With over 90% of Nevada County identified by CAL FIRE as being within a high or very high fire hazard severity zone, it is no surprise that wildfire mitigation is a top priority for Nevada County.
Emergency Preparedness has been a Board Objective for over a decade, and the Office of Emergency Services (OES) has taken a proactive approach under the Ready Nevada County initiative, securing investment for projects at the individual, community, and landscape level. In 2024, OES is working to prevent wildfires with 12 hazardous fuels reduction projects totaling over $13.5 million in funding from five different state and federal agencies. These projects will treat over 5,000 acres and 300 road miles thanks to funding support from CAL FIRE, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), United States Forest Service (USFS), Sierra Nevada Conservancy, Wildlife Conservation Board, and others.
To ensure that projects are implemented at the pace and scale needed and to support local and regional workforce capacity, County of Nevada has recently taken steps to create an efficient framework for implementation. This has included building new partnerships and efficiencies by creating Qualified Vendor lists.
Project Management/Vegetation Treatment Qualified Vendor Lists Now Open At the January 23, 2024, Board of Supervisors meeting, Qualified Vendor Lists were approved for Registered Professional Forester and Environmental Consulting Services. Currently, Requests for Qualifications are being solicited for Project Management and Vegetation Treatment.
Local businesses and organizations are highly encouraged to submit responses to these opportunities. More information about doing business with the County, applying for local vendor status and to access requests for bids and proposals is available from the County of Nevadaâs Purchasing Department.
Qualified Vendor Lists allow the County to leverage federally compliant procurement processes to equitably identify businesses and organizations that are able to deliver the services needed to implement grant-funded projects. Once created, these lists provide OES with a âmenuâ of plug-and-play contractors that can be efficiently deployed across a variety of wildfire mitigation projects.
Upcoming Wildfire Mitigation Projects in Nevada County
Over the last several years, OES has prioritized responding to grant opportunities to fund wildfire mitigation activities across the county. Awarded and pending grant-funded projects that the County and partners will be looking to set in motion now and in the next couple of years include:
⢠Woodpecker Ravine Phase 1 and Phase 2: 1,100 acres of shaded fuel break treatment funded by CAL FIRE.
⢠Ponderosa West Grass Valley Phase 2: 800 acres of shaded fuel break treatment funded by USFS and FEMA/Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP).
⢠Ponderosa Phase 1 Maintenance: 600 acres of shaded fuel break treatment within the original Ponderosa West Grass Valley project footprint funded by USFS.
⢠South Yuba Rim Hazardous Fuels Reduction Project: 800 acres of shaded fuel break treatment within a 6,000-acre planning area funded by FEMA/HMGP.
⢠Nature-Base Mitigation and Wildfire Retrofitting for Climate Resilience in Nevada County: home-hardening and defensible space treatment for over 1,200 residents and county-wide educational programming funded by FEMA/Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC).
⢠Nevada County Roadside Vegetation Abatement: fuels reduction along 300 miles of critical evacuation routes across Nevada County funded by FEMA/HMGP. ⢠Lower Deer Creek/Penn Valley Hazardous Fuels Reduction: 1,000 acres of shaded fuel break treatment and fuels reduction along key roadways funded by FEMA/HMGP.
