested funds.
The projects funded with their respective amounts are:
- Alert Sonoma County, $122,000
- Cavedale-Trinity, $250,000
- Coast Ridge, $423,000
- Fire Safe Sonoma WFAP, $37,100
- Foothills POA, $20,904
- Good Fire Revival, $145,000
- Gualala Ranch HOA, $77,000
- Jenner Headlands Preserve, $165,000
- Kashia Band of Pomo Indians, $120,936
- Landsmart Community Grazing, $184,600
- Mill Creek Post Fire Shaded Fuel Breaks, $300,000
- Moonraker Firetower Perimeter, $26,460
- North Bay Forest Improvement Program, $163,381
- Northern Sonoma County JPA, $504,700
- Resilient Landscapes Coalition, $110,317
- Sonoma Valley Fire District, $93,379
- Sweetwater-Mt. Jackson, $227,050
- Timber Cove Community Chipping Project, $129,012
- Upper Mark West, $515,861
- Wilshire Crystal Heights, $106,460
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