California Passes Proposition 4 — Providing $1.5 Billion for Wildfire Resilience
California Passes Proposition 4 — Providing $1.5 Billion for Wildfire Resilience
November 5, 2024 – Californians passed Proposition 4, the first-ever climate bond to go before California voters. The proposition provides $10 billion in bond funds for critical wildfire, flood protection, and other climate resilience projects around the state, including $1.5 billion for wildfire resilience. This funding will enable agencies to improve landscape health and resilience and protect communities from wildfire risks through programs such as the Regional Forest and Fire Capacity Program. The funding also includes $50 million for long-term capital infrastructure projects that utilize wildfire mitigation waste for non-combustible uses.
In addition to funding wildfire resilience, $1.2 billion will be used to protect natural lands and preserve biodiversity, with $870 million directed to the Wildlife Conservation Board to help the state to meet its goal to protect 30% of lands by 2030. The approval of Proposition 4 is a major advancement for California’s efforts to increase the pace and scale of wildfire and landscape resilience treatments, adapt to a changing climate, and reach goals set in the California’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan.
Task Force to Showcase Latest Science Driving California’s Actions to Improve Wildfire Resilience
Task Force to Showcase Latest Science Driving California’s Actions to Improve Wildfire Resilience
On December 13, the Task Force will host a meeting in Sacramento that will highlight recent research that is guiding California’s efforts to respond to increasing wildfire risks in a changing climate. The Task Force’s Science Advisory Panel will be joined by scientists at the forefront of wildfire research to provide a synthesis of key findings on reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfire, impacts of wildfire to ecosystems and public health, post-fire restoration, and new technologies and innovations to accelerate progress toward resilience. These findings will help inform the Task Force’s 2025 Action Plan to ensure the plan is based on the latest science being published by leading researchers from across California. The meeting will also feature a preview of CAL FIRE’s 2024 Forest and Rangelands Assessment. The meeting will be held from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the CNRA Auditorium, 715 P St., Sacramento (no registration necessary) and Via Zoom (registration required).
State and Federal Investments Conserve Forestlands in Perpetuity
State and Federal Investments Conserve Forestlands in Perpetuity
October 29, 2024 – CAL FIRE and the U.S. Forest Service have announced grant awards to protect forestlands threatened with conversion to non-forest uses. Together, these investments improve forest health and reduce wildfire risk throughout the state.
CAL FIRE awarded $8.5 million through California Forest Legacy to four projects that ensure long-term land stewardship on properties that will continue to provide, in perpetuity, such benefits as sustainable timber production, wildlife habitat, recreation opportunities, carbon sequestration, watershed protection, and open space. One funded project will enable the Colfax-Todds Valley Consolidated Tribe to acquire the Owl Creek property in Placer County; while Placer Land Trust will hold a conservation easement to ensure protection of the property, the Tribe will manage the land using Indigenous management practices.
The USFS awarded more than $265 million to 21 projects nationwide through the federal Forest Legacy program to conserve nearly 335,000 acres of private forestlands. In California, a $1.5 million grant will conserve 94 acres of unique montane mixed-conifer forest in the recreation destination of Lake Arrowhead, east of Los Angeles. The property provides habitat for 7 federal and 4 state species of concern.
New Film On CA’s First Spanish Language Prescribed Fire Training Exchange
Documentary Showcases California’s First Spanish Language Prescribed Fire Training Exchange
October 24, 2024 – A new documentary, titled Voces del Fuego (Voices of Fire), tells the story of California’s first Spanish language Prescribed Fire Training Exchange (TREX) which was hosted by the Watershed Research and Training Center for two weeks in October 2023. You can see it online now at the Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network website. The film provides a vibrant testimony of how fire shapes landscapes, communities, and cultures. The documentary highlights the importance of incorporating diverse perspectives and cultures in wildfire and landscape management.
CA State Parks and Partners Treat Over 900 Acres with Beneficial Fire
photo by: Richard Rappaport
CA State Parks and Partners Treat Over 900 Acres with Beneficial Fire
From October 29 to November 1, California State Parks with the assistance of CAL FIRE and the USFS treated 914 acres in the South Grove Natural Preserve at Calaveras Big Trees State Park with prescribed fire.
State Parks, CAL FIRE, USFS and contractors spent years organizing interagency collaboration and preparing the perimeter along with the giant sequoia trees for beneficial fire. Preparation included using mechanical treatments appropriate for State Parks Natural Preserves to remove large fuels from the surrounding fire road and using hand tools to remove large material from the base of over 700 mature giant sequoias.
The entire South Grove Natural Preserve is over 1,300 acres. Critical to giant sequoia stewardship and regeneration, State Parks will continue to be prepared to treat the remaining acres and bring fire back to the entire landscape in regular intervals. This project restores and maintains a complex forest community, promotes giant sequoia regeneration and wildfire resilience, reduces hazardous fuel loads, improves wildlife habitat, and protects park infrastructure.
State Commission Adopts Report on Wildfire Insurance Crisis
State Commission Adopts Report on Wildfire Insurance Crisis
November 7, 2024 – The nonpartisan Little Hoover Commission adopted a report on California’s ongoing property insurance crisis which was issued for public review earlier in the week. The report, which was developed over the course of 2024 through hearings, interviews, and public comment from impacted stakeholders, contains several recommendations to state lawmakers for addressing California’s insurance crisis for areas with high wildfire risk, including:
- Allowing insurers to use catastrophe models for pricing, but requiring that wildfire mitigations performed by homeowners are reflected in those models;
- Creation of an independent panel of experts to evaluate the usage of those models, rather than relying on the California Department of Insurance’s internal processes; and,
- Forming a state working group of wildfire experts to develop a minimum set of wildfire mitigation standards for homeowners and communities to undertake.
