CAL FIRE announces over $62 million in Wildfire Prevention Grants:

As part of California’s strategy to prepare properties and communities against the devastating impacts of wildfire, CAL FIRE today announced it will award nearly $62.6 million in funding for 84 local wildfire prevention projects across the state, including 41 projects in low-income and disadvantaged communities. These grants will enable local organizations like fire safe councils to implement activities that address the hazards of wildfire and reduce wildfire risk to communities.

California unveils first-ever statewide LiDAR maps:

California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA), in partnership with the California Air Resources Board (CARB), NASA Ames Research Center, and the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force today announced the public release of new statewide datasets on forest and vegetation conditions built from LiDAR, the gold standard for forest and vegetation information.

This release is powered by the Wildfire, Ecosystem Resilience, and Risk Assessment Initiative (WERK) which has processed more than 100 million acres of LiDAR data across California. That total includes 40 million acres collected through CNRA’s use of $30 million dedicated by the State Legislature to wildland remote sensing. For the first time, California has a single wall-to-wall picture of forest and vegetation conditions that is the highest resolution available and consistent across the entire state. Agencies, tribes, researchers, land managers, and community partners can access the data and begin incorporating the released products into their own tools, models, and planning processes immediately.

California continues expansion of beneficial fire through Governor Newsom’s new executive order:

Building on California’s Strategic Plan for Expanding the Use of Beneficial Fire, the state is accelerating its strategy to expand beneficial fire through Governor Newsom’s recent executive order. This order will enable California to continue moving at record pace to increase the use of prescribed and cultural fire by accelerating collaborative efforts to update beneficial fire permitting, increase collaboration with tribal communities, address air quality concerns, and enable resource conservation districts and other entities to carry out beneficial fire projects.

California fast-tracks nearly 200 critical wildfire projects in response to Governor Newsom’s Emergency Proclamation on wildfire:

Following Governor Newsom’s emergency proclamation on wildfire, State agencies including the California Natural Resources Agency and CalEPA, have coordinated to cut red tape and fast-track critical wildfire safety projects across the state, all while maintaining vital environmental safeguards. Through this streamlined process, projects are now being approved in as little as 30 days, saving a year or more of review and red tape for more complicated projects. Thanks to these efforts, 198 projects across nearly 36,000 acres have been approved in all reaches of the state and are already making an impact on the ground. Notable projects include a collaborative 600+ acre fuels reduction project led by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority near the Palisades footprint, and the nearly 3,000-acre Scott Valley/Callahan Fuels Reduction and Forest Resiliency Project to remove fuels and create strategic fuel breaks in Siskiyou County.

Climate Bond funding is already making a real difference to reduce wildfire risk:

Following action by Governor Newsom and the Legislature, Proposition 4 (Climate Bond) early action funding is already making a big impact on the ground to provide vital funding for wildfire risk reduction projects. With yesterday’s announcement of nearly $4.6 million of Prop 4 funds for wildfire projects from the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, over $48 million have already been awarded through State Conservancies for projects that are protecting communities across the state. More than $38 million in funding is already making a difference to reduce wildfire risk in Southern California, including $30 million for 20 projects funded through the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and Rivers and Mountains Conservancy that are being deployed in the Los Angeles area, including the areas burned in the Palisades and Eaton fires.

Task Force provides update on its 2025 Key Deliverables with all complete or in progress:

In March 2025, the Task Force released its 2025 Key Deliverables which outlined California’s top 25 priorities and initiatives to achieve wildfire resilience. Just nine months later, all 25 deliverables have been completed or are in progress. These deliverables have helped the state improve home and community wildfire resilience, expand landscape-scale resilience programs, streamline regulatory processes and more.

Task Force releases 2024 data, sustaining California’s record pace of wildfire prevention over last four years:

During today’s meeting, the Task Force released 2024 wildfire treatment data, showing an upward trend in acres treated over the past 4 years. Collectively, interagency partners completed over 1 million activity acres of treatments across 733,000 footprint acres in 2024. Activity acres track every treatment, including multiple treatments on the same acre. Footprint acres reflect the number of acres that were treated rather than the number of treatments. The 2024 totals largely kept pace with records set in 2023 and are much higher than in 2021 and 2022. Acres treated by state agencies remained stable with record numbers set in 2023, with a slight increase from federal partners. Timber industry acres decreased by more than 40,000 acres from 2023 which was largely due to reduced levels of reforestation activities, which were much higher following the large 2020 and 2021 fire seasons. While there is year-to-year variation, wildfire prevention treatments have been, and continue to be, on an upward trend over time. The data is available in the Interagency Treatment Dashboard, California’s first-of-its-kind tool that offers a one-stop-shop to access data, provide transparency, and align the efforts of more than a dozen agencies to build resilient landscapes and communities in California.

CAL FIRE reports results from its Fuels Treatment Effectiveness Reporting Dashboard, showing treatments are working:

Ramping up acres treated is key to California’s wildfire strategy, and ensuring those treatments are targeted and effective is just as vital. CAL FIRE provided a report on its Fuels Treatment Effectiveness Reporting Dashboard, which evaluates the impact vegetation management treatments have on fire behavior and highlights how fuel reduction activities not only assist in suppression efforts but also protect life, property, and the natural resources of California. CAL FIRE has already evaluated over 100 projects and found that over 80% of projects were effective in mitigating wildfire impacts. Evaluated fuels treatments slowed wildfire rate of spread and intensity. Additionally, fire suppression operations were improved by increased firefighter ingress/egress and use of contingency lines.

Task Force unveils new outcome-based measures to better evaluate and prioritize projects that matter most: 

Historically, state and federal agencies have measured progress through activity-based metrics (e.g. acres treated, number of inspections, etc.) rather than the outcomes of those activities. Activity metrics are useful for tracking effort, but they do not show whether projects are reducing wildfire risk or improving ecological condition. The Task Force is building on CAL FIRE’s efforts to assess project efficacy through its Fuels Treatment Effectiveness Reporting Dashboard by standardizing outcome-focused reporting so agencies can consistently assess effectiveness and track progress toward shared goals and targets. With outcome-based measures we will be able to track not only the number of acres treated, but also identify treatments with the greatest impact to meet regional priorities. 

Task Force provides a sneak-peak on California’s upcoming Wildfire and Landscape Resilience Strategy:

Task Force Director, Patrick Wright, shared an inside look into the ongoing collaborative process to develop California’s 2026 Wildfire and Landscape Resilience Action Plan. The new plan will include three primary components:

1. 10-year Roadmap to Resilience: Informed by the Task Force Science Advisory Panel’s Science Synthesis, CAL FIRE’s Forest and Rangeland Assessment, and new modeling results, the 10-Year Roadmap to Resilience will quantify the scale of work necessary to improve resilience of the state’s landscapes, estimate costs and potential benefits, and offers tailored roadmaps to California’s diverse regions.
2. Framework for Mobilizing Regional Action: Building on the California Department of Conservation’s and CAL FIRE’s wildfire capacity programs, the framework will rapidly accelerate and align the efforts of federal, state, tribal local, and private organizations at every stage of their efforts to improve the resilience of their landscapes and communities.
3. Shared Strategies: Developed in coordination with the Task Force Work Groups, the 2026 Action Plan will include over 20 Shared Strategies to expand landscape resilience, strengthen community resilience, enhance efficiency and capacity, build a science and data management framework, and achieve multiple state, federal, and tribal priorities.

The Task Force is aiming to release a draft version of the 2026 Action Plan in early 2026 and publish the final version in spring 2026.