Fire Safe Council
Grants
Since being re-constituted in 2015, Oak to Timberline Fire Safe Council (OTFSC) has received nine fuels reduction/fire prevention grants totaling $2,555,408.
Six of the grants were from the CAL FIRE Fire Prevention (FP) program ($2,375,608) and three from PG&E ($179.800).
The CAL FIRE FP grants were funded initially by the SRA FPF (State Responsibility Area Fire Prevention Fund) and more recently by the CCI (California Climate Investments) Fund. The following is a June 2022 listing of OTFSC’s Pending, Current and Completed grant projects.
PENDING
NONE
None pending at this time.
IN PROGRESS
PINEHURST-MIRAMONTE INGRESS-EGRESS FUEL BREAK
A roadside shaded fuel break, this will extend 30ft on either side of much of the length of four County roads and two State highways in the OTFSC service area and was approved by CALFIRE's Wildfire Prevention Plan. The project will create roadside fuel breaks to improve ingress for emergency services and egress for residents. The fuel breaks will diminish the intensity and slow the spread of a wildfire’s progress and reduce the risk of human-caused roadside ignition of wildfires. The project Influence Zone covers about 45 square miles, directly involving almost 200 landowners and will help protect roughly 1,000 residents and 600 habitable and community structures. The project will run through March 15th, 2026.
Creation and Expansion of Firewise Communities in Fresno County's Sierra Foothills
We have been granted funding to use towards Education and Outreach efforts to: assist newly formed Firewise Communities to increase the number of active members, assist the the formation of new Firewise Communities, and to promote better home hardening and increased landowner clearances throughout the OTFSC service area.
MIRAMONTE FUEL BREAK
Proposed is a shaded fuels break to help protect the residents, structures, community infrastructure, first responders, and visiting tourists in the WUI communities of Miramonte and Pinehurst from wildfires advancing from the largely unpopulated foothills to the south. This project ties in directly with three current OTFSC fuels reduction grants from CALFIRE (two OTFSC shaded fuel break projects and a large ingress/egress roadside fuel break project) and would also improve the safety of first responders by providing them a safer site at which to fight wildfires. Specifically, the main objective is provide a 200 ft wide shaded fuel break running along the Miramonte-Badger fire road, running from Miramonte's Orchard Dr, near the Miramonte Conservation Camp, to the Tulare County line Near CALFIRE's Badger Station, adding a 200ft wide fuels break offshoot about midway, running north to Looking Glass Lane and ending at Dunlap Rd, the major evacuation route in the area.
COMPLETED
Brookside Fuel Break
Created a 200ft wide, 81 acre, shaded fuel break along the length of Brookside Rd in the community of Miramonte, a WUI At-Risk Community in the High/Very High Fire Severity Zone of the Sierra Foothills. Due to lack of fire activity in the area in the recent past this fuel break removed years worth of fuels that had built up reducing the risk/impact of severe wildfires. It benefitted over 400 habitable structures as well as federal, state, county, utility, communications, and community infrastructure.
Fuels Reduction for Very High/High Fire Hazard Severity Zones adjacent to Kings Canyon and Sequoia Natiional Parks
As in previous tree mortality grants the goal was to fell dead and dying trees and to buck the logs and masticate the slash. This 3 year grant also was used to remove the logs and the log decks left in previous grants.
The approved California Climate Investments funding was $278,850 and the project was completed March 2022.
Hazardous Fuels Reduction for Pinehurst and Miramonte Foothill Communities
In this 3 year grant dead and dying tree mortality trees were felled and bucked and the slash generated was masticated .
The approved State Responsibility Area Fire Prevention Fund funding was $100,000 and the project was completed March 2019.
Cedarbrook/Todd Eymann Fuels Reduction
This half year fuel reduction grant dealt with dead/dying trees within 1000 ft of PG&E assets off county road Todd Eymann in Pinehurst .
The approved PG&E funding was $37,500 and the project was completed Fall 2016
Pinehurst Community Fuel Break
Provided a 277 acre, 400ft wide shaded fuel break surrounding the community of Pinehurst, which is a Fresno County Sierra Foothills Community At Risk, helping to protect more than 200 permanent structures in the immediate vicinity including homes, businesses, federal (USFS), state (CALTRANS), and community buildings, a heliport, a communications tower, utility assets, vacation rentals, and 3 densely-populated cabin enclaves.
Tree Removal for the High Fire Hazard Severity Zones in the North Central Tulare Co. Sierra Foothills
In this 3 year grant dead and dying tree mortality trees were felled and bucked and the slash was masticed. The logs were removed or repurposed. The project serviced the communities of Eshom Valley and Hartland, including the Boy Scout Camp and Hartland Christian Camp in Hartland .
The approved State Responsibility Area Fire Prevention Fund funding was $200,000 and the project was completed March 2020
Hwy 180 Corridor Foothills Fuels Reduction
This half year fuel reduction grant dealt with dead/dying trees within 1000 ft of PG&E assets in the OTFSC service area.
The approved PG&E funding was $75,000 and the project was completed Fall 2017.
Hwy 245 Fuels Reduction.
This half year fuel reduction grant dealt with dead/dying trees within 1000 ft of PG&E assets.off state highway 245 in Miramonte and Pinehurst.
The approved PG&E funding was $67,300 and the project was completed Fall 2016
