Napa Valley Register
Federal government cuts big Napa County fire prevention grant
The county announced Saturday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency terminated the county’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant. Napa County was awarded the $35 million grant in August, with the county providing a 30% match for a total of $50 million.
Money was paying for Napa County’s fuel-reduction efforts in places such as near the city of Napa and other cities, as well as in rural communities such as Angwin, Circle Oaks and Berryessa Highlands. Part of the grant would reimburse property owners for defensible space programs to better protect their homes.
“FEMA’s decision halts a program that was not only forward-thinking, but also fiscally responsible,” said Napa County CEO Ryan Alsop in a Saturday news release.
BRIC was leveraging millions of local and private dollars to reduce wildfire risk. The loss of the grant puts that momentum at risk, Alsop said.
“Every dollar spent on wildfire prevention saves many more in emergency response, recovery, and rebuilding — we can’t afford to keep learning that the hard way,” he said.
A FEMA new release said ending the BRIC program helps ensure grant funding alines with President Trump’s executive orders. Funds that have not yet been distributed to states, tribes, territories and local communities must immediately be returned to the U.S. Treasury.
“The BRIC program was yet another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program. It was more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans affected by natural disasters,” the news release said.
The release did not elaborate on what political agendas the administration believes the BRIC program supported.
Napa County has already awarded several contracts and begun work under the BRIC program, including environmental planning, public education, and on-the-ground fire mitigation. It developed its spending plan with Napa Firewise, Cal Fire/Napa County Fire and local stakeholders, the county statement said.
Board of Supervisors chair Anne Cottrell was already going on a trip to Washington, D.C., when the news broke. She was joining Napa Valley Vintners and Napa Firewise officials to advocate on wine industry issues, among them wildfire prevention. Now that trip has another goal — to advocate for the canceled BRIC grant. “I’m heading to D.C. this week to make sure our federal partners understand that cutting BRIC undermines high-impact work already underway,” Cottrell said in the county’s announcement. “These projects reduce the long-term cost of disaster response and abandoning them midstream doesn’t make fiscal or public safety sense.”
Napa County Fire Administrator David Shew on Monday said the county was still seeking information on the BRIC program cancellation.
“We’ve got a lot of questions and no answers,” he said.
Napa County was devastated in 2017 by the Atlas, Tubbs and Nuns fires and again in 2020 by the LNU Lightning Complex and Glass fires. Together, the fires destroyed about 1,300 homes and cast a smoky pall that threatened human health and contaminated wine grapes with smoke taint.
More than half the county’s land area burned in the LNU Lightning Complex fire alone in August 2020. A month later, the Glass fire destroyed and damaged Napa Valley wineries.
As a result, the county and Napa Communities Firewise Foundation in April 2021 agreed on a wildfire prevention plan that would cost $42 million in the first five years. But money has been a challenge, with the county failing in June 2022 to pass the Measure L quarter-cent wildfire prevention sales tax.
County officials expressed optimism in the summer of 2023 after learning approval of the federal BRIC grant was pending.
“This grant will empower us to take significant strides in safeguarding our community for future generations, especially in the face of impending wildfires,” Supervisor Belia Ramos said at the time.