Free wildfire and land services in Plumas County, California
30 programs in 10 categories, plus 6 local offices in Plumas 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.
Plumas carries the deepest fire recovery bench in the directory: the Emergency Forest Restoration Team gives private non industrial landowners in the North Complex, Dixie and Beckwourth footprints registered forester evaluations, hazard tree removal and replanting at no cost, and ReCoverCA adds retrofit and reconstruction grants in the disaster area. The conservation district co runs an underburn cooperative and offers free technical help on raw land. One programme deserves a phone call before you plan around it: county wide chipping is at risk for 2026 after a grant went elsewhere, and the council is hunting for replacement funding.
Written from the listings on this page and reviewed by Larry Trimboli on 9 September 2026.
They get a short summary of what Plumas 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 Susanville and Quincy. 6 organisations and 7 programmes are recorded locally here. The local work runs to forest health, chipping, defensible space and 2 more. When somebody asks us to price a package for a parcel in Plumas 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 Plumas 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
Plumas County Building Department 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 Plumas 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 Plumas 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.
County wide chipping. At risk for 2026: the council was not selected for a PG&E grant and is seeking alternate funding.
This is no longer simply free. The council asks a suggested contribution of 150 dollars from each qualifying resident to keep the service going, and says no cost help may be available if paying that would be a hardship, which is a conversation to have with the chipping manager rather than a box to tick. There must be a building on the parcel, places are first come first served in the week scheduled for your community, and the way in needs to take a pickup towing a 15 foot chipper. Piles: 16 feet long by 4 feet high, pieces 3 to 12 feet long and no thicker than 8 inches, natural wood only, cut ends toward the street, on level ground or the uphill side of the road, and away from drainages. Do not stack it inside your own defensible space, because if the crew is delayed you have built a fuel pile next to the house. Very small piles may not be worth a visit, so aim for at least 4 feet by 3 by 3. You will need clear current photographs of the finished pile to complete the application.
A free home visit worked out for your particular property: somebody comes out, walks the house and the ground around it with you, and leaves you with a list of what to change to make the place safer in a fire.
Nobody is inspecting you. The council states that it does not carry out enforcement or inspections for any government agency, and the visit is done by its own trained staff and by volunteers who live in the county. The assessor walks the outside of the house with you if you are able to come along, and does not need to come indoors, looking at the roof, eaves, gutters, siding, windows, doors, planting, trees and how the place sits in its ground. Afterwards you get private access to a report written for your property. It costs nothing, and the council is typically booking about a month ahead.
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
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 Feather River Resource Conservation District
Free to private non industrial landowners affected by the 2020 and 2021 wildfires, the North Complex, Dixie and Beckwourth: RPF site evaluations, dead and hazard tree removal, reforestation and release treatments, grant funded at no cost.
The district frames this as Plumas County work: non industrial private forest owners hit by the North Complex and Beckwourth fires. CAL FIRE and USDA State and Private Forestry pay for it. If your burned land sits outside Plumas County, check with the district before you fill in the form.
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 Plumas 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.
Free to qualifying landowners, from Plumas County Fire Safe Council
Defensible space assistance for senior and disabled residents of Plumas County, free to those who qualify. Where the council's home visit tells you what needs clearing, this is the programme that helps get the clearing done.
The hands on part of this has stopped for now. The council says the funding to send people out and do the clearing is no longer there, and it is looking for more. What it says it will still do costs nothing and is worth asking for: a fire safe home visit, help understanding the home ignition zone and what the state defensible space law asks of you including the new zone nearest the walls, wildfire preparedness advice, and a list of local contractors where it has one. If the money returns, the council says priority goes back to primary residences and to households on moderate or below moderate incomes, which is the same test the programme has used for people 65 and over or living with a disability.
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
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
Who qualifies Private non industrial landowners in the North Complex, Dixie and Beckwourth fire footprints.
How to apply Landowner Assistance Form at frrcd.org.
Free, from Feather River Resource Conservation District
Free technical assistance for fire recovery, erosion, fuels reduction, timber stand improvement and CFIP application help.
Its wider work covers erosion control, riparian restoration, native vegetation, soil health and carbon farming, and it helps community members use prescribed fire as a management tool on private property. The district boundary runs to about 2,259 square miles, so check your land falls inside it before ringing (530) 927-5299.
Who qualifies Serves raw, undeveloped land.
How to apply Landowner Assistance Form at frrcd.org.
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
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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