Wildfire Wednesdays #133: Technical Assistance for Federal Funding

Hi all,

Spring is a time for action when it comes to wildfire mitigation around your home and wildfire resilience in the surrounding landscapes. If you have been interested in taking your wildfire mitigation or landscape resilience implementation to another level, now is a great time to consider applying for funding to achieve these goals. Within the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) there are a variety of funding mechanisms that can support your work. We encourage you to get to know some of these opportunities, because they will only be available for a short period of time.

With that in mind, this Wildfire Wednesday’s is about the Community Navigators Initiative, which is intended to support folks like you with awareness and technical support for accessing federal funding programs.

This Wildfire Wednesdays includes:

  • A recording of the 03/29 webinar about the Community Navigator Initiative

  • Grant News and Updates

  • Sign-up for technical assistance through Community Navigator Initiative through the Fire Adapted New Mexico learning network

Best,

Gabe

The Community Navigator Initiative

Watch this webinar about the Community Navigator program from the Fire Adapted New Mexico learning network (FACNM)

The Fire Adapted New Mexico learning network (FACNM) is working with the Forest Stewards Guild and the Watershed Center, along with several other national and regional nonprofit organizations, is partnering with the US Forest Service on a community navigator initiative. 

The goal of this effort is to connect communities facing wildfire risk and climate change impacts, as well as historically underserved, rural, and low-income communities, to Forest Service funding and partnership opportunities supported by the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law). For a snapshot of the programs and activities that received funding through these laws, see our overview of BIL & IRA-supported Climate and Wildfire Resilience Funding Opportunities.

Key aspects of FACNM’s community navigator work include:

  • Developing relationships with communities who may benefit from new funding opportunities and connecting them with sources of technical assistance and support within our networks.

  • Creating tools, trainings, and other resources to support organizational capacity-building.

  • Providing individual technical assistance to help communities identify and apply for funding opportunities and comply with post-award financial management and reporting requirements. 

Another important aspect of our work involves elevating community perspectives and feedback about the barriers that communities face in accessing US Forest Service support and partnership, with the goal of helping vision a more equitable system for all. 

The other organizations working on the Forest Service community navigator initiative include Coalitions and Collaboratives, Hispanic Access Foundation, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, First Nations Development Institute, and the American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association.

Grant News and Updates

All federal grant applicants must be registered with SAM.gov. Register NOW as this process can take weeks and is needed to apply for funding opportunities via Grants.gov. If SAM.gov registration issues arise, contact Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) for free assistance.

IRA Forest Landowner Support

Deadline is August 21, 2024

Provides grant opportunities to entities and organizations delivering technical and financial assistance to private forest landowners - including Tribes, underserved landowners, and small-acreage landowners - to participate in emerging private markets for forest resilience and climate mitigation.

NOFO #1 USDA-FS-2023-IRA-FLS-01:

Supporting Underserved and Small-Acreage Landowner Participation in Emerging Private Markets

Last month, the Forest Service announced the award of the first round of this funding. A total of $116 million was awarded to 20 Forest Landowner Support projects (scroll down to the Spring 2024 dropdown under “Forest Landowner Support Awardees”) to provide equitable access to emerging climate markets. Many of the awardees represent or will support underserved landowners located in or providing benefits to disadvantaged communities.


Funding is still available for proposals under $2 million that support the participation of underserved landowners and landowners owning less than 2,500 acres in emerging private markets for climate mitigation or forest resilience. Proposals for NOFO 1 are reviewed in batches on a quarterly basis:

  • Upcoming batch: All proposals received March 1, 2024 - May 31, 2024.

  • Final batch: All proposals received June 1, 2024 - August 21, 2024
    IRA-FLS NOFO1 Frequently Asked Questions (available in Related Documents under the “full announcement materials” dropdown)

NOFO #2 USDA-FS-2024-IRA-FLS-02:

Tribal Access to Emerging Private Markets for Climate Mitigation or Forest Resilience

The Forest Service’s Forest Landowner Support program has a new funding opportunity focused on Tribal access to emerging private markets for forest resilience or climate mitigation (see announcement here). Eligible applicants include: Federally recognized Tribes, Alaska Native Corporations/Villages, and Tribal Organizations.

