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Iron County fire officials report increased mitigation spending and large-scale fuels projects
Summary
Fire and emergency officials told the county commission that this year's Cooperative Wildland Fire Suppression (CWS) participation and locally run mitigation projects are expanding, with a $578,000 participation cost and a major 185-acre Antelope Springs treatment underway.
Iron County fire officials told the county commission on Monday that the county's participation cost for the Cooperative Wildland Fire Suppression (CWS) program increased this year to $578,000 and is funding training, equipment and large-scale mitigation projects.
Spencer Rolo gave the report. "This year in 2025, our PC increased to $578,000, to stay in the CWS program with FFSL," he said, referring to the state program with the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire & State Lands.
Rolo said the county has allocated the funds across prevention, preparedness and mitigation. He identified the budgeted splits and expenditures to date: about $52,000 allocated for prevention and education (with $407 spent to date), $166,000 for preparedness (about $45,811 spent so far) and $360,000 for mitigation (about $243,164 spent so far). He described mitigation as the primary focus of the CWS funding this year.
Rolo outlined current mitigation work, including the Antelope Springs project, which he described as a 185-acre, in-house landscape-scale watershed project. "So far, we've completed 75 acres of that, for a total of 700 hours," he said, and noted the county is using its own equipment to capture in-kind labor value toward the participation cost. He added that the county had purchased a skid steer with a mastication ("bull hog") head and is using an excavator with a similar head for mastication.
Other projects Rolo listed included targeted treatments in Red Canyon and mitigation work in wildland-urban interface areas; he said some of those will use hand crews or contracted work where appropriate. He also described outreach and prevention efforts: HOA wildfire-council outreach, a fire-safety insert with the July 1 tax bill, and expanded signage in county locations. Rolo urged greater public emphasis on burn permits, naming unauthorized debris burning and escaped campfires as recurring human causes of local wildfires.
Rolo said training for local fire departments, equipment acquisition (including mastication machines) and fuels-reduction work were priorities; he also said the county will update its Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) and align it with CWS goals in the coming months.
The report was informational; no formal county action was taken on the item during the meeting.
The fire office fielded questions from commissioners about machinery, project siting and how the county leverages grants and landowner partnerships for seeding and restoration after mastication.
