Research and Monitoring Program (FRAP)

Program Description: CAL FIRE (FRAP) implements a Research and Monitoring program that supports:

• Forest Inventory & Analysis (FIA) Program Intensification – re-measurement of California forests in half the normal time (i.e. moving from a 10yr to a 5yr re-measurement cycle)
• Increased prescribed fire monitoring to better understand effectiveness of expanded use of prescribed fire
• Collaborative research in wildfire and forest health issues
• Forest Health Research grants

Program Impact: A network of thousands of forest measurement plots throughout California represent California’s portion of the national Forest Inventory & Analysis program. These plots are typically re-measured every decade for specific ecological indicators, creating a measured dataset that informs the State’s understanding of biodiversity, forest growth rates, carbon storage, and climate risks. Given the speed of climate change and stressors, this funding is enabling CAL FIRE to measure these plots every five years, rather than ten, to ensure decisions are being made on the most current ecological realities. Funding established two FIA Coordinator positions that will expand CAL FIRE’s capacity to implement FIA Intensification and to report on forest health trends.

• FIA data is a primary dataset informing annual reports to the Board of Forestry, and portions of the California Forest and Rangeland Assessment published every 5-years
• FIA data is a primary dataset informing the Pacific Coast Region Temperate Forest Carbon Stocks and Flux: 2001-2019, a regional forest carbon assessment of British Columbia, California, Oregon, and Washington (currently in draft)

Funding for prescribed fire monitoring supports multiple and complementary university contracts (UC Davis, Chico State, San Jose State). This allows for increased capacity to conduct monitoring across a variety of vegetation types and provides an opportunity to support a broader diversity of students.

Wildfire resilience investments allowed the Forest Health Research Program to fund roughly a third of the competitive grant proposals submitted. The program received research proposals totaling $22 million in the last grant solicitation, including $1.5 million for three new projects on CAL FIRE Demonstration State Forests.

Resilience in Action: Examples of funded and ongoing monitoring and research studies include:

• Sierra Nevada Adaptive Management Experiment, funded by CAL FIRE, with new expanded project site in Jackson Demonstration State Forest starting in 2023
• “An open source platform for tracking carbon uptake and storage across California forests” – Dr. Troy Magney, University of California Davis
• “Forecasting the impacts of climate change, land use change, and management on wildfire risk and downstream impacts in Southern California’s montane forests and surrounding shrublands” Dr. Alexandra Syphard, Conservation Biology Institute
• “Understanding the costs and limits of vegetation management for wildfire mitigation in coastal California: a comprehensive ecological and economic study at the Soquel Demonstration State Forest” – Dr. Richard Cobb, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
• Boggs Mountain Demonstration State Forest Post-fire Revegetation Study – Dave Sapsis, CAL FIRE (CAL FIRE video on YouTube)
• News coverage on the GigaFire Fuels Mapping Project, jointly funded by CAL FIRE and CARB
• Forest Health Research Program webinar: “Climate change and wildfires in western North American forests: a review of ecological departures and adaptation strategies” Dr. Susan Prichard and Dr. Keala Hagmann, University of Washington