CAL FIRE & USFS Investments Confront California’s Wildfire Crisis & Expand Urban Forests
CAL FIRE & USFS Investments Confront California’s Wildfire Crisis & Expand Urban Forests
October 17 – USFS Invests $15 Million to Confront California’s Wildfire Crisis
The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) announced $100 million will be invested in 21 new projects to expand work on the USFS Wildfire Crisis Strategy to reduce the threat of wildfire in high-risk areas across the country. $15 million will fund three projects in California helping further Task Force goals of protecting communities in the Wildland Urban Interface.
- Sequoia National Forest – $5 million to reduce wildfire risk to the Breckenridge and Pine Flat communities through thinning and prescribed fire, with wood byproducts going to a biomass facility or the local sawmill when viable.
- Eldorado National Forest – $5 million for hazardous fuels reduction, strategic fuels breaks, and prescribed fire on the Georgetown Divide. The project will also create strategic fuel breaks near residential and commercial infrastructure in Volcanoville and Georgetown, including a high-powered electric transmission line.
- Tahoe National Forest – $5 million to reduce hazardous fuels, create defensible space around six communities, create safe ingress and egress along 6.3 miles of road, and engage at least seven partner groups, including local tribes.
September 20 – CAL FIRE and USFS Award $31 million to 22 Urban Forestry Projects in California
CAL FIRE and USFS announced nearly $31 million in Urban and Community Forestry grants in California focused on urban forestry topics of management, expansion and improvement, education, workforce development, capacity building, and green schoolyards. The projects are intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve the functionality of urban forests, arrest the decline of urban forest resources, address climate change resilience, improve the quality of the environment in urban areas, and increase access to environmental career pathways. All funded projects will directly serve priority populations within one or more defined disadvantaged and/or low-income communities in an urban area.
CAL FIRE Forest Health Research Grant Program: Applications are now open for the Forest Health Research Program which is offering $4 million in research funding through its FY 2024-2025 grant solicitation. These grants will support research that directly benefits landowners, resource agencies, fire management organizations, and decision-makers throughout the state.
Interagency Treatment Dashboard Shows Progress Toward Resilience
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 10, 2024
California Unveils First-of-Their-Kind Dashboards Mapping Out Fire-Prevention Work to Protect Communities
New tools created by CAL FIRE and Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force simplify data, boost transparency, and help inform wildfire planning and response – adding to the suite of tools the state has created
(South Lake Tahoe, CA) – The Governor’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) unveiled several new tools today to help California track and communicate the state’s significant progress in improving wildfire and landscape resilience.
Key takeaways from the Task Force’s Sierra Nevada Regional Meeting in South Lake Tahoe include:
• Interagency Treatment Dashboard updated to show 2021, 2022 and 2023 data.
• Over one million acres of treatments were conducted on about 700,000 footprint acres in 2023.
• Prescribed fire treatments more than doubled between 2021 and 2023.
• CAL FIRE Fuel Treatment Effectiveness Dashboard is showing the impact of treatments impacted by recent wildfires.
“Thousands of wildfire resilience projects have been completed across California to protect our communities and landscapes from catastrophic wildfire in recent years, and more are underway,” said Wade Crowfoot, Secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency and co-chair of the Task Force. “Thanks to historic investments from our state and federal leaders, dozens of local agencies and hundreds of organizations are delivering these projects. Now for the first time, we have a dashboard that tracks all these diverse projects in one place and on one map. This enables us to measure our overall progress toward building wildfire resilience across the state and provides regional leaders valuable information to plan future projects.”
Interagency Treatment Dashboard
The updated version of the Interagency Treatment Dashboard shows wildfire resilience work (or “treatments”) for three calendar years (2021, 2022 and 2023). The data, which was sourced from federal, state, local, tribal, and private entities, is now available in a single hub that allows Californians to easily see where treatments (such as prescribed fire, mechanical thinning, and tree planting) have been completed. This information is used to inform firefighting efforts, ensure transparency to the public, and track progress toward statewide goals.
The Task Force released a Beta version of the Dashboard last year with 2022 data. This updated version now includes data for 2021, revised data for 2022, and new data for 2023.
Over 1 million acres worth of treatment work on 700,000 acres of land
The Dashboard shows significant progress on multiple fronts to bolster wildfire resilience in California. In 2023, more than one million acres of treatments were conducted on about 700,000 acres, with many acres receiving multiple treatments such as thinning, prescribed fire, or other practices to improve forest health and community resilience. The Task Force is tracking both “activity acres” – which reflect the level of effort conducted through various state, federal, and private programs – and “footprint acres” – which show the total geographic area treated in a calendar year.
