Washington State Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz paid a visit to a north Spokane community Tuesday.
The visit was to promote a program that will help rural residents make sure their homes and property are better protected from fire.
The “Wildfire Ready Neighbors” program was launched last year as a pilot program to help people evaluate the fire risk on their rural properties.
Department of Natural Resources Secretary Hilary Franz says 600 people in Spokane County have already signed on. Now, with the passage of a bill to fund firefighting and forest health, there is money available for homeowners to take real steps to protect their property.
“It sometimes costs money to remove those older dead and dying diseased trees, so we help reduce the costs for those homeowners, to be able to do that work, to get people in who can take down those diseased and dying trees to protect the property," she said.
Anyone can sign up for the program, which starts with having a fire expert take a tour of your property and using a checklist to determine where work will need to be done to protect it from the spread of wildfire.
The actual work done to take out problem trees and create defensible space can be funded through a cost share program.
For more details, look for theWildfire Ready program.