BURNING THROUGH WILDFIRE MONEY
Published in the Dec. 27, 2025 issue.
Inyo and Mono counties will be burning through $4.6 million in US Forest Service grant funding over the next five years in an effort to reduce wildfire risks in the region.
Details about the Forest Service grant and its goals were presented at the Dec. 16 Inyo County Board of Supervisors meeting by Kristen Pfeiler, Eastern Sierra Council of Governments (COG) Inyo County Wildfire Coordinator. The COG submitted the grant to demonstrate regional support and need. The nationwide competitive, federal grant program is part of the Biden Administration’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Only 58 successful grants were awarded from 573 applicants, Pfeiler said.
The Eastern Sierra Communities Wildfire Defense Program is a collaborative effort that “pulls together the top concerns and priorities that we have heard consistently across all our local communities and that have been documented in each County’s Community Wildfire Protection Plans,” Pfeiler reported. Those wildfire protection plans are massive documents that outline wildfire risks and remedies in each county. The grant funding, Pfeiler said, “will provide the resources needed to implement those priority goals at scale,”
Over the years, both counties have identified wildfire hazards and risks and have a good idea on how to reduce them. Fuel reduction, removing brush, weeds, trees and other vegetation, in and around communities and homes is at the top of the list of strategies to reduce the risk of wildfires flowing from public lands into towns and communities.
Spotting potential flammable material and getting it removed are two different things. “Getting the stuff out” of communities has been where individual community efforts “have stalled,” Pheiler said.
One of the primary goals of the grant program is quite literally, “getting the stuff out.” Subcontracts will be completed with the public works departments in Inyo and Mono counties that will fund county staff to go into communities and do the gritty work of removing brush, weeds and other potentially flammable materials.
The goal is to clear fuels and create defensible space for about 200 vulnerable, private homes, whose owners request the fire-safe work. The ground work cannot be conducted on public lands, including Los Angeles Department of Water and Power property. Completing “fire hazard assessments” on 1,250 homes is also on the to-do list.
Composting will get a boost in both counties, with a goal of removing 9,500 tons of “hazardous fuel” and diverting as much as possible to the compost pile. At least 300 “community clean up” events are a goal. Those can include free green waste collection and disposal, waiving gate fees at landfills for green waste and other community projects.
“The timeline is really broad” at this point, she added. The first several years of grant activity will involve identifying programs, projects, equipment and coordination with numerous partners. Doing the planned work should take up to two years. The final year will involve creating a sustainable program to continue making progress on reducing wildfire risks.
The main spending priorities have been determined, she added. Administrative costs over five years will consume about $1.3 million, which includes fully funding Inyo and Mono’s full-time Wildfire Managers (Pfeiler in Inyo, Wendi Grasseschi in Mono). County “biomass removal” will take about $1.4 million, and hiring county public works staff and contractors for fuel reduction work will take about $1 million.
Inyo County will receive roughly $437,706 in grant funds for public works staff. Mono County will get about $324,000 for staff hiring.
Several specialized pieces of equipment will also be purchased with grant funds. A grapple truck for picking up logs, wood chippers, and high-volume and high-intensity incinerators (called an “air curtain Burner) are among the priority equipment purchases.
Having staff available to local communities is a key element of the program. The eight Fire Safe Councils and 32 Fire Wise Communities in both counties which will receive monetary and staff support for their local efforts, which range from free green waste disposal events and fuels reduction.
Thirty-four communities, from towns and cities to subdivisions and Paiute reservations will be included in the wildfire protection program, she said. Local fire departments will also be included.
Taken together, Pfeiler said, the various grant-funded components of the wildfire protection plan “strengthen county operations, support community-driven mitigation, and sow the seeds for a durable, regionwide system for reducing wildfire risk.”
