A federal program to support nearly $50 million in wildfire mitigation and home-hardening projects in the unincorporated community of Brooktrails in Mendocino County was canceled by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the county said this week.

In 2018, FEMA created the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, or BRIC, in response to major natural disasters, including the 2017 wildfires in Northern California. The program sought to help communities across the country be better prepared for natural disasters. The grant has funded projects including infrastructure upgrades for bridges and levees, undergrounding power lines and home-hardening and wildfire preparedness projects.

In 2021, Congress allocated $1 billion to fund projects over the course of several years, FEMA said.

Mendocino County was one of the grant recipients for the program, said Mendocino County Supervisor John Haschak.

In 2024, the county was awarded a multi-year grant totaling almost $50 million to retrofit 750 homes with ignition-resistant construction materials and build defensible spaces and reduce fuels on thousands of acres in the Brooktrails community north of Willits.

According to the county, Brooktrails is the largest residential development in Mendocino County, with approximately 6,000 parcels and a population of over 3,300 residents.

The area fell victim to 2020’s Oak Fire, which started in Brooktrails. The fire destroyed 56 structures and burned over 1,100 acres before being contained. The wildfire resulted in the evacuation of over 3,200 people, Cal Fire said.

Brooktrails comprises homes interspersed with dense forests. There is only one main two-lane road, Sherwood Road, that connects it with the city of Willits. Limited road access and a dense wildland-urban interface make Brooktrails one of California’s most high-risk wildfire communities, Haschak said.

‘Wasteful and ineffective’

On April 4, FEMA issued a news release announcing the cancellation of the BRIC program.

“The BRIC program was yet another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program. It was more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans affected by natural disasters,” a FEMA spokesperson said.

The announcement came as President Donald Trump’s administration continues to divest itself of what it alleges is “waste, fraud and abuse” in the government.

Days later, on April 21, the county received an update from FEMA stating that the program was canceled and approved grants would not be awarded.

The grant funds were expected to not only improve wildfire risk condition in Brooktrails but also be used to invest millions in the local economy to implement the projects, Haschak said.

For now, the county will continue to work with the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council, a nonprofit that implements wildfire mitigation and education programs, to help with select projects, including vegetation management and a program to expand the county’s emergency alert system.