Another $3.8m of PG&E settlement money for fire prevention

Sonoma County will direct an additional $3.8 million — money from PG&E wildfire settlement — on vegetation management and other fire-prevention programs. 

Of the total, $3.3 million will be applied to 18 grant projects designed to prevent wildfire throughout the county. The projects include treating 2,000 acres of land with shaded fuel-breaks, increasing grazing, and creating calming zones — all measures intended to slow or prevent the spread of wildfire.

With today’s vote, the remaining $500,000 was earmarked for a new technical advisory program to assist applicants with smaller projects, costing between $5,000 and $50,000, with the grant application process. 

“The county continues to make huge strides in our work to lower the risk of  wildfire in our communities,” said District 4 Supervisor James Gore, chair of the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District. “We have a long way to go, but programs like these are instrumental in achieving  our vegetation management goals.” 

In 2021, the Board of Supervisors (which sits as the Ag + Open Space board) approved $3.6 million in grant funding,  with an additional $3 million proposed for 2022. Staff reported to the Board today that the 2021 programs are all either complete or  underway and expected to be completed by the end of 2022. 

Funding for the grant program comes from the 2017 PG&E settlement  award, of which the Board of Supervisors allocated $25 million to vegetation management on Oct. 6, 2020. Approximately $14 million still remains to be allocated from that initial sum. 

Regional Parks accepts $500,000 grant for vegetation management  in Sonoma Valley 

In a separate but related agenda item today, Sonoma County Regional Parks  accepted $500,000 in state grant funding to pass through to the Sonoma  Valley Wildlands Collaborative for the development of fuel reduction projects,  fuel breaks, defensible space and fuel break maintenance in Sonoma Valley. 

The collaborative consists of six conservation organizations and land  management agencies, including Regional Parks, Ag + Open Space, Audubon  Canyon Ranch, the State Department of Parks and Recreation, Sonoma Land  Trust and Sonoma Mountain Ranch Preservation Foundation.  

Formed in response to the 2017 wildfires, these organizations recognized the  need to manage land in partnership and across boundaries to achieve  greater landscape resilience and community protection from wildfire.  

Together, the collaborative manages more than 18,000 acres of park and  preserve lands in the Sonoma Valley region including lands that have been  recently and repeatedly impacted by extreme wildfire. The collaborative aims  to maintain and improve ecosystem health, increase resilience to wildfires  and climate change, and reduce future impacts of wildfire to communities in  the Sonoma Valley.

More information about the Sonoma Valley Wildlands Collaborative.