IRA-FLS NOFO2 Frequently Asked Questions (available in Related Documents under the “full announcement materials” dropdown)

Resources:

Community Wildfire Defense Grant

Funding communities to 1) develop and revise Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPPs), or 2) implement projects described in a CWPP that is less than 10 years old. Contact sm.fs.usfs_cwdg@usda.gov for more information.

Round 2 applications are currently being reviewed. The agency received 500 applications requesting $965 million, and has about $250 million in available funding. We are waiting on official announcements about Round 2 awards and Round 3 release.

Resources:

Applicants are highly encouraged to coordinate with their State Forestry Agency (or equivalent) during proposal development. See a list of State Forestry Agencies and State Forest Action Plans here.

Sign up for Community Navigator Assistance

CALENDAR: Check out our calendar of events for upcoming application deadlines, trainings, informational webinars and other opportunities coordinated through the Watershed Center.

 ASSISTANCE: Fill out a request form to connect with one of our navigators who can help brainstorm proposal and funding ideas, provide information and insight on funding and resources opportunities, review your application, or help with post-award grant management questions.

FEEDBACK: Have you worked with a community navigator and want to share feedback? We’d love to hear from you! Your response will be used to improve our future services.

Upcoming events: Foresters for the Birds May webinars!

The Forest Stewards Guild and Southern Rockies Foresters for the Birds are offering a two-part webinar series this May on the intersection of climate, forest stewardship, and birds! Please register and save the date to learn more about avian research through citizen science, the impact of fuels reduction treatments on the composition of bird species, and the impact of a hotter and drier climate will impact bird populations, especially those with obligate molting grounds in monsoonal areas.

Over the past 5 years, community volunteers from the Weminuche Audubon Society have conducted a study of bird communities in Ponderosa Pine-dominated forested sites that received wildland fuels reduction treatments. This webinar from the Forest Stewards Guild dives into the effects of these treatments, specifically prescribed fire or shrub-layer thinning, on the composition of bird communities in the southern Rocky Mountains, showing that tree canopy and shrub-layer composition and structure have important influences on the number of bird species present and the predominate feeding and nesting behaviors of the avian community.

Tuesday, May 14, 2024, 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. MT: Bird Population Trends and Climate Effects in Southwestern National Parks

Climate change is considered a major driver of recent avian population declines, particularly in the drought-stricken southwestern United States. Predicting how bird populations will respond requires understanding the climatic drivers influencing population density across the region’s diverse habitats. In this webinar from the Forest Stewards Guild, Harrison Jones of The Institute for Bird Populations discusses his research modeling breeding-season densities of 50 bird species in relation to spring and summer drought and the timing of North American monsoon rainfall.

Wildfire Wednesdays #132: Wildfire Resilience Science Round-Up

Hello and happy spring, Fireshed readers!

Four years ago this week, the Fireshed Coalition and Fire Adapted Communities New Mexico (FACNM) started this newsletter with the intent to parse through trustworthy sources for relevant fire preparedness information, recommendations, and tips to bring to readers across the Southwest. The content and format have evolved since its inception, but one essential part of the newsletter has remained constant throughout the years: our commitment to be informed of, and able to incorporate, the best available science into our understanding of fire and our relationship to it. Today’s Wildfire Wednesday revisits some science we’ve shared over the years and shares a round-up of some of the most recent regional fire science from the Southwest Fire Science Consortium.

Today’s Wildfire Wednesday features:

Take care and enjoy the spring blooms,
Rachel

 

Southwest Research Publications

Sharing the latest wildfire research relevant to the Southwest

Selected articles are presented below based on their relevance and accessibility to the public. For a full round-up of the latest science and to view publications from earlier in 2023, visit the SWFSC website!

