MENDOCINO CO., 3/1/25 — One of the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council (MCFSC)’s proudest accomplishments is its micro-grant program, which takes community needs and expertise, mixed with a helping of local volunteer power, and leavens it with small grant funding support to produce inspirational, well-baked, community-safety enhancements throughout the county.
In just three years, MCFSC’s micro-grants have helped dozens of communities become more defensible from wildfire. The window to apply for funding in this fourth year of the program is just around the corner. From March 1–31, local fire departments, Neighborhood Fire Safe councils and Firewise communities can request up to $12,500 for projects they think will be the right fit for their needs.
The program started in 2022 with $50,000 that the Fire Safe council awarded to 11 local organizations. In 2023, the PG&E Corporation Foundation contributed $50,000 in matching funds, which allowed the total award to increase to $104,000. To date, MCFSC has awarded a total of $287,000 for water tanks, wildfire-safety home assessments, reflective signs, and much more. The PG&E Corporation Foundation continues to provide $50,000 each year, and the funds are supplemented by tax revenue from Measure P, a ten-year quarter-cent sales tax that voters approved in 2022.
MCFSC’s Outreach Coordinator Eva King says, “We’ve been able to fund 45 different grantees” since then, including 19 local fire departments and 26 Neighborhood Fire Safe Councils.” The county contains over 70 such fire safe councils, with needs as unique as their neighborhoods and the people who live in them.
There are some common denominators among settlements in heavily wooded areas, which are often located a long distance from a fire department, along narrow, winding roads with more than a few potholes. King says that some examples of past projects included developing emergency water sources and communications systems for areas where cell phone service is spotty under the best conditions.
“We’ve also funded prescribed-burn initiatives and home-hardening and defensible-space assessments,” she recalls. “We’ve done bulk-ordering of reflective address signs; we helped purchase a fire engine. So you can really get very creative with these grants—they’re meant to support communities in whatever they think is best.” Reflective address signs may seem like a minor detail, but they can make the difference between first responders passing an unseen address in the turmoil of an emergency or knowing how to find their way to where help is needed.
For more information about how to apply for micro-grants, contact Eva King at king@firesafemendocino.org. Applications and guidelines are now available on the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council’s website at firesafemendocino.org/micro-grants.