California is Over Halfway to 30 x 30 Goal
California is Over Halfway to 30 x 30 Goal
September 27, 2026 – The California Natural Resources Agency published a report documenting the State’s progress toward its goal of conserving 30% of lands and coastal waters by 2030 (30×30). According to the report, California is past the halfway mark to 30×30, having conserved more than 3.5 million acres of lands and coastal waters since 2022. More than 1 million acres of land were added to the 30×30 database in the past year, bringing the state to 27.1% of lands conserved and 21.9% of coastal waters conserved.
CAL FIRE Announces $10M in Grants to Strengthen California's Forest Workforce
CAL FIRE Announces $10M in Grants to Strengthen California's Forest Workforce
September 22, 2026 – CAL FIRE announced the award of $10 million to 17 Business and Workflow Development grants, supporting innovative solutions that advance forest health, wildfire resilience, and rural economic development. Together, these 17 projects will train hundreds of workers, create new career pathways, expand the capacity to conduct forest restoration and wildfire risk reduction, and strengthen markets for wood and biomass generated through forest management.
CAL FIRE Highlights Achievements from a Five-Year, $1 Billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund Investment
CAL FIRE Highlights Achievements from a Five-Year, $1 Billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund Investment
September 24, 2026 – CAL FIRE published a report that highlights the outcomes of the state’s $1 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund investment in wildfire prevention and forest health efforts statewide. The investments funded more than 660 grants through various CAL FIRE programs. Implemented in 56 of California’s 58 counties, the projects had positive impacts, with individual projects contributing to community protection during wildfires, influencing wildfire behavior, strengthening a culture of preparedness, helping communities reduce risk and protect homes, improving the chances of success for residents and firefighters when wildfire strike.
California Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Allocates $448M for Wildfire Resilience Programs
California Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Allocates $448M for Wildfire Resilience Programs
September 2026 – California’s FY 2026-2027 spending plan was passed by the Legislature on September 1 in Assembly Bill 113 and signed by the Governor on September 18. The budget allocates $329.5 million from Proposition 4 and $118 million from GGRF. Prop 4, passed by voters in 2025, is a $10 billion general obligation bond funding climate resilience and natural resource management programs, including $1.5 billion for wildfire and forest resilience. After the enactment of AB 113, approximately $929.5 million of the $1.5 billion total for wildfire resilience will have been appropriated, or roughly 61%.
Governor Newsom Signs Landmark Package of Wildfire Bills
Governor Newsom Signs Landmark Package of Wildfire Bills
September 2026 – The 2026 legislative session resulted in a package of new laws designed to significantly strengthen California’s ability to prevent, prepare for, and respond to wildfire. Signed by Governor Gavin Newsom in September, these measures advance several Task Force priorities, including landscape-scale wildfire mitigation, beneficial fire, community and home hardening, regional coordination, innovation, financing, and more efficient implementation of wildfire resilience projects. Together, these measures provide new authorities and tools that can help California increase the pace and scale of wildfire resilience investments while strengthening the connection between statewide policy, regional planning, and community-level implementation.
- AB 706 (Aguiar-Curry) Forest Organic Residue, Energy, and Safety Transformation and Wildfire Prevention Fund Act: Establishes the Forest Organic Residue Energy and Safety Transformation (FOREST) and Wildfire Prevention Fund to maintain and expand biomass power generation in the state, to revitalize idle facilities for biomass power generation, and to support biomass power generation facilities by creating additional capacity for power generation or feedstock utilization in strategically located regions of the state.
- AB 1699 (Rogers) Good Fire Act: Indefinitely extends the Prescribed Fire Liability Program, the pilot program which is currently active only until January 1, 2028. Expands the use of prescribed fire and cultural burning as wildfire resilience and ecosystem management tools; extends burn bosses’ certification from one year to three years, requires the Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM) to explore ways to expand the pool of burn boss instructors, and codifies Governor Newsom’s 2025 executive order to expand tools to safely deploy beneficial fire projects.
