Utah Department Of Natural Resources

The Utah Department of Natural Resources Division of Forestry, Fire, & State Lands, doing business as Division of Forestry, is a state government entity that acts as a recipient of federal grants for forest management, wildfire mitigation, and conservation services delivered across Utah's non-federal forest, range, and watershed lands. The Division operates as Utah's lead state agency for forest stewardship and fire management, delivering technical and financial assistance to private forest owners, local governments, tribal organizations, and rural fire departments across approximately 15 million acres of non-federal lands statewide.

The Division's federal grant portfolio concentrates entirely with the Department of Agriculture Forest Service, which accounts for 95% of the 186 awards in the source data. The Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Research Station is the dominant grantor, issuing 97 awards covering forest stewardship, forest health, urban and community forestry, wildfire mitigation, and conservation easement acquisition. The remaining Forest Service awards come through the Intermountain Region and national office. The Division also holds three awards from the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management and three from the Bureau of Indian Affairs Navajo Region. Recent activity runs to August 2026, with nine awards issued year-to-date through that date and fourteen each in 2023 and 2025. Four awards reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months.

Grant work spans multiple USDA Forest Service programs. Representative examples include a $4.774 million Cooperative Forestry Assistance award (CFDA 10.664) issued August 24, 2026, funding forest stewardship, forest health management, urban and community forestry, and state fire assistance through June 30, 2031; a $444,444 State & Private Forestry Cooperative Fire Assistance award (CFDA 10.698) issued August 21, 2026, supporting community wildfire risk reduction activities aligned with the National Cohesive Strategy; a $1.306 million Cooperative Forestry Assistance award issued July 13, 2026, continuing Utah's State Forest Action Plan and supporting shared stewardship partnerships signed with the Forest Service in January 2026; and a $600,000 State & Private Forestry Hazardous Fuel Reduction Program award (CFDA 10.697) issued June 25, 2026, addressing hazardous fuel reduction on non-federal lands near National Forest System lands in wildfire-prone communities. The Division also receives Inflation Reduction Act funding under the Forest Legacy Program (CFDA 10.734) for conservation easement acquisition and land purchases protecting threatened forest areas — a $2 million award issued January 13, 2025, for the Zion Clear Creek Canyon area and a $1.667 million award for the Zion Cave Canyon area exemplify this work. Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Community Wildfire Defense Grants (CFDA 10.720) fund community wildfire protection plans and defensible-space projects; a $5.216 million award issued September 9, 2024, supports the Moab Valley Fire Hazard Reduction Project. The Division acts as recipient on all prime awards and serves as a sub-recipient on one award from the Bureau of Land Management Foundation dated May 18, 2026, supporting recreation amenities at the Five-Mile Pass OHV staging area.

Combined potential value across all 186 awards reads as $78 thousand, a placeholder figure indicating the source does not carry meaningful dollar ceilings for the award set. However, combined dollars obligated across all awards total $243.7 million, reflecting actual federal investment in the Division's programs. The Division competes as a state government entity under no SBA set-aside category. Performance of all work occurs in Utah on non-federal lands, with cooperative work extending to federal National Forest System and Bureau of Land Management lands through shared stewardship agreements. No federal contract prime awards appear in the source; the Division's federal footprint is entirely grant-funded.