Sky-Hi News file photo
The Grand County Wildfire Council has money ready to go for private landowners and groups of landowners who want to do fire-mitigation projects on their properties.
In a Friday news release, the council highlighted landowners’ opportunity to apply for cost-share funding to implement hazardous fuels reduction projects outlined in local Community Wildfire Protection Plans.
The program works by providing financial support, as well as technical assistance, to individuals and communities looking to mitigate the risk of wildfires. As such, money is available to assist with creating defensible space around homes or landscape-scale fuels reduction projects.
The program provides funding through reimbursements to offset the costs of hiring a contractor to reduce hazardous fuels, and eligible applicants must be a home or property owner or renter living within Grand County, according to the council.
The release says applicants who live in an extreme, very high or high hazard community identified in their respective fire district’s CWPP will be given priority with the funding, and reimbursements will be negotiated at time of application approval.
The council can reimburse 50% up to $525 per acre treated, and reimbursements will not exceed the actual cost of the project.
“In 2018, we reimbursed homeowners $33,000 that leveraged over $290,000 in actual and in-kind dollars toward wildfire mitigation in Grand County,” said Brad White, the council’s mitigation subcommittee chairperson and Fire Chief at Grand Fire Protection District, in the release.
For more, go to bewildfireready.org/fuels-reduction-cost-share-program or contact Capt. Adam Gosey at East Grand Fire at 970-726-5824 or agosey@eastgrandfire.com.