CAL FIRE California Climate Investments (CCI) Program FY 2022-23 Wildfire Prevention Grant Awards

Tuolumne County Awards

Tuolumne Utilities District Tuolumne
Utilities District Critical Facilities Fuels Reduction Project (Phase 2)
$168,086.46

Tuolumne Utilities District (TUD) is located in Tuolumne County, a very high hazard SRA region. The goal of the Tuolumne Utilities District Critical Facilities Fuels Reduction Project (Phase 2) is to build resiliency and increase wildfire protection to critical District community infrastructure. As part of this project, the District will perform hazardous fuel reduction treatments surrounding the facility including removing dead and dying trees, excess downed logs and snags, thinning marked intermediate and co-dominate oaks to reduce crown closure and mastication/hand thinning to remove brush and ladder fuels. These mitigation efforts will reduce the intensity, severity and spread of wildfire in the community of Twain Harte and
several other surrounding communities in the WUI. As a result, these communities will experience reduced likelihood of loss of life, property, and critical community infrastructure from wildfires.

Tuolumne Fire Safe Council
Defensible Space for Seniors and Disabled in Tuolumne County
$879,719.68

The Defensible Space for Seniors and Disabled in Tuolumne County project will provide defensible space for low-income seniors aged 65 and older and disabled individuals who are economically and/or physically unable to do this work or hire a contractor to do the work. The project is countywide and will treat around 425 habitable structures/302 acres over 5 years. The defensible space project will create an up to 100 feet (or to the property line) defensible space buffer that will slow or stop a wildfire and, in turn, protect surrounding property. According to the 2020 Census, 14,450 persons in Tuolumne County are age 65 or older and account for 27 percent of the county’s population. Approximately 10,300 households consist of one or more persons aged 65 or older.

Tuolumne Fire Safe Council
Groveland Highway 120 Area Fuel Breaks Maintenance Tuolumne County*
$357,285.60

The Groveland Highway 120 Area Fuels Break Maintenance is a 75 acre project that will perform maintenance on two fuel breaks in the Groveland/Highway 120 area in Tuolumne County. Work on the fuel break was completed in 2010 and no maintenance has been conducted since completion. The Smith Station Road Shaded Fuel Break is a 50 acre project along a two mile section of Smith Station Road, approximately seven miles southeast of Groveland. The project extends 100 feet on both sides of Smith Station Road from its intersection on the north at Highway 120 south to the Tuolumne-Mariposa County line. Approximately 6,000 habitable structures are in the unincorporated communities of Groveland,
Big Oak Flat and the Pine Mountain Lake Subdivision and homes scattered throughout the surrounding wildland-urban interface.