Communities at risk from wildfires can now apply for funding through ‘Investing in America’ agenda

U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service is accepting applications for the Community Wildfire Defense Grant program to assist at-risk communities, including tribes and Alaska Native Corporations, with planning for and mitigating wildfire risks.

Now in its third year, this competitive program is funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law as part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America Agenda.

Out of the up to $200 million available, individual grants of up to $250,000 can be used to develop and update community wildfire protection plans, while individual grants of up to $10 million can be used for wildfire resilience projects that implement community wildfire protection plans. Projects must be completed within five years of the award. The number of projects selected will be determined by available funding, which is up to $200 million.

Notices of funding opportunities are available on Grants.gov. Applications will be accepted until 11:59 p.m., Eastern Standard Time on February 28, 2025. Applicants are strongly encouraged to develop proposals in consultation with state or Forest Service regional cooperative fire contacts listed in the Notices of Funding Opportunity.

About the Community Wildfire Defense Grant Program:

In 2022 and 2023, the first two years of the program, the Forest Service awarded $467 million to 259 projects across 36 states, two territories and 18 tribes. In the Southern Region alone, 60 projects across 11 states and Puerto Rico received $63.5 million in funding, with 59 of those project going to historically underserved communities.

These projects directly support the agency’s 10-year “Wildfire Crisis Strategy” to treat up to 20 million acres of national forests and grasslands and 30 million acres of other federal, state, tribal and private lands to reduce wildfire risk to communities, infrastructure and natural resources.

The Forest Service is working with underserved communities, tribes and community-based organizations to provide equitable access to this funding opportunity. Partners are working with the Forest Service to increase awareness of this funding opportunity, help complete grant applications, comply with post-application financial and reporting requirements, and build community capacity to do this work independently in the future.

The Community Wildfire Defense Grant program prioritizes at-risk communities that are in an area identified as having high or very high wildfire hazard potential, are low-income, and/or have been impacted by a severe disaster, declared, designated or recognized by a government authority as having caused damage, loss or destruction to an extent and scale that an unusual or abnormal increase in wildfire risk or hazard potential to a community has occurred. The program also helps communities in the wildland urban interface meet the three goals of the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy to maintain resilient landscapes, create fire-adapted communities, and improve wildfire response.

Applicants are strongly encouraged to view one of the two-hour applicant webinars about the grant application process. Webinar dates, registration and information will be posted on the Community Wildfire Defense Grant webpage. Recordings will be posted once available. All webinars cover the same content; however, the webinar on Dec. 4 is more focused on tribal applications. Previous applications, including raw scores, can be viewed at cwdg.forestrygrants.org.