The 2023 data shows a significant increase in acres treated since 2021. The increase is largely due to a significant expansion of prescribed fire treatments, which more than doubled since 2021. These efforts have put the state on a solid path toward meeting its joint commitment with the U.S. Forest Service to complete treatments on more than a million acres by the end of 2025.
The Task Force is committed to increasing the pace and scale of statewide actions to address California’s wildfire crisis. The Dashboard is part of a larger strategy to connect the various statewide entities committed to this monumental task.
Fuel Treatment Effectiveness Dashboard
CAL FIRE also launched a Fuel Treatment Effectiveness Dashboard, which shows how wildfire prevention projects are helping protect communities and landscapes when wildfire strikes. “Utilizing technology, we can now track in real time when wildfires hit areas where fuel treatments have been conducted. We can then go into an area and see how those treatments affected fire behavior, evacuation routes, firefighting efforts and more,” said CAL FIRE Chief/Director Joe Tyler. “This new dashboard is a tool for the public to see how fuels treatments had a positive impact on the firefight and how this work is making a difference.”
“No other state in the country is tackling wildfire resilience at this scale or with this level of innovation,” added U.S. Forest Service Deputy Regional Forester Kara Chadwick, who co-chaired today’s meeting. “From groundbreaking prescribed fire projects to comprehensive data tracking systems, we’re setting the standard for what it means to protect our landscapes and communities.”
The meeting is supplemented by field tours on October 8 and 11, to showcase wildfire resilience projects in the Tahoe Basin. Tour highlights include recovery efforts following the 2021 Caldor Fire, long-term prescribed burn projects in Sugar Pine Point State Park, meadow restoration at Máyala Wát undertaken by the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California, and the first new industrial-scale sawmill built in Sierra Nevada in several decades.
“Today’s meeting is a major milestone in our efforts to better document and share our collective progress,” said Task Force Director Patrick Wright. “We will continue to build on our collective momentum to make California more resilient to wildfire.”
The next Task Force meeting will take place in Sacramento on December 13 and will provide a synthesis of the latest scientific findings that are informing California’s approach to address wildfire risks in a changing climate. These findings will be incorporated into the Task Force’s 2025 Action Plan Update.
Sky Biblin, Communications Coordinator
Governor’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force
916-502-6527
U.S. Forest Service Announces Funding to Reduce Wildfire Risk
U.S. Forest Service Announces Funding to Local Businesses and Underserved Populations to Reduce Wildfire Risk
$25M Funding Opportunity to Reduce Wildfire Risk
August 6, 2024 – The U.S. Forest Service announced a funding opportunity through the Hazardous Fuels Transportation Assistance program to reduce wildfire risk, increase market opportunities, and support local jobs.
The program is available to local businesses that remove hazardous fuels from national forests and transport the material to be processed for wood products or services. Transporting the materials out of the national forest prevents them from being burned in the forests or left in place where they are subject to insects and diseases that increase the risk for wildfire.
The funding focuses on the removal of hazardous fuels with little commercial value, creating economic opportunities while improving overall forest health and resilience.
$15M to Help Underserved and Small-Acreage Landowners Access Climate Markets
August 28, 2024 – The U.S. Forest Service announced it is investing $15 million to connect underserved and small-acreage forest landowners with emerging climate markets. These investments will expand access to markets that were previously out-of-reach for underserved and small-acreage landowners to access new economic opportunities to maintain healthy working forests as pressures increase to convert forests to other uses. In California, nearly $2 million will go to the Shelterwood Collective, a 900-acre Indigenous, Black, Disabled, and Queer-led community forest and collective of land protectors and cultural changemakers.
CNRA Webinar on the State of Wildfire in California
CNRA Webinar on the State of Wildfire in California
August 8, 2024 – California Natural Resources (CNRA) Secretary Wade Crowfoot hosted a webinar on the state of wildfire in California as part of the Secretary Speaker Series.
Secretary Crowfoot was joined by representatives from the Task Force, CAL FIRE, U.S. Forest Service, the Karuk Tribe, and others for a conversation on current efforts to protect California from dangerous wildfires and restore the health of our landscapes.
California National Forests Complete Record Number of Prescribed Fire Acres
California National Forests Complete Record Number of Prescribed Fire Acres
As of June 24, the USFS has treated 63,878 acres with prescribed fire on national forests in California. The previous record was set in 2018 when 63,711 acres were treated. USFS fire managers are using prescribed fire to reduce hazardous fuels and reduce threats to communities from extreme fires. Reintroducing fire also minimizes the spread of pest insects and disease, recycles nutrients back to the soil, and improves natural conditions for native flora and fauna.