- AB 1934 (Bennett) Home Hardening Certification Program: Requires the OSFM to develop an implementation plan for a voluntary home-hardening certification program that identifies an appropriate combination of home hardening products, techniques, and defensible space measures to reduce the risk of home loss during wildfire.
- AB 1960 (Bennett) Wildfire Mitigation Validation: Requires CAL FIRE, in consultation with the OSFM’s Wildfire Mitigation Advisory Committee, to establish a framework for validating wildfire mitigation activities undertaken by communities that achieve specified levels of home hardening and defensible space. Authorizes CAL FIRE to provide Wildfire Prevention Grant funds (beginning FY28/29) to recognized communities that partner with fire safe councils or other eligible organizations.
- AB 1964 (Bennett) State Fire Marshal: home hardening. Requires OSFM to develop statewide home hardening standards and compile a report estimating the number of homes in moderate, high, and very high fire hazard severity zones that meet those standards and the number that require additional home hardening.
- AB 2513 (Petrie-Norris): Regional Forest and Fire Capacity Program: Authorizes the Department of Conservation to directly award regional landscape grants to regional entities to implement the regional priority strategies that contribute to the achievement of the goals of California’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan. Expands wildfire prevention grant eligibility to include shrublands and other non-forested landscapes and expands eligible activities to include vegetation modification and ignition prevention.
- SB 894 (Allen) California Wildfire Resilience Loan Program: Establishes the California Wildfire Resilience Loan Program to provide, upon appropriation, financial assistance for projects and activities that reduce wildfire-related risks and losses, including home hardening and defensible space improvements.
- SB 973 (Becker) Wildfire County Coordinator Program: Codifies and expands the Wildfire County Coordinator Program within CAL FIRE and the California Fire Safe Council and mandates standardized county-level risk assessment tools.
- SB 1079 (Stern) CAL FIRE Fire Innovation Unit: Establishes a Fire Innovation Unit within CAL FIRE to advance wildfire technology research, coordination, procurement, and deployment. The unit is intended to support technologies that improve community risk reduction and ecosystem- and landscape-scale resilience.
- SB 1370 (Stern) Covered Wildfire Mitigation Projects: consolidated and expedited review. Establishes a permanent consolidated and expedited state environmental and permitting review process for covered wildfire mitigation projects, administered jointly by the California Natural Resources Agency and the California Environmental Protection Agency. The law builds on temporary executive actions that streamlined review for hundreds of priority wildfire prevention projects and is intended to expedite authorization procedures, while maintaining specified environmental protections and requirements.
Indigenous Stewardship Network Holds First In-person Convening
Indigenous Stewardship Network Holds First In-person Convening
August 19, 2026 – The Indigenous Stewardship Network (ISN) held their first in-person convening at the CNRA building this with over 100 people in attendance. The convening focused on Indigenous stewardship and cultural fire across California. While ISN has held virtual convenings prior to 2026, this year the CNRA building in Sacramento was chosen to connect the Indigenous Stewardship network to spaces where environmental funding and policy decisions are discussed and made. Convening topics covered SB310 agreements, funding opportunities with the Department of Conservation Regional Forest and Fire Capacity Program (DOC RFFC), the CNRA Tribal Stewardship Toolkit, intergenerational learning and workforce development for cultural fire. The convening received support from the DOC RFFC program, the Resource Legacy Fund, and the Karuk Tribe.
BLM Approves Projects to Improve Forest Health and Reduce Wildfire Risk in Shasta County
BLM Approves Projects to Improve Forest Health and Reduce Wildfire Risk in Shasta County
July 24, 2026 – the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Applegate Field Office approved two forest resilience projects in the Fall River Valley in Shasta County, aimed at improving forest health, reducing wildfire risk, and strengthening community preparedness. Work on both projects is expected to begin in fall 2026. The Day Fire Pre-Commercial Thinning Project builds on recovery efforts following the 2014 Day Fire, which burned more than 13,000 acres of primarily private timberland and a portion of BLM-managed public land. The Cassel–Fall River Road Woodland Health and Hazardous Fuels Reduction Project expands upon fuels reduction work conducted from 2020 – 2026 and will continue removing hazardous vegetation on roughly 1,400 acres of BLM-managed public land near Fall River Mills, using hand crews, mechanical equipment, and prescribed fire.
