Timmons Group has been very involved in helping multiple clients deliver equitable services across the nation. One of the highest-profile examples of this is in the delivery of the USDA Forest Service’s (USFS) Community Wildfire Defense Grant (CWDG) program. The CWDG is a billion-dollar investment, funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), to facilitate on-the-ground actions. The funding is specifically aligned to help communities and Tribes, at substantial risk from impacts, better live with wildfire.
The CWDG program is intended to help at-risk communities and Tribes plan for and reduce the risk of wildfire. The program, which was authorized by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, prioritizes at-risk communities in areas identified as having high or very high wildfire hazard potential, that are low-income, or that have been impacted by a severe disaster that increases the risk of wildfire.
The CWDG Program helps communities in the wildland urban interface (WUI) implement the three goals of the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy.
- Restore and Maintain Landscapes: Landscapes across all jurisdictions are resilient to fire-related disturbances, in accordance with management objectives.
- Create Fire Adapted Communities: Human populations and infrastructure can better withstand a wildfire without loss of life and property.
- Improve Wildfire Response: All jurisdictions participate in making and implementing safe, effective, efficient risk-based wildfire management decisions.
Part of this effort included the mapping and alignment of funding with various community conditions including underserved and socially vulnerable populations. While there are many ways to identify the communities based on income and other environmental factors, at the core, it is a spatial exercise driven by census data.
