Free wildfire and land services in El Dorado County, California
31 programs in 11 categories, plus 9 local offices in El Dorado County. Every listing names its source; ring ahead before you rely on one. Every local listing here was checked on or after 31 August 2026.
No county in this directory carries more locally scoped help than El Dorado: eight programmes from its councils and districts, from two free chippings a year per West Slope address to cost shared hazard tree removal near permitted structures and a rolling defensible space assistance fund for seniors, veterans and low income households. Read the eligibility lines closely, because they differ: the hazard tree cost share stops at vacant parcels, while the district forester's free technical assistance exists precisely for raw, undeveloped land. Caldor Fire recovery work, roadside hazard trees included, still runs through the El Dorado and Georgetown Divide conservation district and the county's rebuild pages.
Written from the listings on this page and reviewed by Larry Trimboli on 9 September 2026.
They get a short summary of what El Dorado County has and a link back here. The address or number reaches our contact records, and a text says how to stop. Only send to someone who would want it.
Why Sierra Log & Timber cares about your vacant land
Sierra Log & Timber mills cedar log and timber home packages in Chico, California. A good part of our working week is spent with people who have just bought land, and the same thing happens every time: the grants, the chipping days, the defensible space visits and the permit desks are all real, and all scattered across a dozen county websites that do not link to one another. So we put them in one place and left it open. You do not have to be building a log home to use this, and reading it signs you up for nothing.
The offices behind these listings are in Camino and Placerville. 9 organisations and 8 programmes are recorded locally here. The local work runs to debris removal, defensible space, forest health and 1 more. When somebody asks us to price a package for a parcel in El Dorado County, these are the desks we point them at first. Access, clearing and defensible space all come before anything we mill, and they are cheaper before there is a building in the way.
Building on rural land in El Dorado County
What applies in this county rather than across California, each line with the source it was read from.
Where the building permit comes from
El Dorado County Planning and Building issues building permits here.
The rules that apply across California, the building code the state has adopted, its wildfire construction standard, who issues a permit and whether you may build a house yourself, are on the California page, each with the source it was read from.
Common questions
Does Sierra Log & Timber run any of these programmes?+
No. Every organisation and programme on this page is run by somebody else: a county office, a state agency, a nonprofit, a utility or a tribe. We collect them, check them and publish them, and that is the whole of our part in it. What we do ourselves is mill cedar log and timber home packages in Chico, California.
Is this free to use, and does using it sign me up for anything?+
The directory is free and reading it signs you up for nothing. The two panels below are the only places on this page that ask for an address, both are optional, and they do different jobs: one tells you when this county's listings change, the other tells us that something here is already wrong.
How current are the El Dorado County listings?+
Every organisation here was checked against its own website or an official directory before it was published, and nothing goes on the page without a working way to reach it. That does not stop numbers changing, offices moving or a programme running out of money. When one of those happens, the second panel below is how it gets fixed.
They get a short summary of what El Dorado County has and a link back here. The address or number reaches our contact records, and a text says how to stop. Only send to someone who would want it.
Two free chippings a year per address on the West Slope, up to six hours of chipping each time, for a primary residence. Cut brush gets chipped where it lies instead of being hauled or burned. The grant behind it has switched on and off between funding years, so ring and check before you cut and stack a pile.
Two free services a year per primary residence, renewing on 1 January, six hours per address per visit and no carrying hours over: when the contractor drives off, that visit is finished. Piles have to sit next to a driveway, road or street at the front of the property, all in one place, with the cut ends facing the same way toward the road. Piles left out in a field are not chipped unless you and the contractor have agreed private access, and several small piles scattered about will be turned down. The chipper takes material up to 7 inches thick and will not take rakings, rotten wood or root balls. If you are in the Lake Tahoe Basin this is not your programme; ask Lake Valley Fire Protection District instead.
Who qualifies Requires a primary residence address on the West Slope.
Free to qualifying landowners, from El Dorado County Fire Safe Council
Defensible space assistance for seniors, veterans, low income and disabled residents at their primary home. The application portal opens and pauses with grant cycles and is flagged paused when funds are expended; verify at time of application.
The council sets a second test beyond being a veteran, a senior, on a low income or disabled: you must be unable to do the work yourself, both financially and physically, and it must be your primary home on the Western Slope. One free service a year. The contractor rakes needles and leaves, strims, takes out brush and limbs the ladder fuel off the trees around the house, and can cross onto a neighbour's ground where that ground is within 100 feet of your home. Trees thicker than 7 inches are beyond what they will remove. Bring your proof to the on site evaluation: a DD214 for a veteran, proof of age over 60 for a senior.
Who qualifies Requires a primary residence. Seniors, veterans, low income and disabled homeowners.