Open access articles

 
 
 
 
 

Local Science and Research

Forest and fire ecology findings relevant to the Santa Fe Fireshed landscape

The Greater Santa Fe Fireshed Coalition has pulled together a sampling of local and Southwest-focused scientific articles and forest treatment reports. These journal publications and manager resources, representing the best available science, highlight the importance of forest restoration and conservation treatments happening in the greater Santa Fe area and across the state. While a large body of research can be overwhelming at first, a good place to start is the five topically diverse forest and fire research publications highlighted at the top of the page: a look at climate change in NM over the next 50 years, a study of past Native American fire management in the WUI, carbon stabilization via proactive forest management, the impact of extreme fire on water quality, and fire climate relationships within the Santa Fe Municipal Watershed. If you want to dive in deeper, the page also features a broader list of northern New Mexico- and Southwest-focused forest and fire research articles and local forest treatment success stories.

 

Throwback to Science from Our Sweet Sixteen

Business resilience and wildfire

Living in a fire adapted area means many things, but what does it mean for businesses and the local economy? In May 2019, the Island Park Sustainable Fire Community in Idaho tackled this question. Their ultimate takeaways were that, in practice, business resilience involves both helping to prepare businesses to operate through wildfire and helping businesses thrive in a fire-prone environment. Wildfires pose a serious threat to a community’s continuity and can have devastating effects on the small businesses that depend on it. Business resiliency and risk mitigation strategies help to defend communities from losses and are especially important for small businesses as they experience the highest risk in proximity to wildfire. Read the full write-up to glean all of these lessons learned.

 

Events and Resources

 

In the news

2023-2024 All Hands All Lands Winter Pile Squad: a story about fire, snow, wet boots, and building wildfire resilience in northern New Mexico.

About the squad: this StoryMap from the All Hands All Lands Burn Team discusses the concept of AHAL, the work accomplished by this collaborative burn team over winter 2023-2024, and how this work aligns with the stewardship of fire adapted forests and use of prescribed burning as advocated in the Forest Stewards Guild’s 2021 Policy Statement on Fire, Forest Management, and Communities. In light of the 2022 Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon fire, federal fire agencies and their partners instituted a strategic pause on all prescribed fire activity, during which they researched and released recommendations on how to make this essential forest and community resiliency tool safer. One key takeaway from the recommendations was the need for larger and more diverse burn teams - that is, more boots on the ground, more eyes on the fire, and more perspectives and a greater breadth of experience contributing to the decision of whether or not to burn. The AHAL burn team fills that gap and makes it possible to meet the spirit and letter of this recommendation during collaborative burns. The winter pile squad, active between November and April, adds capacity to the type of prescribed fire which happens during the cooler months - slash pile burning.

Accomplishments: During the winter season, the Pile Squad assisted with 8 controlled burns, helping to accomplish 1,116 acres of high-priority forest restoration. Much of this work was completed in close proximity to communities and was within the wildland-urban interface (WUI). When not actively burning or patrolling, the pile squad assisted with forest thinning and slash management to prepare for future burns in areas such as the Rio de Las Trampas Forest Council’s Community Forestry plot in between the communities of Trampas and El Valle. They also invested in training and hands-on experiences with city and county fire departments to advance their professional skillsets.

 

Webinars

Friday, March 29 from 12:00-1:00pm: What is the Community Navigators Program?
FACNM is launching its spring webinar series on March 29th! Join Gabe Kohler and Emery Cowan as they introduce the national and regional intent of the Community Navigators Program and discuss how communities across the state can access this resource. Learn more by visiting the FACNM Events page!

 

Learn more and register for the full spring webinar series from FACNM at www.facnm.org/events

Wildfire Wednesdays #131: Old Growth Forest

Today’s blog was co-written by Zander Evans and Rachel McCullough, Executive Director and 2024 intern at the Forest Stewards Guild.

Hello Fireshed friends,

What do old trees and forests have to do with wildfire? In turns out, there is an important connection! Old growth forests play essential roles in our forests related to wildlife habitat, species diversity, hydrological regimes, nutrient cycles, carbon storage, and numerous other ecological processes. They support rich biodiversity due to the unique structures and habitat features that they develop over long periods of time. Areas of old forest in ecosystems adapted to frequent fire often have patches of large trees interspersed with grassy openings and canopy gaps. However, these forests can be negatively impacted by uncharacteristic (hot, fast-moving, high severity) fire and other impacts of a changing climate. New efforts to conserve and protect old growth have brought these important parts of the forest to center stage.  

