Federal Cooperative Agreement Summary

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) awarded $365,000 through its Fuels Management and Community Fire Assistance Program (CFDA 15.228) to The Watershed Research and Training Center on September 21, 2025, for a five-year initiative to strengthen wildfire adaptation capacity across Utah. In partnership with Utah State University as a subrecipient, the project will deliver comprehensive community-based wildfire practitioner support through targeted training, peer networking, strategic planning, and in-depth community wildfire assessments. Key deliverables include a statewide needs assessment and kickoff practitioner workshop, 5-8 community wildfire assessments with associated pilot project funding, bimonthly practitioner networking calls, one-on-one strategy coaching, two rounds of microgrants for local mitigation projects, and two virtual learning events culminating in a final statewide event.

The initiative leverages proven practitioner support models and a comprehensive community wildfire assessment technique piloted in Arizona to support both existing wildfire mitigation efforts and new pilot projects across Utah. Additional outputs include one white paper documenting statewide assessment results, five case studies sharing project lessons learned, specialized training workshops on the FAC Pathways framework and home ignition zone assessments, and ongoing partnerships with state agencies including the Utah Department of Natural Resources Forestry, Fire and State Lands Division. The project concludes by September 20, 2030, with sustained engagement with community practitioners and strategic identification of long-term approaches for maintaining fire-adapted communities throughout Utah.