We are pleased to announce the Town of Washington has been awarded a Community Wildfire Defense Grant in the amount of $246,938.45.
Funded by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Community Wildfire Defense Grant (CWDG) program helps communities plan for and mitigate wildfire risks.
The USFS administers this grant, and it invested $197 million in the initial round of funding.
The grant proposal was written by Carole Linn, a member of the town CWPP team.
100 grant proposals were selected representing 22 states and seven tribes. CWDG grants will make $1 billion available over five years to assist at-risk communities.
There were more than 400 applications nationwide requesting more than $525 million during this application cycle. Only three projects were funded in the northeast-midwest section of the United States. The Town of Washington was one of those three projects!
The purpose of our Fuels Reduction Project is to augment, enhance, and expand the Town of Washington Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) to protect lives, property, and resources from wildfire and provide for public safety. This will be accomplished through the following projects:
-
- Improve wildfire planning efforts and increase the public’s and emergency responders’ safety through vegetation management on town rights-of-way. This will be accomplished on all 72 miles of town roads rights-of-way through mowing and cutting using a leased John Deere tractor, boom mower, and swing flail for a total cost of $212,938.45. The Town will own the tractor at the end of the lease period.
- Reduce hazardous fuels to mitigate fire danger by supporting the Town’s brush site through annual chipping. Foley Tree Service will chip the brush site and remove the chips at a cost of $6,800 per year for 5 years for a total cost of $34,000.
We are grateful for our partnership with the WDNR. Through their support of our CWPP, we were able to take advantage of this funding opportunity. Special thanks to Laura Hayes, WDNR Wildland Urban Interface Specialist, for her hard work and dedication to facilitating the Town of Washington CWPP.