Fire Safe Moraga-Orinda Offering Residents Grants for Fuel Reduction

    A local non-profit aimed at helping Orinda and Moraga residents prepare for and respond to wildfires in the area was recently awarded a grant to be used for fire fuels removal within neighborhoods.
    The California Fire Safe Council (CFSC) awarded Fire Safe Moraga-Orinda (FSMO) $100,000 in funding, which FSMO will then award in grants of up to $10,000 to neighbors collaborating on the reduction of hazardous fuel vegetation on their properties.
    “Our focus is to work as a community to prepare for wildfire,” said FSMO board president Marc Evans. “We must work together to survive a wildfire.”
    Formed with the guidance of the CFSC, FSMO focuses on residential defensible space projects throughout the Moraga-Orinda Fire Protection District, helping residents in Orinda, Moraga and the unincorporated areas of Bollinger and Canyon prepare for and respond to wildfire.
    FSMO serves the same area as Moraga-Orinda Fire District (MOFD), which includes approximately 12,500 dwellings.
    Evans, involved with area Firewise groups since 2020, applied for FSMO’s non-profit status after a spring 2023 meeting with MOFD Fire Chief Dave Winnacker, who emphasized the importance of hazardous fuels mitigation across residential neighborhoods. FSMO received its non-profit approval in Nov. 2023.
    FSMO’s five board members live in Orinda and Moraga and include Firewise Leader Steve Hoyt, chair of the city’s Supplemental Sales Tax Oversight Commission (SSTOC) Jud Hammon, small business owner Sandy Gross, Orinda Firewise Council founder Melanie Light and Board President Evans.
    Evans cited encouragement from the MOFD Board of Directors, SSTOC and Moraga-Orinda Firewise Network (MOFN) members as a driving force behind the creation of FSMO, which began a private fundraising campaign in January.
    The organization has raised $15,000 thus far and continues efforts to raise more, which go toward paying for the work associated with the creation of their website and the awarding of grants.
    Along with a focus on neighborhoods with a high or very high fire risk, as designated by MOFD within their Community Wildfire Protection Plan, residents facing financial, physical or cognitive constraints are prioritized for the grant funding.
    “We received feedback from the California Fire Safe Council that including this focus area was the key reason our application was accepted,” said Evans. “We are reaching out through the Firewise Network to identify potential candidates that meet these criteria, plus other outreach approaches we are using.”
    Groups of at least five neighbors willing to collaborate toward fire fuels removal on their properties qualify for the FSMO funding, and each group needs a leader to coordinate efforts, as well as licensed and insured contractors to complete the work.
    Evans added that larger groups of properties, up to 10, will get higher priority in the grant selection process.
    “Our non-profit cost model is to spend as much as possible on the actual work and rely on the neighborhood to manage the selection of the homes included, and to coordinate the defensible space work directly with the group of homes,” said Evans.
    The threat of wildfire makes the community interdependent, said FSMO board member Light, which is why the funding is “designed specifically to be a neighborhood grant.”
    She distinguished wildfire prevention from earthquake preparedness.
    “If I shore up my house and you don’t, and then we have an earthquake and your house falls down, that’s not really going to affect mine,” she said. “But if I don’t do my defensible space work, the fire at my house can set your house on fire.”
    Orinda resident and FSMO Executive Director Rob Schroeder, also a wildfire preparedness coordinator with the Sleepy Hollow Neighborhood Association, discussed the various attitudes of residents when confronted with the reality of wildfire danger in their own yards.
    He said that longtime residents often overlook the climate changes and vegetation growth in their yards that have taken place over decades.
    “There’s really an educational component of getting people to sort of step away from what they know, and look at their property objectively,” said Schroeder, “and get them to get over that mental block of what they feel their house should look like, versus what it will look like when it’s fire safe.”
    Those interested in the FSMO defensible space grants can apply at firesafemoragaorinda.org/grants. The application deadline is Jan. 31, 2025, with approved projects expected to be completed by May 31, 2025.
    Light mentioned the unusually high number of small spot fires in the area over the past summer, emphasizing that fire danger is “a very real thing.” Schroeder also expressed the importance of awareness for area residents.
    “People really need to take this seriously,” he said. “I don’t think you can get away with being ignorant of the fire danger in our area.”