Rep. Schrier Announces $11.5 Million in Wildfire Mitigation Funding Coming to the 8th District

WASHINGTON, DC – Today Congresswoman Kim Schrier, M.D. (WA-08) announced that the 8^th District will be receiving almost $11.5 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to prevent and mitigate wildfires, including $10 million for the Kittitas County Conservation District, the largest grant in the country. The funding is from Community Wildfire Defense Grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

“I am thrilled that this funding is coming to our district at just the right time, as we are seeing increasingly catastrophic wildfires in the West,” said Rep. Schrier. “I know that firefighters and officials at all levels of the government here in Washington state know that there is work to be done to prevent wildfires from getting as hot or destructive. And this round of funding, that I was proud to vote for in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, will go a long way to helping local communities prevent and fight wildfires.”

The four projects in the 8^th District receiving funding are:

• Kittitas County Conservation District, Kittitas County Resilient Landscapes
  $10,000,000 to a fuels mitigation project that will reduce wildfire risk in Kittitas County while creating more resilient communities and forests in the project area.
• Chelan County Natural Resource Department, Stemilt-Squilchuck Forest Resilience Project
  $328,036 to plan and implement 400 acres of mechanical thinning in high priority units across ownerships in the planning area from 2023 to 2025. This will serve to increase the footprint of ongoing work in the area and make a meaningful impact on stand structure.
• Community Firewise Sky Meadows Ranch Hazardous Fuels
  $750,000 create fire break lines within the community in order to attempt to minimize damage in the event of a large-scale wildfire by removing fuels that will feed a wildfire and removing trees that encroach into easement roads. Also, to educate the community on Firewise programs and techniques for treating 250 acres over a four-year period.
• Washington Department of Natural Resources, Department of Natural Resources Southeast
  $420,000 to mitigate wildfire risk for the City of Cle Elum by reducing fuel loadings and canopy bulk densities across 180 acres on private lands. Located throughout the western edge of the City of Cle Elum.

More information about the program and today’s announcement can be found here from USDA.