With the recent wildfires that have occurred in California and various other states, fire mitigation has become a hot topic. To reference Smokey the Bear, “Only YOU Can Prevent Wildfires.” One must wonder, what can I do to prevent something like this from happening to me? The answer is not simple, and nothing we can do is fail-safe. However, we can do our best to mitigate this situation and be ready if an event like this occurs.
If your property is heavily wooded, consider performing some vegetation maintenance to decrease the amount of fuels located near structures or other important aspects of your property. The answer could be as easy as cutting in fire breaks to give firefighters a chance to access the property to fight a fire. It could also involve clearing the vegetation line further away from existing or future structures, and sometimes, it can be as simple as performing understory maintenance to remove ladder fuels to decrease the likelihood of a fire becoming a canopy fire, which is the hardest to fight.
Cedar Eaters has provided wildfire prevention and mitigation services to others since our conception. We can create maps along with estimated time frames and forecasted costs that you can submit to the Texas Forest Service. We recently met with a neighborhood HOA near Glen Rose, Texas, to clear a vegetation line further away from behind homes. We also provided an estimate to a hunting club community in East Texas to reduce the understory fuel loads in and around strategic areas within the community. However, projects like this can have an extensive cost.
This is where the Texas A&M Forest Service can be of some assistance. Occasionally, the Forest Service has grants available in various counties within the state. You can apply for these grants when they are available in your county. They are not limited to you only personally; HOAs and communities can apply for them, too.
Currently, if these grants are available to you, you can perform vegetation maintenance on as little as an acre or up to 13 acres. They are currently allowing up to $750 per acre that you could potentially be approved for under the grant. This may not be enough to cover the full fire mitigation costs, but it can help with the overall cost of a project. The project must be completed by a contractor, and the Texas A&M Forest Service grant will reimburse you based on the acreage cleared.
To learn more about how the Texas A&M Forest Service mechanical fuel reduction grant can possibly help you, visit Texas A&M Forest Service Mechanical Grant. If you are fortunate enough to qualify for a grant such as this, Cedar Eaters of Texas would be happy to provide you with an estimate for performing the fire mitigation and land clearing service. Please keep in mind that the cost per acre could be significantly higher than what the Texas A&M Forest Service allows for, but depending on the density of the vegetation, terrain, and what is required, it could be enough. Should you be fortunate enough to qualify for this grant, Cedar Eaters stands ready to provide an estimate for our fire mitigation land clearing services.
