Defueling the Fire: Piloting a Resilience Fund for Weber River Watershed Communities
Summit County, Utah is piloting a Resilience Fund (RF) with key partners that pools funding commitments from local public and private entities to leverage state and federal funds for watershed health and wildfire resilience on USFS, state, and private lands. The RF will raise upfront capital required to meet high initial forest restoration costs and provide consistent funding to support fuel reduction re-entry work to maintain fire-resilient communities over the next 20 years. The RF will overcome traditional siloed land management budgets and enable more efficient capital deployment across a variety of land ownerships. Our work will be scientifically guided by recommendations from the U.S. Forest Service and a research team from Utah State University. The Fund will be designed to support short and long-term forest restoration in the Weber River watershed with an eye towards expansion to safeguard other watersheds and landscapes in the County. The partners are creating a Coalition for long-term cross jurisdictional planning, coordination, and public engagement, and current members include Summit County, Weber Basin Water Conservancy District, and Mountain Regional Water Special Service District.
