Funded by a $1.355 million grant from the US Forest Service through Cleveland National Forest, and running today.
The Defensible Space Assistance Program helps residents who are physically and financially unable to maintain the state-mandated 100 feet of defensible space, with brush and tree trimming and thinning, raking of dead leaves and vegetation, and chipping of the removed material. Low-income seniors and residents with disabilities are the target group.
A separate no-cost chipping program sends a chipper to the curb within a defined service area, and leaves the chips with the homeowner for use as weed-suppressing mulch.
The question for the District is not whether to fund this. It is whether District residents fall inside the current service area, and if not, what it takes to get them added. This is the fastest available help for exactly the households the vegetation management ordinance is hardest on, and it requires no grant application at all.
Contact 619-562-0096.