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Grant money sparks fire-mitigation projects

Regional groups must match funds
In May, Kryn Dykema of the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad uses a torch to burn dead vegetation along railroad tracks in the Animas Valley. The train received a grant from the state for the mitigation. On Friday, the state announced three more grants for mitigation projects in Southwest Colorado.

Three Southwest Colorado fire-mitigation programs learned Friday they will receive a total of more than $221,000 in funding from the state.

Gov. John Hickenlooper announced the $3.7 million in grants, which are going to 37 projects in 18 counties. The three recipients in this region are FireWise of Southwest Colorado, $138,060; Archuleta County, $32,100; and Mountain Studies Institute, on behalf of the San Juan Headwaters Forest Health Partnership, $50,935.

“This will fund two years of FireWise’s incentive programs, chipper rebates and our Kickstart program for neighborhoods new to FireWise,” Executive Director Pam Wilson said. “We work with them on a community project because once people see a mitigation project, they’re more likely to do it on their property.”

Some of the funding will go to the Timberdale Ranch subdivision in eastern La Plata County. It’s one of about 60 neighborhoods in the county involved in mitigation projects with FireWise.

“Southwest Colorado has done very well,” Wilson said. “It seems most of the money went to the Front Range and us. One thing we have that’s different than most of the state is more than one group working on fire mitigation, including FireWise, the counties, Mountain Studies and the Southwest Conservation Corps.”

FireWise already had received funding from the Wildfire Risk Reduction Grant Program in May to cover the two incentive programs for 2014. This grant will take it through 2016.

The grants require matching funds from the recipient organization.

“When people use our chipper rebate program, we ask them to put down their volunteer hours,” Wilson said. “Between those hours and our FireWise ambassadors, we have more than 17,000 hours volunteered every year. Valued at $22.43 an hour, that more than matches the grant.”

The Colorado General Assembly created the program in May 2013 in response to the destruction caused by the Waldo Canyon Fire near Colorado Springs.

“It focuses on projects that reduce the risk for damage to property, infrastructure and water supplies,” the governor’s office said in a news release, “and those that limit the likelihood of wildfires spreading into populated areas. Funds are directed to nonfederal lands within Colorado.”

abutler@durangoherald.com

Apr 26, 2014
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