Before the Fire: Resilience Meets Innovation

The South Lake County Fire Protection District has worked on projects in our local community that so far have included: Operation Seconds Count, that provides fire extinguishers and smoke/CO2 alarms to those in need, Operation Force Multiplier, that provides wildland fire hand tools and water fire extinguishers to help community members extinguish smaller fires and Operation Help Us Find You, that provided street signs and address signs to a rural community. Without the support, collaboration, leadership and networking from theTeam at After The Fire these local projects would not have gotten the boost to get going. All of these Projects are ongoing. Thank you team After The Fire!

ATF has played a critical role in the establishment of multiple regional wildfire resilience partnerships. These regional collaborations have enabled our organization to engage with other practitioners across the region, which has been important for gaining access to technical expertise and funding for projects. ATF's small grants have provided funding that has allowed us to collaborate with new partners on a professional level, which otherwise would have been handled by community volunteers.

After the Glass Fire burned through our property, it left a lot of dead standing manzanita and trees. The North Bay Forest Improvement Program grant gave us the funds we needed to hire the labor to cut, pile and burn all that vegetation. Now, seven months and 200 burn piles later, the work is done, and we are much better protected from a future wildfire coming from the east.

Working with After the Fire has been a great partnership, without their help there would be no North BayForest Improvement Program. Their fiscal sponsorship provides a means to soften the delay between payments from our funders and invoices provided by partners and landowners, their staff provides expertise in contract and meeting management as well as development of promotional and online resources, and they are able to provide a nexus by which multiple agencies and partners can work to expand the influence of the program.