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Kern Fire Safe Council says county coordinator program has brought roughly $3 million in mitigation funding; SB 973 would codify the role
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Summary
Wendy Ward of the Kern Fire Safe Council told supervisors the county wildfire coordinator program has attracted about $3 million for mitigation projects and urged continued county support; staff noted Senate Bill 973 would codify and expand the program without requiring new appropriations this year.
The Kern Fire Safe Council told the Board of Supervisors that a county wildfire coordinator program has brought roughly $3,000,000 in mitigation funding and has supported community-based wildfire-resilience projects across Kern County.
Wendy Ward, the Kern County wildfire mitigation coordinator, described program activities including Firewise USA community certifications, home ignition assessments, interagency mapping and a full rewrite and digitization of the County Community Wildfire Protection Plan. "Since 2023... the county coordinator program has brought approximately $3,000,000 in wildfire mitigation funding services and support to Kern County," Ward said.
Ward also highlighted partnerships with the Kern County Fire Department, U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management and noted the program’s work in creating community defense zones and supporting post-fire recovery (the Burrell fire was cited as a recent example where community mitigation mattered).
She briefed the board on Senate Bill 973, recently introduced at the state level, which Ward said would codify and expand the county coordinator program by pairing standardized state-led risk assessments with locally delivered implementation capacity. Ward said SB 973 is designed to strengthen coordination across agencies and requires no appropriations this year because the program is already funded through 2027.
What happens next: supervisors thanked Ward and suggested the CEO and fire department review SB 973 and bring back options for how the county can align with the bill’s provisions.
