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Alaskan Communities Awarded Funding to Mitigate Wildfire Risk

By Alaska Division of Forestry & Fire Protection on May 16, 2024

A second round of funding through the USDA Forest Service’s Community Wildfire Defense Grant (CWDG) Program will support communities across Alaska through grants for creating Community Wildfire Protection Plans, planning efforts, or implementation totaling $3,759,337. Communities received priority for this program if they are a low-income area, recently impacted by disaster, or in a wildfire hazard location.

The State of Alaska, via the Division of Forestry & Fire Protection, projects awarded to develop current Community Wildfire Protection Plans include:

Planning funding for the Delta region ($250,000)
Planning funding for the Tok region ($250,000)

A large column of smoke rising from a wildfire burning through black spruce in the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge — The Black Hills Fire approximately 56 miles southeast of Tok burns through black spruce on Wednesday, July 21, 2021. Willy Nelson/Alaska DNR-Division of Forestry

A super scooper drops water on a boreal forest in Alaska — The Black Hills Fire approximately 56 miles southeast of Tok burns through black spruce on Wednesday, July 21, 2021. Willy Nelson/Alaska DNR-Division of Forestry

“To support additional wildland fire mitigation in at-risk communities, the State of Alaska opted in to the CDWG program to allow local applicants the maximum resources and assistance from the Alaska Division of Forestry & Fire Protection,” said Norm McDonald, Deputy Director of Fire Protection. “The program aims to help communities effectively deal with wildfire risk and the division encourages eligible communities and organizations to take advantage of this funding opportunity and apply throughout the five-year program.”

Homer Electric Association is being awarded $2,630,474 in implementation funding.

Homer Electric Association was awarded funds from the Community Wildfire Defense Grant for right of way clearing, which helps prevent fires and power outages.

Funding will also be awarded directly from the CWDG program to three successful Tribal applicants to create new Community Wildfire Protection Plans:

Dillingham and Aleknagik: $250,000
Nenana: $249,863
Tetlin: $129,000

Around 500 applications were submitted for the highly competitive program’s second funding round, requesting a total of $965 million. Out of these projects, only 158 were selected from 31 different states, 11 Tribes and two territories for the available funding amount of $250 million.

A total of $1 billion is available for the CWDG program over a five-year period through the Infrastructure and Jobs Act, Section 40803(f) that awards grants to at-risk communities to develop or revise a community wildfire protection plan; and carry out projects described in a CWPP that is not more than 10 years old. Individual grants will fund up to $250,000 to create and update community wildfire protection plans or conduct outreach and education, and up to $10 million for associated infrastructure and resilience projects.

The third round of funding will be announced in late summer 2024. For more information about the CWDG grants in Alaska, communities may visit http://forestry.alaska.gov/fire/cwdgrants or inquire directly for application instructions. 