The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors has awarded a $500,000 grant from PG&E to fund a wildfire resiliency training program at Santa Rosa Junior College.
The grant will fund the adult education program for three years to train 300 students each year beginning this fall.
College officials said the program will combine rigorous college coursework with hands-on training in a variety of wildfire resilience practices, including prescribed grazing, forest fuel reduction, fire-resilient landscaping, defensible space and post-fire mitigation and restoration.
“SRJC is honored to partner with the County of Sonoma to train a local workforce to mitigate the risk of future catastrophic wildfires and ensure that the generational investment in wildfire resiliency creates and sustains family-supporting jobs in our community,” said Benjamin Goldstein, dean of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
For more information on the college’s Wildfire Resiliency program, email Benjamin Goldstein at bgoldstein@santarosa.edu.