Wildfire Hazard Planning & Mitigation Assistance
TSS offers clients wildfire hazard planning and mitigation services. Collectively our multi-disciplinary team has over 120 years of experience delivering value to clients. Our primary goal is to help organizations build institutional capability to prepare high quality project descriptions, vet them, get them funded, and implemented.
Project Identification
The identification of specific projects is often the most difficult step in addressing wildfire hazard mitigation needs. Working in close cooperation with client personnel and collaborating experts the TSS team will assist with:
- Identifying and collecting the background information needed to support a rational and robust project identification process;
- Preparing project descriptions that are suitable throughout the entire project development and implementation process;
- Conduct feasibility review for single projects or, where there are several potential projects, determine action priorities.
- Optimize project location based on fire history, vegetation, terrain and assets at risk.
Grant Requests
In the aggregate our team has over 100 years of experiencing in preparing grant requests, organizing match-funding efforts, securing letters of support, coordinating the post-submission process, and implementing funded projects. Statistics have shown that large sums of money are being “left on the table” with one cause being poor quality grant applications. With the TSS team’s in-depth “start-to-finish” experience we can assist our clients in the development of a strong grant preparation process and to produce high quality highly competitive applications/proposals.
Collaboration Programs
Building a broad and sustainable collaborative program is critical to all phases of wildfire planning and mitigation projects. TSS project personnel have in-depth experience with establishing collaborative networks, both technical and community based. Establishing these networks will result in:
- Robust project descriptions;
- Match funding availability;
- Highly competitive grant applications;
- A firm basis for providing ongoing operational funds (indirect costs), and;
- Continuing support through implementation.
Community Outreach
Outreach to the community is a key tenant of a successful fuels mitigation project, especially in the wildland urban interface. TSS has significant experience creating and implementing communication plans that target audiences (community, media, regulatory agencies) in order to effectively deliver key messages using proven communication delivery tools (press alerts, community workshops, websites, social media). Community buy-in is critical to successful deployment and long-term maintenance of fuel mitigation projects.
Regulatory Compliance
TSS personnel have in-depth experience with CEQA, NEPA, combined CEQA/NEPA documents, CAL FIRE’s requirements under California’s Forest Practice Act, and the requirements of local, state and federal agencies. TSS principals have produced a multitude of exemptions, initial studies (IS), Negative Declarations (NegDec), mitigated negative declarations (MND) and discipline-specific sub-studies in support of EIR/EIS reports. TSS can also prepare any environmental permit applications necessary and then assist in compliance activities associated with those permits.
Project Conception & Implementation
TSS staff can assist with the practical actions that need to be taken to plan, fund, and implement projects. We can help with recruiting qualified contractors (deployment of the right equipment matched to vegetation type and topography) you need, complete pre-operational preparation, contractor selection (managing the RFP process) training, field oversight, and performance reporting.