Today’s Wildfire Wednesday features:

Be well,
-Rachel

 

The Story of Fire and Old Trees

 

What is old growth?

Old growth forests can generally be defined as those dominated by large, old trees, both live and dead, standing and fallen, that usually contain many other smaller trees. Old growth forests can occur anywhere, though usually they are found in areas protected from disturbance. These old forests are rare, and unfortunately becoming rarer every day due to natural disturbances like fire, human disturbance where old growth isn’t protected, and the warming and drying climate.

Because old trees and old-growth forests are rare, they add diversity to forest ecosystems with their uncommon characteristics. Old-growth forests have structures such as large trees, large downed logs, and standing dead trees that are not present in young or maturing forests. The unique structures and attributes of old growth forests provide habitat for plant and animal species not found in other forest types. They also play important roles in hydrological regimes, nutrient cycles, and numerous other ecological processes. In addition to the biodiversity, wildlife habitat, hydrologic function, and carbon storage it supports, old growth is valued for recreation, aesthetics, inspiration, or even spiritual reasons. 

 

Old growth and fire in New Mexico

In Redwood National Park, large live trees are interspersed with decadent dead and down snags and logs.

When you picture ‘old growth’, the image that comes to mind is likely decadent redwood or giant sequoia forests in the Pacific Northwest. Did you know that we also have old trees and old growth forest here in the Southwest? Old tree stands have characteristics such as variable tree size and spacing, accumulation of dead standing and fallen trees, decay, multiple canopy layers, gaps, and dominant large trees. These old trees are far less abundant today than they were in the mid-1800s, before the arrival of the railroad brought clearcut logging and a thriving timber industry. Luckily, New Mexico’s boom-and-bust timber industry had a limited reach due to the challenging terrain, roadless landscape, and associated financial costs, and old growth trees still persist in mid-elevation forested areas across the state.

A 7’ scar, partially healed over, on a large mature ponderosa pine tree in the Pecos Wilderness.

Ponderosa pine trees, a dominant fire-adapted species in New Mexico, begin to develop old growth characteristics between 200 and 300 years of age. They can be identified by their thick bark and fire scars (a place where fire has burned through the bark and damaged a portion of the trunk but the tree has survived and healed over the wound). Characteristics of old ponderosa pines include orange-yellow to occasionally grey bark with large, smooth plates; raised, relatively open, flattened crowns (there is a lot of distance between the ground and the first branch, the branches are not too crowded along the trunk, and the top of the tree is rounded rather than pointed); large-diameter branches; and evidence of past disturbances such as fire scars, lightning-strike scars, or a damaged top. Frequent-fire forests with old trees often have a high canopy and uncrowded understory due to frequent low intensity fire keeping the stands open and preventing shade tolerant competitors from establishing. Keep an eye out on your next stroll through the woods for large-diameter thick-barked trees, especially in drainages and remote areas!

While trees like ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir are resistant to low severity fire when they are old, they can be killed by high intensity wildfires that climb into the forest crown and burn very hot. Ecologically-based stewardship is focused on reducing the risk of high intensity wildfire through thinning and controlled burns – in part to protect these rare, old trees. During controlled burns, old trees are protected by raking litter and duff away from their trunks. This reduces the amount of combustible material around these old trees and helps ensure the low intensity burns don’t smolder and kill their roots or cambium. Restoration work which thins the forest to historic levels can help maturing trees grow larger and become the old trees of the future. Thinning reduces the competition for water and nutrients between trees and helps remaining trees survive drought, grow larger more quickly, and become more resilient to pests, disease, and a hotter and drier climate. 

 

New Federal Policies to Conserve Old Forests

 

An amendment to the National Forest Plan

On April 22, 2022, the Biden Administration issued Executive Order 14072, which directs the United States Department of Agriculture and the United States Department of the Interior to define, inventory, identify threats towards, and develop policies to mitigate threats to, mature and old growth forests.

An old growth alligator juniper in the Gila National Forest showing a rare hollowed fire scar at the base of its split trunk.

