MISSOULA, MONTANA MARCH 21, 2023 — Department of Agriculture Secretary Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service is investing nearly 9.5 million dollars in wildfire protection projects across the North Western Region of the United States including Montanan, Idaho, and North Dakota as part of the Community Wildfire Defense Grant (CWDG) program. The CWDG program is designed to assist communities, including Tribal communities, non-profit organizations, state forestry agencies and Alaska Native corporations with planning for and mitigating wildfire risks on tribal, state, and privately managed land.
This initial round of investments will assist communities in developing Community Wildfire Protection Plans, key roadmaps for addressing wildfire risks locally, as well as fund immediate actions to lower the risk of wildfire on non-federal land for communities where a Community Wildfire Protection Plan is already in place.
