FEMA Environmental Assessment- Draft
Posted Tuesday August 29, 2023
The Town of Paradise (Paradise) applied to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) through the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) for four wildfire hazard mitigation grants under FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP). Cal OES is the direct applicant for the grants, and Paradise is the sub-applicant. The HMGP is authorized under Section 404 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act. FEMA’s HGMP provides funds to eligible state and local governments, federally recognized tribal governments, and nonprofit organizations to help implement long-term hazard mitigation measures after a presidential major disaster declaration. The HMGP funds were made available during DR-4407-CA disaster declaration made by FEMA in 2018 in response to a series of devastating wildfires in California.
Paradise is proposing to conduct all four wildfire mitigation projects throughout the town limits. This EA considers and analyzes each project individually as four separate alternatives proposed by Paradise, which include:
• Alternative 1 – refining building codes and standards, improving awareness about defensible space requirements, and code enforcement (HMGP 4407-511-89)
• Alternative 2 – providing incentives for homeowners to apply ignition-resistant materials to existing houses and create defensible space (HMGP 4407-189-058)
• Alternative 3 – reducing hazardous fuels along town rights-of-way (HMGP 4407-255-060)
• Alternative 4 – removing hazardous burnt, standing or downed trees on private property left from the 2018 Camp Fire (HMGP 4407-305-057)
Paradise intends to implement all four alternatives and, collectively, the four alternatives are referred to as the action alternatives. The action alternatives would be within the wildland-urban interface (WUI), an area where homes and forests intermingle, which encompasses the entire town.
For the full draft of the Environmental Assessments please see the supporting document.
