From day one, Governor Gavin Newsom declared community protection and wildfire resilience a top priority of his administration. California and its partners continue to deliver nation-leading results. Since taking office, the Governor has committed more resources and investments than ever before to significantly boost wildfire response capabilities while tackling the root causes of the wildfire crisis head-on. Here are the top 5 things to know about California’s progress on protecting communities and landscapes from wildfire:
1. Historic Investments Making Big Impacts Statewide
- Invested $6 billion: Collectively, Task Force partners have increased wildfire resilience investments to more than $6 billion, with state investments surging to more than $4 billion since 2021.
- Doubled CAL FIRE resources: To support more effective wildfire response, CAL FIRE nearly doubled its fire protection staff since 2019 from 5,829 to 10,741 positions, and nearly doubled its fire protection budget from $2 billion to $3.8 billion.
- Added 2,400 firefighters: The Governor’s proposed investments will add 2,400 new firefighters to CAL FIRE’s firefighting force over the next five years.
- Boosted Cal OES: Since 2019, the budget of the California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES), a key agency in responding to and rebuilding after fires, increased from $1.8 billion to $4.5 billion.
2. Moving Faster without Compromising Environmental Protections
- Fast-tracking wildfire projects: Thanks to the Governor’s March 2025 emergency proclamation on wildfire, California has fast-tracked 300 projects in 300 days through a streamlined permitting system, with projects now being approved in as little as 30 days, saving a year or more of review and red tape for more complicated projects.
- Moving at record pace to support wildfire recovery: Immediately following the devastating Los Angeles firestorms, the Governor issued an executive order to suspend CEQA and Coastal Act permitting requirements to enable homeowners and businesses to rebuild without undue delay.
- Accelerating the use of good fire: In October 2025, the Governor signed an executive order to reduce red tape and expand tools to safely deploy beneficial fire projects. In the same month, the U.S. EPA issued policy guidance directing regional offices to work with local, state, tribal, and federal partners to remove barriers for prescribed fire.
3. Scaling Up Protection for Communities Facing Increasing Wildfire Risks
- Funding wildfire prevention at record-levels: Since 2019, CAL FIRE has awarded more than $570 million for more than 560 wildfire prevention projects across the state. Since 2023, the U.S. Forest Service has awarded more than $150 million across California to plan for and mitigate wildfire risk through community wildfire defense grants.
- Protecting structures and creating defensible space: CAL FIRE conducts defensible space inspections on more than 250,000 homes each year. In February 2025, Governor Newsom signed an executive order to further improve community hardening and wildfire mitigation, including accelerating Zone Zero regulations.
- Communities working together with nation-leading results: California leads the nation with more than 1,500 local Firewise USA communities.
4. On the Ground in California's Wildlands: Unprecedented Results in Record Time
- Launched more than 2,000 projects: California’s historic investments continue to pay off. State agencies have conducted over 2,000 landscape health and fire prevention projects.
- Treated more than 3.7 million acres: Collectively, Task Force partners treated over 3.7 million activity acres with state, federal, and local partners between 2021 and 2024, including over 1 million activity acres of treatments across 733,000 footprint acres in 2024.
- Nearly doubled prescribed fire: Prescribed fire treatments nearly doubled since 2021, with interagency partners now treating roughly 200,000 acres annually.
- Supported tribal stewardship: In September 2024, Governor Newsom signed SB 310, which supports tribal sovereignty by enabling California Native American tribes to conduct cultural burns on ancestral territories. In March 2025, the Karuk Tribe and the California Natural Resources Agency entered into a landmark cultural burning agreement as part of SB 310.
- Created emergency teams: State and federal partners have established 15 Emergency Forest Restoration Teams (EFRTs) across the state to rapidly restore private forestlands after fires.
- Awarded $620 million to forest health: Since 2021, CAL FIRE has committed more than $620 million in support of 120 wildfire and forest resilience projects through its Forest Health Grant Program.
- Built local capacity: The Department of Conservation’s Regional Forest and Fire Capacity (RFFC) program has awarded more than $140 million to communities across the state to create fire-adapted communities and landscapes.
5. Leveraging Technology to Increase Transparency and Improve Wildfire Prevention and Response
- Innovative tools for tracking progress: In 2023, the Task Force launched an Interagency Treatment Dashboard to display completed federal, state, local, and private vegetation management projects across the state. The Dashboard, provides transparency, tracks progress, facilitates planning, and informs firefighting efforts.
- Documenting effectiveness: CAL FIRE’s Fuels Treatment Effectiveness Dashboard spotlights and documents how recent wildfire resilience projects are protecting communities and landscapes when wildfire strikes.
- First-ever statewide LiDAR maps: In December 2025, California released the state’s first-ever statewide LiDAR maps, providing data on forest and vegetation conditions, enabling tribes, researchers, land managers, and community partners to incorporate the free data products into their own tools, models, and planning processes to inform wildfire resilience projects.
- Utilizing cutting-edge technology for fire response: CAL FIRE and Cal OES have also invested heavily in drones, satellite technology for advanced mapping, and AI-powered tools to spot fires quicker, and a Fire Integrated Real-Time Intelligence System (FIRIS) to provide real-time mapping of wildfires. Additionally, CAL FIRE partnered with UC San Diego to support the development of ALERTCalifornia which utilizes AI to identify and monitor wildfires. ALERTCalifornia was named one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2023.