New Reports on Post-fire Restoration & Public Health Impacts of Wildfire
New Reports on Post-fire Restoration & Public Health Impacts of Wildfire
New Report on Emergency Forest Restoration Teams: Small private landowners often lack the funding, expertise, or time to undertake restoration work. To address these barriers, California’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan called for the establishment of Emergency Forest Restoration Teams (EFRTs). In June, 2024 a report on lessons learned was released from three pilot EFRTs that were developed in late 2021 in response to the Dixie, Tamarack and Caldor Fires. The report provides key recommendations for future EFRTs to be successful.
New Report on the Public Health Impacts of Wildfire: This new scoping report covers the intersections of wildland fire and public health. Developed by UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy, & the Environment in partnership with the Climate and Wildfire Institute, the report investigates key issues in the physical and mental health impacts of wildfire, provides an overview of the current state and federal policy landscape, and presents key recommendations for future resilience.
NFWF Announces 9 Large Watershed Planning Grants Totaling $53 Million for California National Forests
NFWF Announces 9 Large Watershed Planning Grants Totaling $53 Million for California National Forests
On June 24, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) announced $53 million in grants to protect and restore forests and watersheds in California using voluntary, targeted headwater resilience planning and monitoring. The grants leverage $31.4 million in matching contributions, for a total conservation impact of $84.4 million. The awards were made possible by a first-of-its-kind agreement between the USDA Forest Service and NFWF. This effort pools multiple funding sources from public and private organizations to meet the level needed for effective landscape-scale projects to tackle California’s wildfire crisis.
Lake County Leverages Federal Support for Local Action
Lake County Leverages Federal Support for Local Action
The Clear Lake Environmental Research Center (CLERC) is utilizing a $9.8 million Community Wildfire Defense Grant from the USFS to give Lake County a much needed boost to reduce wildfire risk. With this grant, CLERC brought together multiple rural fire protection districts to clear overgrown brush from roadsides and support a brush chipping program that assists landowners with vegetation removal from their property. One of CLERC’s foundational principles is to hire local and ensure every dollar stays in the county. This project provides a blueprint on effectively leveraging federal funding to protect high fire risk areas in a way that incorporates place-based expertise and supports local economic growth.
New Pocket Guide Empowers Communities to Collect Seeds and Support Reforestation
New Pocket Guide Empowers Communities to Collect Seeds and Support Reforestation
Seed collection is a critical first step in successful reforestations projects. The new ‘California Cone Hunter’s Pocket Guide’ serves as an in-the-field reference for those assisting with seed surveys and seed collection in support of post-fire reforestation efforts. The pocket guide was created by seed bank managers, geneticists, seed collectors and Cone Corps members, led by the USDA Forest Service, CAL FIRE, and American Forests. The Pocket Guide is available in both electronic and printed formats and will be distributed at Cone Camp seed collection trainings.
Major Investments from USFS and CAL FIRE Reduce Wildfire Risk and Spur Wood Innovations
Major Investments from USFS and CAL FIRE Reduce Wildfire Risk and Spur Wood Innovations
California has received a critical boost from State and Federal grants for projects that support community wildfire defense, landscape health, workforce development, and wood products infrastructure. These investments will provide crucial funding for projects that will promote California’s wildfire resilience and climate-forward economy for years to come.
- On May 14 USDA Forest Service announced that California will receive over $40 million in Community Wildfire Defense Grants. The Community Wildfire Defense Grant Program will fund 15 projects across California to assist communities to plan for and mitigate wildfire risks to communities and build critical infrastructure to help confront the nations’s wildfire crisis.
- On May 15, the Forest Service announced Wood Innovations, Community Wood, and Wood Product Infrastructure Assistance funding for 26 projects totaling $12.7 million in California, including three tribal projects. The grants are meant to spark innovation, create new markets for wood products and renewable wood energy from sustainably sourced wood, and increase the capacity of wood processing facilities.
- CAL FIRE recently awarded Forest Health Grants to assist local and regional partners implement projects that span landscapes affected by eight catastrophic fires in the past decade. Beyond ecological resilience benefits, the investments provide jobs and private landowner support, predominantly to rural communities that have been most affected by wildfire.
- CAL FIRE is also supporting the wood products infrastructure with $17 million in Business and Workforce Development grant awards. 20 funded projects will increase capacity for utilizing forest biomass, workforce development and research and development into new uses for forest biomass, increasing the capacity for fuels treatments and helping the State to reach its forest management objectives.