In response, the US Forest Service has proposed a National Forest Plan Amendment that would make long-term resilience the primary objective for forests with old growth characteristics. In addition to ensuring old growth forests persist into the future, the Plan Amendment will foster mature and maturing forests to become the old growth of the future.

As part of the federal effort to protect old forests, researchers conducted a nation-wide inventory and found 32 million acres of old growth forests. Of that total, 1.3 million acres is comprised of ponderosa pine and 9 million acres is made up of piñon-juniper forests, two dominant forest types in the Southwest. Researchers used that same federal Forest Inventory and Analysis to determine that since the year 2000, we have lost 712,000 acres of old growth to wildfire, 182,000 acres to insects and disease, and 9,000 acres to tree cutting on lands managed by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. Even more worrisome is the prediction that by the end of the century, 90 percent of old-growth forests will be at very high exposure to wildfire-caused mortality and nearly 60 percent will be exposed to drought.  

 

Ahead of the curve, close to home

While the proposed National Forest Plan Amendment would increase the conservation of old trees nationally, it is unlikely to change management in many forest restoration areas across New Mexico - such as the Santa Fe Fireshed and the Zuni Mountains Landscape - because protection of old and large trees has been a priority in these areas for many years. In 2006, a wide range of groups including federal and state interests and nongovernmental organizations came together to codify their agreement in the New Mexico Forest Restoration Principles. These Principles emphasized the restoration of ecosystem composition, maintenance of watershed and soil integrity, and notably in this context, preservation of old or large trees while maintaining structural diversity and resilience. 

In 2015, after years of ecological monitoring and collaborative forest management, the Cibola National Forest and Grasslands Forest Supervisor made an adaptive management decision that would change the way that trees were marked for restoration thinning. The Old and Large Tree Retention Strategy was implemented for all projects occurring within the Zuni Mountain Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Project (CFLRP) area, marking a success in maintaining existing old growth and as well as mature trees that have the potential to develop into old growth.

Learn more about federal policy on mature and old growth forests through this January 2024 webinar recording from the Forest Stewards Guild. In the video, Dr. Zander Evans provides background on what has happened since the issuance of Executive Order 14072 and the next steps in the process. Rhiley Allbee provides an analysis of mature and old growth forest in Collaborative Landscape Restoration efforts. 

 

Events, Announcements, and Additional Resources

 

Webinars

FACNM Spring Webinar Series 2024

Friday, March 29 from 12:00-1:00pm: What is the Community Navigators Program?
FACNM is launching its spring webinar series on March 29th! Join Gabe Kohler and Emery Cowan as they introduce the national and regional intent of the Community Navigators Program and discuss how communities across the state can access this resource. Learn more by visiting the FACNM Events page!

Tuesday, April 16 from 12:00-1:00pm: Community Wildfire Protection Plans
Join NM Forestry Division and The Ember Alliance to hear about CWPPs - the basics, importance of, resources and support for, and relevance to county ordinances and homeowners insurance - during the second webinar in FACNM’s spring series.

Wednesday, May 22 from 1:00-2:00pm: Home Hazard Assessments: Back to Basics
Join NM Forestry Division and The Ember Alliance to hear about CWPPs - the basics, importance of, resources and support for, and relevance to county ordinances and homeowners insurance - during the second webinar in FACNM’s spring series.

Review the entire series at www.facnm.org/events or by downloading the flyer!

View our archive of webinar recordings anytime by visiting the FACNM YouTube page!

Cal FSC Webinar Series

April 2024: Fire Use Around the World: Purposes, Principles, Policies, and Practices
In this webinar series from the California Fire Science Consortium, a survey of prescribed fire from around the globe is presented. It focuses on seven topic areas: fuel management; rangeland and landscape management; management of production forests; wildlife management; monitoring and datasets; and ecological restoration and cultural fire.

……….

 

Resources for Community Wildfire Defense Grant (CWDG) applications

Cycle 3 of the Community Wildfire Defense Grant program will open in mid-2024. For organizations and collaboratives interested in applying, some resources have become available. These resources are subject to change and will be updated throughout the spring and summer as the CWDG deadline approaches.

