RFFC Southern Region

Inland Empire Community Foundation (IECF)

Location: San Bernardino & Riverside Counties

Total Dollars Awarded: $1,600,000

The Inland Empire Community Foundation (IECF) is a non-profit, philanthropy-focused organization serving San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. The IECF RFFC grant will support creating a Regional Priority Plan, assessing Riverside County's needs, and collaborating closely with Inland Empire Resource Conservation District (IERCD), an existing RFFC block grantee. IECF is building partnerships across the Inland Empire to expand upon IERCD's existing work, creating a coalition representative of the entire Inland Empire.

IECF will place a heavy emphasis on organizational capacity building, staffing capacity, civic engagement, and training. However, given that the ultimate goal of RFFC funds is to undertake landscape scale restoration and mitigation projects, IECF will have an explicit focus on project planning and preparation, and progress towards implementation projects, to help the region grow the right skills and abilities to stay focused on California’s wildfire and climate goals. IECF will work in close collaboration with the Inland Empire Resource Conservation District. IECF will distribute subgrant funding with the requirement that grantees utilize and broaden the tools and infrastructure already being built to encompass Riverside County.

IECF Regional Priority Plan

iegives.org

Inland Empire Resource Conservation District (IERCD)

Location: San Bernardino Mountains Area

Total Dollars Awarded: $5,695,000

Through this funding, IERCD will address both immediate and long-term projects that fall into the categories of (1) Project development and planning to build a pipeline of forestry and wildfire protection projects (2) Increasing capacity to accelerate wildfire resilience and strengthen regional leadership (3) Expanding collaborative efforts and regional priority planning to continue preparing the region to accept and apply for more state, federal, and private funding for forest health and fire resiliency projects and (4) Implementation of demonstration projects and adaptive management of implementation projects. IERCD will serve as the lead block grantee for the program collaborating with CNRA and DOC staff at the state level and collaborating locally with regional partners.

The region for this grant includes the San Bernardino Mountains and adjacent fire-prone communities within Inland Empire RCD and Mojave Desert RCD’s districts. This grant was informed by over a dozen partners and encompasses programs, projects, and capacity needs identified through the initial Regional Priority Planning process.

iercd.org

San Bernardino Regional Priority Plan

Irvine Ranch Conservancy (IRC)

Location: Orange County & Coastal Southern CA
Total Dollars Awarded: $4,220,000

This grant will support development and implementation of regional fire resiliency and risk reduction strategies and priorities, regional collaboration and partnership within Orange County and coastal Southern California, creation of demonstration and pilot projects, and community engagement and outreach. This grant will allow IRC to advance the regional shared fire management and risk reduction agenda developed through the County of Orange Area Safety Taskforce (COAST).

The Orange County CWPP has identified ignition prevention, specifically along roadsides, as a priority for fire prevention in the region. Creating a countywide strategic plan focused on addressing roadside ignitions will highlight areas at highest risk for wildfire as well as indicate site specific treatment options for future projects. This information will be made available to all entities affected by fire, including COAST, and can be used as a prioritization tool for roadside ignition prevention efforts. Primary goals will be to:

Complete an ignition risk assessment for Orange County.
Develop an ignition prevention model.
Develop a set of recommendations that will be informed by the aforementioned items to reduce the risk of wildland fires in the IRC RFFC Program region.

irconservancy.org

Resource Conservation District of Greater San Diego County

Location: Greater San Diego County
Total Dollars Awarded: $5,355,000

With their round 1 RFFC funding, the RCD of Greater San Diego County (RCDGSC) developed a Regional Priority Plan for San Diego County, promoted healthy forest practices through demonstration projects, developed a coordinated effort to reduce the Gold Spotted Oak Borer threat, provided fire management resources to local communities and partners, and developed a Community Wildfire Protection (CWPP) training course.

This funding will allow the RCD to build on work conducted with the initial RFFC Funding. They will continue to increase regional capacity to plan, prioritize, and implement strategies and projects that create fire adapted communities and landscapes by improving ecosystem health, community wildfire preparedness, and fire resilience. Through capacity building efforts they will work to align efforts across the region by continuing to facilitate their local collaborative group, further develop and manage the priority project database to support project readiness and implementation and, increase partner capacity to address immediate and long-term needs.

Primary program goals include:

Developing a framework for data stewardship, managing and maintaining the priority project list.
Developing a framework for SoCal regional block grant implementation and management, aligning the Southern Cal resource kit, project planning tools, advisory and planning groups, etc.
Strengthening efforts to support community level groups such as Fire Safe Councils, HOAs other communities with planning and implementation.
Strengthening efforts to support Tribes with planning and implementation.

RCD of Greater San Diego County RPP

RFFC Related Videos

RCDGSC GSOB Work (funded through RFFC)

rcdsandiego.org

San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy (RMC)

Location: Los Angeles County

RMC is a state conservancy operating in the urban and undeveloped areas of Los Angeles County. The RMC RFFC grant will support creating a Regional Priority Plan that assesses climate stressors, including extreme heat and drought, and the increased wildfire risk these changes exacerbate. RMC is creating a landscape level assessment of needs and priorities to funnel investments toward the most impactful projects and high-need communities while protecting and restoring socioecological resilience.

The RMC will work with key regional stakeholders and land managers to develop a spatially explicit list of wildfire resilience projects and initiatives, conduct an equity-centered gap analysis to identify critical project areas and communities in need of investment, and build a holistic, prioritized plan to fund, build capacity around, and implement wildfire resilience projects targeted to the region’s socioecological needs.

rmc.ca.gov

Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy (SMMC)

Location: Santa Monica Mountains
Total Dollars Awarded: $2,220,000

SMMC worked with the Mountains and Recreation and Conservation Authority and the Santa Monica Mountains Fire Safe Alliance to develop a Regional Priority Plan to identify fire resilience priorities for chaparral and forested ecosystems. Partners in the Fire Safe Alliance include state and county fire officials, state parks, and local stakeholders.

This funding will allow SMMC to facilitate the RFFC program within the SMMC’s Block Grant region and support project development, demonstration projects, and capacity investments. The SMMC will continue to support regional planning and coordinate with regional partners. The SMMC will work with the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA) to maintain the Regional Priority Plan and Priority Projects List, engage with local partners to remove roadblocks from developing projects, complete demonstration projects, and other tasks. This funding will also provide resources to SMMC to actively work across its lands to prevent roadside and other fire ignition. Funds from this program increase their capacity to prevent and identify ignitions.

SMMC Regional Priority Plan

smmc.ca.gov