Our Mission:

The Greater Eastern Jemez Wildland Urban Interface Corporation (GEJWUIC) would like to invite you to participate in a regional effort to reduce fuel loading on private property in the Jemez Mountains. The GEJWUIC is a non-profit tax exempt organization that is beginning a process to help landowners implement the Firewise program along the upper Jemez corridor. Firewise is sponsored by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group whose members are responsible for wildland fire management in the United States.  GEJWUIC is currently directing a Federal grant administered by the State of New Mexico, State Forestry Division to assist individual property owners by creating defensible space around residences and by thinning over-stocked lots in the Northern Jemez Corridor (Areas 1, 2, and 3), La Cueva area, Thompson Ridge, Seven Springs, Sierra Los Pinos area and Cochiti Mesa. Any property owner within the Focus Area of this grant, North of Soda Dam and South of the Sandoval/Los Alamos along State Highway 4 and East of the Fish Hatchery along State Highway 126 is eligible to apply for assistance in addressing the problems of excessive fuel loading on private property in the Greater Eastern Jemez Corridor.

Projects will be selected by evaluating and prioritizing of the following criteria: promptness in submitting the application (as measure by the postmark date), projects that provide for defensible space of a primary residence (whether their own or a neighbor's), projects requesting less than 10 acres treatment, projects in which one or more homeowners on contiguous and/or adjoining properties agree to participate to provide defensible space, projects that would provide better access/egress for firefighters and equipment, projects that would contribute to a safer evacuation route for residents, and/or those demonstration projects in visible locations.

The projects of successful applicants who agree to create defensible space as defined by the NM State Forestry Division and Firewise standards will be thinned of excess trees and fuels to a residual basal area, for the remaining stand of trees, of an average 60 sq. ft. of basal area per acre. While there is flexibility in selecting which individual trees that remain after thinning and which are removed, and whether you wish to keep any resulting firewood, your finial acceptance of the thinning standards is fundamental to whether this grant may be successfully applied to your property.  At this time, this grant will provide 70% of the funding for the thinning of private property, while the property owner is only responsible for 30% of the cost share.

If this sounds of value to you, please read more details on our "Application" page.

If you want to know more about other Firewise initiatives and recommendations, look on the web at www.Firewise.org. Thanks for your interest in reducing fuel loads!! This program can make our homes safer and our forests healthier.
 

Jan Studebaker Webmaster                              Website Design by Jemez Web Factory