OAKLAND, Calif. – The northern California Karuk Tribe received a $3 million Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant to save lives and reduce the severity of wildfire property damage. The funds will help protect over 400 community members, 146 housing units, a Head Start center, wellness center, government facilities and tribal infrastructure.
The tribe’s project will incorporate three activities to maximize community safety. The first includes the creation of defensible space by clearing and removing flammable vegetation around structures. The second will retrofit homes with ignition-resistant materials, such as replacing wood siding with vinyl, decking with concrete and cedar roofing with metal. And the third phase will reduce hazardous fuels in the area by clearing or thinning flammable vegetation along roadsides and other areas where wildfires could threaten life or property. Separately, each mitigation measure is effective, but together they will provide for enhanced wildfire protection on Karuk tribal lands.
These measures are just one aspect of the Karuk Tribe’s relationship with fire in the region. The new measures will act as a safety guard for the current population and future generations in the area while the Karuk Tribe works to increase traditional land management practices bringing the Karuk tribal lands to a healthier state.
The $4 million project includes a $3 million grant from FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP), with the remaining $1 million coming from the tribe.
FEMA’s HMGP helps states, territories, federally-recognized tribes, local communities, and certain private, non-profit organizations become more resilient to potential infrastructure damage and reduce future disaster costs. In the past 33 years, FEMA has invested nearly $1.5 billion to reduce disaster risk in California.
###
FEMA’s mission is helping people before, during, and after disasters. Follow FEMA Region 9 online at twitter.com/femaregion9.
The mission of the Karuk Tribe is to promote the general welfare of all Karuk People, to establish equality and justice for our Tribe, to restore and preserve Tribal traditions, customs, language and ancestral rights, and to secure to ourselves and our descendants the power to exercise the inherent rights of self-governance.