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County staff review wildfire prevention programs, outline grant-funded projects and communication gaps
Summary
Emergency services and fire-prevention partners updated supervisors on ongoing and planned wildfire prevention work, including CAL FIRE grants, county-earmarked funds, green-waste chipping events and a pilot seasonal firefighter program. Staff emphasized coordination needs for prescribed burns and outreach.
Solano County emergency-management staff on May 13 briefed the Board of Supervisors on the status of wildfire-prevention and resilience programs, describing a mix of grant-funded projects, local earmark spending and community outreach efforts and noting gaps in coordinated advance notice for prescribed burns.
Robin Raines, Solano County emergency services manager, said the county has continued activity across several funding streams awarded since 2019 and noted completed and ongoing projects. Staff highlighted a CAL FIRE community prevention grant that supported the county’s first countywide Community Wildfire Protection Plan and related outreach; staff said that CAL FIRE funds supported a roughly $1 million project matched in part by about $195,000 of local in-kind staff contributions.
Raines said the county used multiple grant sources to purchase evacuation-zone software and to run a Know Your Zone public campaign; the Solano Fire Safe Council and partner resource conservation districts have implemented or supported local fuel-reduction projects in Green Valley, Pleasant Valley and other high-threat areas.
Specific figures provided during the briefing included: a returned, unspent grant balance of $44,849 that was returned to the state after hiring delays; chipper/green-waste events that earlier collected 27,349 pounds of yard debris in 2024; and actual cost of a pilot seasonal firefighter program of approximately $86,000 for the last season (county had budgeted more, in anticipation of full participation). Staff said a later application for a 2025 county-coordinator grant was pending.
Raines and other staff described ongoing uses of an earmarked county funding allocation to support fuels reduction, chipping events, address-signage distribution for rural properties, public outreach, and seasonal firefighter staffing. The board and staff discussed using some remaining earmark dollars for projects that place “boots on the ground,” including expanded seasonal firefighter staffing and private-property hazard-tree removal, and they discussed coordination with non-profit partners such as Team Rubicon to perform private-property fuels reduction at no cost to the county when the nonprofit has applicable donations.
Supervisors and staff also spent time on communication and community concerns about prescribed burns. Raines acknowledged a recent Nelson Road/Nelson Hill pilot burn conducted with partners and said the county would improve advance notice protocols to supervisors and residents; she said Nixle messages, social media and local media outreach were used and would be strengthened.
No board action was required; the presentation was received and will inform ongoing grant applications, budget planning and outreach work.
What happened next: supervisors asked staff to improve advance notice and coordination for planned burns, to continue pursuit of grants and partnerships for fuels and dead-tree removal, and to pursue multiyear contracts or donated work (e.g., Team Rubicon) where feasible.
