Editor’s note: This week’s blog features stories from Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network (FAC Net) members that were awarded grants, known as “Opportunity Fund” awards, to implement high-impact projects in their local communities. FAC Net Director Emily Troisi put together this post, along with contributions from FAC Net members who used FAC Net Opportunity Funds for the projects they share here.
In addition to peer learning, training, and mentoring, FAC Net at times has funding opportunities to support generative and impactful FAC work in network member communities. In 2024-2025, FAC Net supported 12 network members around the country with our “Opportunity Fund” awards.
These projects ranged from hosting chainsaw workshops for residents in Hurricane Helene impacted communities in the mountains of North Carolina, to advancing prescribed burn association development in California. Whether small or large, each project had consistent themes: collaboration and community at the center.
The projects across the entire awardee cohort led to some great impacts. For example, Pulaski County, VA Office of Emergency Management completed over 35 acres of burning and thinning, and alongside years of partnership development, turned the county’s wildfire mitigation efforts into an example for other communities in Virginia to learn from. Brad Wright, Emergency Manager, reported that they connected with a local non-profit firewood bank that now takes their firewood quality wood to be processed and provided to those in need of heating assistance in the county. Their leadership was asked to sit on a panel discussion about wildfire mitigation and CWPP development for a county in another area of VA that had a severe wildfire outbreak in the spring of 2024.
Neil Chapman, from Flagstaff Fire, reported some great success in advancing their “smoke ready communities” work. This year, they furthered the development and sustainability of their HEPA filter donation program, air quality monitoring program, and personal preparedness programs. Additionally, the Washington State Fire Adapted Communities Network (hosted at the Washington Resource Conservation and Development Council) developed a number of useful learning opportunities and products, such as this one around insurance in WA, and this post-fire planning toolkit for integrating post-fire planning in CWPPs. .
While there are a number of amazing impacts from this year’s funding cohort, we wanted to highlight two specific stories: one from Boulder, Colorado and the other from Ashland, OR.
Wildfire Partners Collaborates with Local Youth Crews and Delivers on Mitigation in At-Risk Neighborhoods in Boulder County
(Including words by Ellie Stanton, Wildfire Partners Youth Program Specialist)
As a result of impacts from the Marshall Fire in Boulder County in 2021, there was a significant amount of community need, both in the realm of recovery, but also a heightened urge to reduce risk in neighborhoods across the county. Wildfire Partners—Boulder County’s wildfire mitigation program — responded to this need by launching an innovative pilot initiative in 2024, using FAC Net funding as a seed to help start the initiative. The program’s model is to employ youth conservation crews from local nonprofits/agencies to improve individuals and communities’ resilience to wildfire.
In speaking to how the program operates, Ellie reports, “Under the supervision of the Youth Program Specialist, youth conservation crews conduct basic, but vital mitigation tasks to create defensible space around homes. These tasks are first identified by a Wildfire Mitigation Specialist, who assesses each home’s vulnerabilities. The homeowner is then provided a comprehensive report listing the specialist’s recommendations. With the engagement and approval of the homeowner, the youth conservation crews then accomplish the listed mitigation recommendations, such as clearing vegetation, limbing trees, and building noncombustible gravel barriers. If the homeowner accomplishes each recommendation from the Wildfire Mitigation Specialist, they are then eligible to be certified through the Wildfire Partners Individual Home Assessment Program.”
According to Ellie, in its first year, Wildfire Partner’s program achieved significant milestones in its efforts to enhance community safety and reduce wildfire risk. In the FAC Net grant, the program’s goal was to provide education and mitigation services for two to 10 vulnerable neighborhoods and five to 20 individuals. The program met and exceeded these goals by:
- Providing free wildfire mitigation services to 17 homes in four different neighborhoods and served four manufactured home parks, a total of eight different neighborhoods.
- Making substantial progress on four strategic fuels reduction projects identified in the County’s Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP), and supporting the completion of two.
- The Mile High Youth Corps crew bucking and felling 2,267 trees, reducing fuel loads and mitigating wildfire risk along critical evacuation routes and between homes in just six weeks.
- Organizing and completing more than five community cleanups, which in total, removed 774 cubic yards of inorganic household fuels, such as old furniture and treated lumber, as well as 399 cubic yards of organic fuels, including pine needles, leaves, and branches. Additionally, 1,311 pounds of household hazardous waste were safely removed from four manufactured home communities and properly disposed of at Boulder County’s hazardous materials facility.
- Constructing 10 noncombustible gravel barriers, a crucial mitigation measure in home hardening against wildfire, especially around mobile homes.
Overall, the program collectively benefited 315 residents directly, and many more indirectly through the overall reduction of risk.
