The purpose of the good neighbor authority agreement is to fund hazardous fuels reduction and maintenance projects from 2024-2028 in the alaskan community of huslia

The U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management awarded a Cooperative Agreement grant totaling $445,142 to the Huslia Tribal Council under the Good Neighbor Authority (CFDA 15.015) program. The purpose of this 5-year grant, running from August 2024 to August 2029, is to fund hazardous fuels reduction and maintenance projects in the Alaskan community of Huslia. The Huslia Tribal Council will use the grant funds to hire local and qualified workers to create and maintain fire breaks and defensible space around critical infrastructure, community buildings, and homes. This work will help make the community more resilient to the threat of wildland fire, which poses a direct threat to the remote, fire-dependent ecosystem of Interior Alaska. Additionally, the grant will address the risk of landfill fires escaping into the surrounding wildlands by clearing vegetation around the landfill.

The huslia tribal council will be the beneficiaries of this award and will use funds to hire qualified local workers and or other qualified workers to accomplish fuels reduction maintenance projects to make the community more resilient to the threat of wildland fire. Interior alaska is a fire dependent ecosystem. Due to forest structure, age, fire suppression activities and remoteness from wildland fire suppression resources fire poses a direct threat to the community of huslia. By creating and maintaining fire breaks and defensible space around critical infrastructure, community buildings, and homes following firewise methodology the community will be more resilient to the threat of wildland fire. This will provide a strategic operational advantage for fire management personnel and most importantly provide for the safety of community members and first responders. In addition, burning in the communitys landfill has caused several fires toescape into the wildlands in past years. Landfill fires pose not only a threat to the community, but they are also difficult to manage due to exposure of first responders to the burning of non-organic material. By cutting grass and brush around the landfill this will reduce wildland firepropagation