  • forestrygrants.org provides access to CWDG Cycle 1 and 2 applications that were awarded or scored high.

  • Recordings of grant-writing workshops that provide more context, questions, and conversations are available on the New Mexico Forestry Division Facebook page

  • Wildfire risk

  • Access Forestry Division’s New Mexico Forest Action Plan. The objectives and goals outlined in this document should be referenced in CWDG applications from New Mexico.

Wildfire Wednesdays #130: Preparing for Wildfire Community Preparedness Day

Happy Wednesday, Fireshed readers!

With recent gusty winds and grass fires on the eastern plains, FACNM is looking ahead to the not-so-distant summer fire preparedness planning. Wildfire Community Preparedness Day, held annually in the United States and Canada on the first Saturday in May, is a great place to kick off with your own readiness plans. Each year, the campaign actively encourages groups and individuals living in wildfire-prone areas to come together on a single day to raise awareness and reduce wildfire risks by completing projects that can help make their homes and communities safer from wildfire. This year, the day of action will be held on Saturday, May 4. The Fireshed will be offering ideas, resources, and local opportunities over the next couple of months to help communities prepare for and get involved with Wildfire Prep Day 2024.

Today’s Wildfire Wednesday features:

Take care as we leap(year) into March!
-Rachel

The Power of Community Action in Wildfire Prep

“As wildland fires increasingly involve residential areas, communities have to take action to help mitigate the potential effects of wildfire. However, residents can be uncertain about what to do, reluctant to get involved, or unclear about the impact they can have. As resources are stretched to cope with suppression and restoration efforts,” local community members and leaders play an increasingly important role in promoting and enabling wildfire preparedness.

Collective action means working together to be prepared, vigilant, proactive, and to prioritize resilience over complacency and face the challenge of wildfires head-on. Community in wildfire preparedness is valuable for many reasons. “As residents, [community members and leaders] understand [their neighbors] and are able to encourage mitigation and preparedness in a number of ways, including:

  • Helping to identify important local issues and create a vision for action.

  • Developing a preparedness strategy that takes community members’ goals into account.

  • Obtaining commitment to act by communicating with other residents and building one-on-one relationships. [This emphasizes] the importance of individuals taking on responsibilities that benefit the community.

  • Mobilizing financial and material resources.” (Lang et al, 2006)

Image courtesy of FireSmart Canada

While individual actions to prepare homes, kids, pets, belongings, and businesses for wildfire are an essential element of fire readiness, coming together as a community to learn, assess collective risk, and reduce fire hazards can motivate and amplify the work of becoming fire adapted.

Wildfire Prep Day Ideas and Resources

Prep Day Dashboards

NFPA
Wildfire Community Preparedness Day - commonly shortened to Wildfire Prep Day - focuses on what you can do in and around your home to help protect against the threat of wildfires. The annual event is organized by the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) and sponsored by State Farm. To help you get ready, NFPA offers:

View the NFPA 2024 Prep Day press release.

Another general toolkit: wildfire.gov offers additional information and resources to prepare for all stages: before, during, and after the fire.

FAC Net

Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network offers a Community Prep Day Menu with a plethora of project ideas for individuals and leaders! Those community organizers who are interested in convening a preparedness event in their neighborhood, city, or county can get inspired by these tried-and-true project ideas:

  • Fuels removal: secure funding and organize with your local contractors to hold a community chipper or green waste day.

  • Assessments: partner with an organization such as your fire department to bring existing assessment programs to your community.

  • Education: work with local fire ecologists, fire personnel, and businesses to host an educational day in the woods, community center, or downtown. Invite your guests to talk about fire science, discuss how fires impact businesses and tourism, and tell their personal wildfire stories.

  • Build awareness: partner with your local fire department to bring an engine to the neighborhood! Post up at a stop sign, local park, or entrance road to create a W.U.I. Checkpoint (Wildland-Urban Interface). This activity is modeled after D.U.I. checkpoints, with a play on words. Give vehicles information about fire preparedness as you stop them.

