The Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County is offering to reimburse the cost of wood chipping for groups of residents who want to clear land in areas at risk for wildfires.
The Neighborhood Chipping Program is accepting applications through Oct. 31 and aims to “incentivize the creation of defensible space around homes in high wildfire risk areas.”
The neighborhood chipping reimbursement program is for communities with eight or more participating properties who conduct their own chipping. For either program, all chipped materials must be from cleared vegetation that originated within 100 feet of occupied structures or within 15 feet on either side of a private road. For the no-cost individual program, chips are blown back onto the property, not removed. The program offers ideas for the use of chips in its Fire Preparedness and Prevention Resource Library.
In a release, the program emphasized that “establishing and maintaining defensible space around your home and outbuildings, before fire-prone summer months, is imperative in avoiding major damages to your property when wildfire strikes.”
It described “defensible space” as “the buffer you create between buildings and the vegetation that surrounds them to prevent structures from catching fire, either from direct flame contact or radiant heat.”
“Creating ample buffer zones not only increases the chances of your home surviving a fire on its own, but it also gives firefighters a safer location from which to defend your home,” according to the program. “In fact, fire crews are more likely to spend time and prioritize defending your property if you have taken steps to limit fuel loads around your buildings.”
The program offers reimbursements of eligible chipping costs of up to $250 per property and $80 per 500 linear feet of private road to communities that conduct chipping of the fuels located within the 100 feet of their occupied structures or within 10 feet of private roads. To be eligible, there must be a minimum of five households who participate. Sign-ups are first-come-first served.
The program is not currently available in the Bonny Doon or South Skyline areas, as the Bonny Doon and South Skyline Fire Safe Councils manage their own chipping programs.
Funding for the program is provided by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s Fire Prevention Program as part of the California Climate Investments Program, in partnership with the Fire Safe Council of Santa Cruz County and the California Coastal Conservancy.For more information and to apply, visit the Resource Conservation District’s guide to the program here.
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