Paradise was the site of the 2018 Camp Fire, one of the deadliest and most damaging fires in California's history. The fire incinerated the town in a matter of hours, taking the lives of 85 people and displacing thousands. This project will address the need for housing and environmental recovery work in Butte County, and contribute to the mitigation efforts necessary to improve community resilience. An added training component will help build our network of trained sawyers.
Recovery has been extremely slow for the communities affected by the Camp Fire, most notably because of significant permitting delays and a statewide shortage of contractors. Since the fire, only about 3% of destroyed homes have been rebuilt. Additionally, the poverty rate in Butte county is very high making the expensive and labor-intensive rebuild process unfeasible for many families to complete without further assistance.
Our pilot program delivers a unique volunteer labor force to Butte county which will accelerate local recovery and mitigation efforts which have been ongoing for over two years. We are partnering with local groups to perform the following activities: removal of hazardous trees in public spaces and to prep home sites for rebuilding, interior home construction, forest management, and fuel break expansion.
Not only will our efforts bring normalcy back to the lives of the homeowners we help, we will also be contributing to the community's own mitigation plan, a fuel break around the town which can significantly reduce the damage from a future fire. And, our built in chainsaw training program will help us create a robust network of trained sawyers that can help us deploy more quickly to more places that need help in the future.
