Wiyot Tribe

Funded by Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), the purpose of the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) grant is to remove natural fuels and to maintain a defensible space around Tribal residential developments.  The majority of the hazardous fuels removal is concentrated around the Tribal homes and structures usually amounting to 15-55 acres of tribal trust land.

The potential for a wildfire to occur at and around Table Bluff Reservation (TBR) with the potential to cause damage to life and property is very high.  The area has a large fuel loading of natural vegetation, which consists mainly of heavy concentrations of annual and perennial grasses.  This vegetation becomes very dry and extremely flammable during the summer and early to mid-fall, and poses a serious risk to the homes and other structures on the Reservation.  Large fields of grass surround all of the housing areas and in combination with the near-constant winds that blow over the bluff, the potential of a fire in this wildland urban interface environment increases substantially.

Recent fire history on the Reservation have included one five acre fire that occurred adjacent to the Reservation (1996) which was extinguished by the Loleta Volunteer Fire Department within ten feet of the Reservation boundary and fifty feet from the nearest house.  Another five acre fire occurred in the pasturelands on the Reservation (2008), nearly thirty feet from the nearest tribal home and ten feet from neighboring pasturelands before being extinguished by the Loleta Volunteer Fire Department and the California Department of Forestry (CDF).