Policies effective November 15, 2025 or later can earn up to 12 separate discounts on the wildfire portion of the premium. Details: what to know, how to apply
FreeStatewidefrom California Department of Insurance
Under Insurance Code section 2644.9, effective October 14, 2022, all admitted property insurers that use wildfire risk in pricing must offer premium discounts for 12 specific… Details: what to know, how to apply
A reimbursement programme covering 75 to 90 percent of costs for non industrial private forest landowners; the 90 percent rate applies when the applicant owns less… Details: who qualifies, how to apply
Free, from El Dorado and Georgetown Divide Resource Conservation District
A forester from the district will look at your ground for nothing and talk through thinning, fuel and forest health work, and the same staff will help you put together a CFIP application, which is the state's forestry cost share. Raw undeveloped land counts, so this is available before anything is built.
Free, from El Dorado and Georgetown Divide Resource Conservation District
Roadside hazard tree removal in the Caldor Fire footprint, part of the county's recovery and rebuilding effort. Contact Courtney Jackson.
Most of this project is roadside work on national forest ground, not a service that comes onto private land: dead and dying trees within 200 feet of roads in the Eldorado National Forest, taken out by hand and by machine, in phases as money allows. The part that reaches a private owner is narrower and worth knowing about. The district has asked Grizzly Flats landowners to sign and return a Right of Entry Agreement so that hazardous trees can be removed from their property at no cost.
FreeNationwidefrom USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
Federal help to stabilise a watershed after a disaster, which after a fire means the burn scars, the slipping slopes and the choked channels the fire… Details: what to know, who qualifies
FreeStatewidefrom California State Board of Equalization
Revenue and Taxation Code section 170 calamity relief: after a loss over 10,000 dollars in a county declared calamity, the assessor reappraises to the damaged value… Details: what to know, how to apply
Numbers change and programmes run out of money. Leave an address and it is held against the El Dorado County page so you can be told when a listing here is added, changed or removed. No account.
What is stored is your address and which county page you left it on, and nothing else: no name, no location, nothing about what you read. It is used for that one notification and for nothing else, it appears nowhere on this site, and this site cannot read the list back. Nothing has been sent to any address yet, because the notices are not built; when they are, every message will say how to stop them.
Something on this page is wrong?
Numbers change, offices move and programmes run out of money. If something on this page is wrong, tell us and a person will check it.
Listed on their own website or an official directory. We have not called it.
Free to qualifying landowners, from Georgetown Divide Fire Safe Council
Up to 1,500 dollars toward getting defensible space work done, for households that qualify. This is money against the clearing itself rather than advice about it, which is what matters when the work is more than a household can do on its own.
This is money spent on your behalf rather than a cheque: up to 1,500 dollars of defensible space work carried out by a licensed contractor. The households the council names are low income, senior, disabled or veteran, and it says qualifying, so expect to show which of those applies to you.
A free walk through of your place by a council volunteer, covering both halves of the problem at once: what to change on the building so embers cannot get in, and what to clear in the space around it. It is the sensible first step, because it tells you which of the council's other programmes you actually need.
Financial and technical cost share for conservation practices on cropland, rangeland and private non industrial forestland. Details: who qualifies, how to apply
FreeNationwidefrom Federal Emergency Management Agency
Individual Assistance, disaster case management and Hazard Mitigation Assistance after a federal disaster declaration; preparedness guides at ready.gov. Details: what to know, who qualifies, how to apply
FreeStatewidefrom California Public Utilities Commission
Self Generation Incentive Program battery incentives: the Equity budget at 850 dollars per kWh and the Equity Resiliency budget at 1,000 dollars per kWh, which can… Details: what to know, who qualifies, how to apply
Home repair loans to around 40,000 dollars, and grants to around 10,000 dollars for owners 62 and over, to remove health and safety hazards in eligible… Details: what to know
Technical help for private forest landowners and the Forest Stewardship programme, delivered in California through the CAL FIRE partnership. Details: what to know
Free technical advice on forest health, tree mortality and CFIP applications from regional CAL FIRE Forestry Assistance Specialists. Details: what to know, how to apply
Cost share, from El Dorado County Fire Safe Council
Cost share hazard tree removal within 100 feet of a permitted structure.
Who qualifies Within 100 feet of a permitted structure. The Good Neighbor Policy is explicitly not for clearing vacant parcels, except under the county Vegetation Management Ordinance.
Free to qualifying landowners, from Georgetown Divide Fire Safe Council
Free for qualifying low income households; a 25 percent cost share for others, up to 4,000 dollars a job.
What the council will take out is dead or dying trees within 100 feet of a building, so a dangerous tree at the far end of the property is outside it. It is free if your household qualifies as low income. Everybody else pays a quarter of the cost, and the council caps a job at 4,000 dollars, which means your share on a full sized job is around a thousand.
Who qualifies Free for qualifying low income households; a 25 percent cost share applies otherwise.
Listed on their own website or an official directory. We have not called it.
Nationwide
from United Policyholders
Free guidance on insurance claims, contractors, rebuilding and avoiding scams: the little yellow book, the Ask an Expert forum, and in person and Zoom clinics in… Details: what to know
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