While all of these accomplishments alone are exciting, what FAC Net is most excited about is the ripple effect of this effort and the recognition of the county to continue investing in it. Ellie reported, “Due to the extensive impact of the pilot program’s first season, the Boulder County Commissioners approved ongoing funding and transitioned the Wildfire Mitigation Specialist into a full-time County employee. With this support, the program will continue into 2025, building on its success and expanding its impact to support more communities in wildfire resilience efforts.”
Investing in the Future: Ashland Fire & Rescue Engages Students and Scouts in Wildfire Education and Mitigation Efforts
(Including words by Brian Hendrix, Fire Adapted Communities Coordinator)
Ashland Fire has continued to invest in their community outreach, this time through Southern Oregon Fire Ecology Education (SOFEE) and FireBright student education programs, a local scout troop, and their volunteer Wildfire Risk Assessment Program (WRAP) program.
In May 2024, Ashland Fire supported student volunteers from TRAILS Middle School in their wildfire mitigation volunteer efforts. They were introduced to concepts for fuels reduction and participated in wildfire fuels removal activities in North Mountain Park, which is proximal to the Mountain Meadows senior living community. This was followed by a presentation on defensible space and home hardening to TRAILS Middle School students later in 2024. Students then drew pictures and diagrams of what they learned in group activity and discussion, and built models of a home and defensible space to perform scientific burn tests for the flammability of the created structures. They later worked on a project for fuels reduction at ScienceWorks Hands-on Museum and performed neighborhood streetside community wildfire risk assessments to further their learning about defensible space.
In August 2024, Ashland Fire partnered with an Eagle Scout candidate from the local Boy Scout Troop to develop a wildfire mitigation project for mobile home residents that would subsidize work within one of the targeted parks in their project. The Eagle Scout candidate and his troop assisted in assessment and mitigation activities at Siskiyou Village Park which was selected for the Scout project. Introductions were made between Park management and the Eagle Scout candidate. The scout continued direct planning and informative meetings. Ashland fire provided assessment software and basic defensible space education training for three of the scouts.
In January 2025 the Siskiyou Village mobile home park property assessment occurred utilizing Fire Aside software. Then, in March 2025 the troop’s mitigation project occured. They removed or pruned back, identified, and flagged flammable vegetation within resident unit parcels and along a wood fence surrounding two sides of the park. Sixteen scouts and ten parents participated in the event!
Brian reported that the scouts and their parents engaged with over 17 separate residents during the event and two 25-yard Green Debris Bins were filled with flammable vegetation (donated by Recology Ashland through the Eagle Scout candidate). One 10-yard garbage bin was filled with combustible vegetation residents were willing to remove and dispose of the day of the event, and an additional 30 yards of flammable vegetation was cut and piled by the troop along the right-of-way. These piles were removed by a hired contractor later. The contractor also performed additional mitigation activities along the right-of-way bordering the wood fence of the park. As a result of this project, the local Boy Scout Troop became a new collaborator through their Eagle Scout candidate. Brian reported that, “the Eagle Scout project became a huge success in the eyes of the scouts, their parents, and the park residents – and scout parents are interested in pursuing further mitigation activities for other scout projects (either through future Eagle Scout candidate projects or future troop projects).”
In spring 2025, outreach and assessments across four Ashland mobile home parks occurred. With the help of four Wildfire Risk Assessment Program volunteers, staff and volunteers engaged approximately 125 mobile home park residents face-to-face and provided assessments and vegetation flagging (for contractor identification). Late in the spring, the four mobile home parks received mitigation work, with the following outcomes:
- Over 232 individual mobile home park units received some level of mitigation activity on their property or adjacent common area.
- Approx. 60-cubic yards (12 trailer loads) of vegetation removed by contractor.
- Six 25-yd green debris bins filled with flammable vegetation.
- Over 125 individual residents engaged face-to-face.
- 62 residents signed up for future individual risk assessments for the WRAP program.
This project led to new activities for WRAP volunteers (neighborhood and community level engagement and participation in mitigation actions) that fell outside of their typical tasks (individual property assessments on single family residences). According to Brian, feedback from all five participating volunteers was overwhelmingly positive and they seek to engage more at the neighborhood level.
Brian reflected that ”engaging our students, scouts, and volunteers in neighborhood mitigation efforts didn’t just reduce wildfire risk—it built a culture of shared responsibility, connection, and pride in protecting our community. This project was about more than just vegetation mitigation – it was about building partnerships, growing awareness, and investing in people who care about their community. These types of projects help inspire long-term change and show that wildfire resilience truly begins at the local level.”
Congratulations to all of our network members for their accomplishments this past year. Your dedication to your communities and creativity in your projects and partners is inspiring!
Thank you to all of our funders, including the USDA Forest Service, Department of Interior, and numerous private foundations and individuals for their support of local mitigation projects.
****
