FEMA $3 million grant to cut fire risks near C.O. homes

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., announced Tuesday that Oregon has received a $3 million federal grant to reduce fire risks to more than 2,200 homes in parts of Crook, Deschutes and Klamath counties that are adjacent to forests.

The grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency willfund the thinning and limbing of trees, clearing out of undergrowth, and other vegetative debris removal to create a defensible space around buildings and other structures on about 3,780 acres of private and public lands designated at high-risk for fire within the wildland-urban interface and rural areas of Crook, Deschutes and Klamath counties.

The project will also fund larger scale vegetation management for common areas in wildland-urban interface neighborhoods. A projected 2,224 homes are expected to be directly mitigated from fire risk from this project.

“Prevention plays a huge part in taking the offensive to protect areas at the greatest risk from wildfires that can devastate Oregon’s families and businesses,”Wyden said.”This grant is great news for thousands of Oregonians because it will jump-start proven strategies to make it safer for them to live and recreate in the woods.”

Deschutes County Forester Ed Keith said Oregon Emergency Management has not provided a timeline on when a draft grant agreement might be sent, but it could be in October.

“This grant applies to specific communities that were included in our scope of work when we proposed this project to FEMA several years ago,” Keith said.

“Those include: Black Butte Ranch, Deschutes River Woods, Deschutes River Recreational Homesites #6, Lane Knolls, Panoramic, Skyliners, Squaw Creek Estates and Tollgate,” the forester said. “In addition to that, there are three larger parcels next to communities owned by the Deschutes Basin Land Trust, The Nature Conservancy and Central Oregon Irrigation District.”

“Once we finalize our agreements, we will begin working with community leaders and homeowner associations to plan the work,” Keith added. “Each lot owner must sign up prior to any work proceeding. Landowners have to provide a minimum 25 percent match, either in cash or as in-kind work.”

The funding is strictly for fuels reduction and defensible-space work and must be done in accordance with the Oregon Forest Practices Act and other guidelines to provide environmental and historical protection, the forester said.