CAL FIRE Opens Solicitations for Forest Legacy Grants
CAL FIRE Opens Solicitations for Forest Legacy Grants
Program Capacity and Project Development Grants: The Forest Legacy Program Capacity and Project Development Grant Solicitation is available for eligible applicants to prepare and develop potential working forest conservation easement or fee title acquisition projects. This solicitation aims to increase organizational capacity and support the development of high-quality forest conservation projects. This grant solicitation does not fund acquisitions; instead, it supports the preparation and development of potential projects for future acquisition. Applications are due September 30, 2026.
Community Forest and Open Space Conservation Program: CAL FIRE’s Forest Legacy Program is accepting applications for the USDA Forest Service’s Community Forest and Open Space Conservation Program, which provides up to $600,000 for communities, Tribes and eligible nonprofits to acquire and conserve forests that provide public access, recreation, wildlife habitat, water supply and other community benefits. Applications are due October 13, 2026.
Community-Led Beneficial Fire Continues to Grow in California
Community-Led Beneficial Fire Continues to Grow in California
August 6, 2026 – The Watershed Research and Training Center recently added 2025 data to its Community-Based Beneficial Fire Data Project which compiles and analyzes data from beneficial fire burning activities across the state of California. The project is demonstrating how California is strengthening its partnerships and expanding workforce development capacity for cultural and prescribed fire. 2025 was an active year for the community-based beneficial fire movement. Across California, Tribal cultural fire practitioners, Prescribed Burn Associations (PBAs), nonprofit organizations, Resource Conservation Districts, agencies, and private landowners are continuing to build the relationships, skills, and policies needed to return good fire to the landscape. In 2024 and 2025, nearly 9,500 people participated in training events focused on prescribed fire, cultural burning, ecological restoration, and land stewardship. During the same period, community partners completed more than 1,280 prescribed and cultural burns, treating over 9,100 acres while engaging nearly 16,000 participants.
California Board of Forestry Approves First-in-the-Nation Zone 0 Defensible Space Regulations
California Board of Forestry Approves First-in-the-Nation Zone 0 Defensible Space Regulations
August 19, 2026 – The California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection approved the final draft of Zone 0 defensible space regulations, marking another critical step in the state’s ongoing effort to better protect homes and communities from wildfire. The new regulation adds to California’s growing list of wildfire resilience efforts and focuses on practical wildfire safety actions for the first five feet around homes and structures—an area where professional experience and research indicate that homes are most vulnerable to ignition from embers.
The new regulation was informed by extensive public input and reflects a practical approach that empowers homeowners and local governments to take action. The approved policy includes a phased-in implementation approach that prioritizes education and outreach over a 5-year period. While Zone 0 requirements will apply to new construction upon adoption of the regulation, existing homes and structures can implement actions in phases over time within different areas of Zone 0:
- PHASE 1 (Implemented within the first 3 years): Includes removing combustible items such as firewood, dead leaves and branches, mulch, and wood chips within 5 feet of the structure. Cleaning gutters, removing dead and dying plants, trimming trees according to regulations, and implementing or adjusting for allowable vegetation during this time period.
- PHASE 2 (Implemented within 5 years): Local jurisdictions will assign a timeline, within 5 years of the effective date of the regulations, for the creation of an under-eave safety zone, replacing combustible gates, and making any necessary adjustments to sheds and fencing.
The policy applies to homes only in the State Responsibility Area (SRA) and Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones in Local Responsibility Areas (LRA). The goal is to give homeowners time, resources, and guidance to make changes effectively and affordably.