UPDATE: The Fire Safe Council did not get funding for this program for 2014. Check back in January 2015 to see if there is funding available.
The Mendocino Fire Safe Council administers a program to help landowners pay to have brush and trees removed by chipping. The landowners are responsible for cutting the fuel and stacking it near a road for the chipping crew who quickly converts large quantities to mulch which it sprays back onto the land. This reduces the fuel available to fires and helps prevent hot fires that spread rapidly and climb up the brush into the trees and burn everything in its path. Reducing fuels along roads and driveways allows safer ingress for fire trucks and safer egress for residents in an evacuation. Clearing around structures increases their chances of survival during wildfire.
Here's how the program works:
Mendocino Fire Safe Council documents about this program: