Kern Fire Safe Council

Hired project manager for round 1 of the community wildfire defense grant. Focused on the preplanning and design phase of the project, which involves assessing homes for wildfire risk in five mountain communities in kern county. The project utilized geospatial tools to map out the area, assess risk, and integrate it into the assessments. The project integrated software from calfire and forest fire modeling to identify and prioritize the highest-risk areas, ensuring efficient allocation of resources. They are also preparing a pilot program to be completed by the end of 2024 targeting 60 homes in a high-risk area. The pilot will allow the team to test assessment methodologies, fire modeling tools, and the software while gathering data and delivering key information.

County coordinator and kern fire safe council collaborated with the kern county fire department and caltrans to successfully submit a grant application for round 2 of the community wildfire defense program. This effort has not only increased our close partnership with the kern county fire department, but it has opened up an opportunity with caltrans. This is a different sort of collaboration with caltrans and this project could roll into other opportunities statewide with other fire safe councils and fire mitigation agencies. Because of the relationship building efforts by the kern county coordinator with the kern county fire department, the fire department has entrusted kern fire safe council to submit a proposal to calfire cci wildfire prevention grants program to update the kern county wildfire prevention program.