The El Paso County Board of County Commissioners has approved two grants to assist with preventing wildfires.The department of transportation received the Colorado State Forest Service Woodland Park District Fire Mitigation Grant, totaling $6,000. It will be used to thin trees in the county’s right-of-way within the Black Forest Fire District. Two seasonal employees will be hired to assist the department’s tree thinning crew. Community participants are working on a wildfire protection plan for the Black Forest Fire District; the plan identifies a need for fire breaks, which the thinning will provide.A $10,000 grant was awarded to the El Paso County Environmental Services Department from Homeland Security through the Colorado Division of Emergency Management. This money will be used to develop fuel hazard maps for unincorporated El Paso County, which is the first step toward developing a county-wide wildlife protection plan. The Healthy Forest Act requires communities to develop a plan to be eligible for federal forest mitigation grants.
