I read with great interest the March 25 article by Mr. Budrick and Mr. Hosseini regarding the USDA Rural Development Program funds allocated to Amador County last fiscal year ("Amador shares USDA money"). I found the article informative and, for the most part, accurate. However, crediting the Central Sierra Resource Conservation and Development Council with the Ramshorn/Shakeridge Fuel Reduction project was incorrect. The CSRC&D had nothing to do with this project. The project was conceived and conducted by the Amador Fire Safe Council.
The AFSC is a non-profit corporation. Its mission is to protect Amador County residents and natural resources from wildfire. Last fiscal year, the council completed $600,000 worth of fuel modification projects, which included the Ramshorn/Shakeridge project. This current fiscal year, the council has more than $700,000 in projects and has just received notification of additional grants totaling more than $200,000 starting in 2009. The council will submit grant applications for another $300,000 of fuel reduction projects before the end of this calendar year.
These projects are conducted by one very busy paid executive director, Cathy Koos Breazeal, and an all-volunteer board of directors. Along the way, we use technical advisors from CalFire, the Bureau of Land Management, United States Forest Service, the Amador County Board of Supervisors, Amador Air District and yes, on occasion, the CSRC&D.
The new grants awarded to the council include a senior defensible space grant to assist qualifying seniors to bring their homes into compliance with the state's defensible space laws. This grant continues an existing senior defensible space grant, which, at completion in August, will have cleared flammable vegetation from around 140 seniors' homes.
The council also received a grant to provide a chipper and manpower to assist residents to meet the defensible space requirements. Finally, the council received a small grant to develop a senior fuel wood program to assist low income seniors with their winter heating needs. This program will be coordinated through the Amador Senior Center.
The council is very proud of its service to the residents of Amador County. The projects I described above are not the sum of the council's efforts, but rather a glimpse at the last two years of the council's six-year existence and a small peek at the next fiscal year's projects. The public is always welcome at the council's monthly meetings the third Wednesday of the month at 3 p.m. in the conference room at the county agriculture building on Airport Road.
Thank you for the opportunity to correct the record.
Jim Simmons is the former chairperson of the Amador Fire Safe Council.