Vice President Kamala Harris and other administration officials said Monday that the Biden administration will transfer $197 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act of 2021 to help communities prepare for wildfires this summer.

The funding represents the first round of a new $1 billion Community Wildfire Defense grants program approved under the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill President Joe Biden signed into law in November 2021. . According to the White House, fact sheet.

The funding is intended to help communities prepare for wildfires, which Harris said would be preferable to responding to fires that have already wreaked havoc.

“The best time to fight a fire is before it starts,” she said at a news conference Monday.

The funds announced Monday can be used to develop or update wildfire preparedness plans or for other mitigation efforts such as clearing highly flammable shrubs.

Among the largest grants was $9.9 million for the Grant Soil and Water Conservation District in eastern Oregon to remove toxic fuel from evacuation routes on county roads.

The Cimarron Watershed Alliance, a New Mexico nonprofit, also received $8 million to create defensible spaces around homes and install fuel filler spouts designed to stop fires from spreading.

Archuleta County, Colorado will also receive $1.1 million to clear more than 600 acres of hazardous fuel.

Harris also contributed $341,000 for evacuation planning and removal of combustible brush around buildings in Gila County, Arizona, and helping cities and counties develop better plans to prepare and respond to fires in North Carolina. I gave the example of $1.4 million for

Communities in Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, South Dakota and Wisconsin will also receive grants.

Full list of grants announced Monday is available here.

About $800 million of the rest will be released over the next four years, Harris said.

“This is the first round of funding,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “This is an important down payment.”

The Forest Service, part of the Department of Agriculture, judged grant applications on three criteria, Virsak said. Communities that have experienced severe disasters are at higher wildfire risk and have lower incomes. All the grants announced Monday met at least two of the three criteria, and most he met all three, he said.

The Infrastructure Act has set the standard, he said.

Climate change causes more devastating fires

Wildfires have become more devastating in recent decades for a variety of reasons, including hot and dry weather due to climate change and increased development in areas at high risk of fire.

Harris stressed that wildfires are a symptom of climate change, which is only getting worse. Monday’s report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change should be a call to action, she said.

“Our future is not yet written and the solution is right there,” Harris said. “Let it be a reminder that we must act quickly. We can actually influence how this unfolds right now.”

Prescribed burns to continue

The Forest Service plans to continue using prescribed open burning to control wildfire fuel. Massive wildfires in New Mexico Last year, Vilsack said.

Following the wildfires in New Mexico, the Forest Service said firefighters deliberately started and controlled small fires to prevent wildfires from spinning out of control. To prevent firefighters from intentionally initiating and controlling burns, a comprehensive review of the prescribed burns was conducted.

The Forest Service will monitor local conditions more closely when assessing whether to use controlled burning, but the technology remains “certainly able to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires.” In terms of that, it’s an important tool that we have,” he said.

Forest Service Director Randy Moore is scheduled to testify this week before the US House of Representatives and US Senate Appropriations Subcommittees that will draft legislation to fund the Department of the Interior. The president’s budget request for fiscal year 2024 includes his 21% increase in the Department of the Interior’s wildfire management fund.