LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County communities with limited resources and facing high risk from wildfire are getting over $16 million in support from the USDA Forest Service’s Community Wildfire Defense Grants and Wood Innovations Program.

These awards for communities like Lake County come at a time when wildfires are becoming more destructive across much of California.

“Lake County has been aggressively working to mitigate climate-related risks. Partnering with District Ranger Frank Aebly and local Forest Service staff have been an important facet of those efforts for many years,” said Jessica Pyska, Lake County’s District 5 supervisor and vice chair of the Lake County Community Risk Reduction Authority. “We appreciate the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s recognition that hardening economically vulnerable communities is a matter of national priority.”

Last Tuesday, the Forest Service announced funded proposals for three Lake County projects under the Community Wildfire Defense Grants program:

• Clear Lake Environmental Research Center: Awarded over $8 million to reduce fuels and restore fire-adapted ecosystems on private lands and roadways. This is a follow-up to their $9 million award in 2023, which is providing a blueprint for what a fire resilient community looks like.

• Lake County Resource Conservation District with Tribal EcoRestoration Alliance: Awarded $7.3 million for its “Fire in Hand, Healing Lands” project to use a traditional ecological knowledge-based approach to fuels reduction, including Indigenous-led restoration and beneficial burning. A key component is education and training through Lake County’s Training Exchange Program, also called TREX.

• Seigler Springs Community Redevelopment Association: Received $249,000 to develop a new Community Wildfire Protection Plan to reduce wildfire risk and build resiliency in the Cobb Mountain area which is still recovering from the 2015 Valley Fire.

Last Wednesday, additional awards were announced under the Wood Innovations Program grant. Wood innovations grants are meant to spark innovation, create new markets for wood products and renewable wood energy from sustainably sourced wood, and increase the capacity of wood processing facilities.

Funded proposals include Scotts Valley Energy Corp., a wholly-owned corporation of the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians, which received a $409,000 award for a central wood processing campus and wood-to-energy generation in Upper Lake, the gateway to the southern portion of the Mendocino National Forest.

Local officials and funding recipients expressed excitement for the opportunities coming to Lake County.

“I am ecstatic about the funding that has been awarded to Lake County to bolster the county for community wildfire and also wood innovations,” said Eddie Crandell, Lake County’s District 3 Supervisor covering Northshore communities and Lake Pillsbury.

“Lake County Resource Conservation District is ecstatic to receive this investment and support our partners at TERA, and the community at large, to further integrate traditional ecological knowledge into our collective efforts of land stewardship and wildfire mitigation,” said Harry Lyons, the district’s board president. “Beneficial burning is an essential tool to maintain resilient landscapes, and we are thrilled to re-establish this on our landscapes with TERA’s leadership.”

Both the Community Wildfire Defense Grant and the Wood Innovations Grant are made possible in part by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act.

More information about the funded proposals, as well as announcements about the grant program, is available on the Community Wildfire Defense Grants website and the Community Wood Grants and a Wood Innovations Grants website.