Sonoma County receives first installment of federal grant for wildfire resiliency

Sonoma County’s wildfire resiliency efforts are set to receive a $5.7 million boost from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the first installment of a larger federal grant.

In June 2021, President Joe Biden announced Sonoma County would receive $37 million through FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant.

“Sonoma knows all too well the devastation wrought by fire,” Biden said.

The grant will support Wildfire Resilient Sonoma County, a risk- reduction program, the county’s permitting department announced in a Wednesday news release.

“We are at a turning point as a community,” Supervisor James Gore, chair of the Board of Supervisors, said in the release. “We have invested historic funds locally toward fire resilience, and these federal matching dollars will help us dig in deeper. After years of dedicated effort, we as a community are achieving progress.”

As part of the grant, Sonoma County is required to provide a 25% local match, equivalent to approximately $12 million, bringing total funding for the program to roughly $48.8 million, the release said.

The county has allocated PG&E settlement funds tied to the 2017 firestorm to cover the local match.

Wildfire Resilient Sonoma County aims to improve structure hardening, brush management and creation of defensible space. The grant money will help support a new way to integrate the work of multiple agencies across terrain ranging from sprawling wildlands to neighborhoods.

County leaders have identified projects in the Larkfield-Wikiup/Mark West Springs, Guernewood-Guerneville-Rio Nido, and Penngrove/Sonoma Mountain areas to fund through the program.

For more information, visit permitsonoma.org/wildfireresilient-sonomacounty.

You can reach Staff Writer Emma Murphy at 707-521-5228 or emma.murphy@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MurphReports.