  • Mitigation fair: create an interactive fair: arrange 5-7 stations on various fire preparedness topics with a call to action - some actionable takeaway for participants - at each station. Attendees will visit different stations to learn how to safely and effectively mitigate wildfire risk on their property.

Learn more and get inspired by reading FAC Net’s 2023 Wildfire Prep Day article: All Projects Big and Small.

Assessing Community and Individual Risk

Is your community prepared for fire? How can you and your partners improve your resilience? Use the Fire Adapted Communities Self-Assessment Tool (FAC SAT) to find out! FAC SAT was created to help communities assess their fire adaptation efforts and to plan and track their capacity to live safely with fire over time. This tool can be used to assess individual neighborhoods, cities and even large counties. FAC SAT is a PDF document containing a series of questions. Completing the assessment is a four-step process. Detailed information about who should be involved and how long the process takes can be found in the FAC SAT User and Facilitator’s Guide.

Tailoring the Fire Prep Approach to Your Community

The Fire Adapted Communities Pathways Tool (Pathways Tool) helps users identify a range of fire adaptation practices and resources that research and experience indicate are more likely to work in the places they live and work.

This tool combines decades of research on community wildfire adaptation with practitioner-based knowledge and experience. It helps users identify a community, determine an initial “community archetype” and suggest fire adaptation practices, tools and approaches suited to similar communities. The Pathways Tool then helps users create a ‘pathway’ that is tailored to their community conditions. The tool is also intended to inform progress on fire adaptation across varied regions, identify the most effective programs, grants or assistance for supporting community adaptation, and to demonstrate the diverse needs for wildfire adaptation to promote equity in ongoing fire resilience work.
Learn more, access the Pathways Tool, and watch a recording of the introductory webinar.

……..

Additional Wildfire Prep Resources

The Community Wildfire Planning Center provides a number of resources for planning the Wildland-Urban Interface, including guidance for adopting defensible space ordinances, opportunities for risk assessments through programs like REALFire, links to State and National WUI planning resources, and more. Explore the CWPC website.

Events, Announcements, and Additional Resources

Webinars

Friday, March 29 from 12:00-1:00pm: Community Navigators Program
FACNM is launching its spring webinar series beginning on March 29th! Join Gabe Kohler and Emery Cowan as they introduce the national and regional intent of the Community Navigators Program and discuss how communities across the state can access this resource.
Keep an eye on the FACNM Events page to learn more and register for additional webinars in the spring series!

Recording available: The Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission Report
Neil Chapman with the Flagstaff Fire Department joined the Forest Stewards Guild in mid-February to explain the formation and process enacted by the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission, including the publication and impact of the 2023 Commission Report.

Funding Opportunities

The Department of the Interior has launched a pilot project to help local government agencies convert vehicles for use as wildland fire engines. Agencies serving areas with a population of 25,000 or less are eligible to apply, with applications being accepted through March 21. See the press announcement for details and visit Grants.gov to apply.

In the News

Air Quality
Early this month the U.S. EPA strengthened the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for fine particle pollution (PM2.5). They have released several fact sheets about this rule change, including “Final Updates to the Air Quality Index…”, “Implementing the Final Rule …”, and “Wildland Fire, Air Quality, and Public Health Considerations”. Last week, the EPA, USDA Forest Service and health and land management agencies in Oregon and Washington recognized the important role of prescribed fire for public health and ecosystem resilience in their “Joint Statement of Intent to Cooperate on Prescribed Fire and Smoke Management.”
For some variations on one approach to helping community members mitigate smoke exposure, see the Fire Networks blog post “Cleaner Air, One Filter at a Time: Stories from FAC Net’s Community Clean Air Project.”

The GSFFC is a coalition of public and private organizations. The GSFFC is not a subdivision of the State of New Mexico, as defined in the state’s Open Meetings Act, §§ 10-15-1 to 10-15-4 NMSA 1978. Although federal agencies participate in the GSFFC, the Coalition is not a federal advisory board and was not created by a federal agency, as defined by the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), 5.U.S.C. app. 2, §§ 1 to 16 (2012). The GSFFC operates informally to support its partners, and is not incorporated as a non-profit, 501(C)(3), partnership, or other legal status.