Existing law authorizes any person, firm, or corporation, or any combination thereof, that owns or controls brush-covered land within a state responsibility area to apply to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection for permission to burn the brush from the land. Existing law requires the department to provide advisory services to applicants for burn permits as to the precautions to be taken by the applicant to prevent damage to the property of others by reason of the prescribed burning, and to provide standby fire protection, as available.

This bill would require the department, by July 1, 2018, in consultation with the State Air Resources Board, local air districts, and other relevant organizations and individuals, to develop an Internet Web site that provides the public certain information relating to prescribed burns, including information on the regulations that govern prescribed burns for forest fuel treatment, and to develop a uniform prescribed burn template for forest landowners that provides standardized procedures associated with planning and implementation of a prescribed burn and meets specified objectives. The bill would authorize the department to contract with an institution of the University of California to perform any of these requirements.

Date of Hearing: April 26, 2017

ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, Chair

ABPCA Bill Id:AB 771

Author:(Quirk) – As Introduced Ver:February 15, 2017

Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: No Reimbursable: No

SUMMARY:

This bill requires CAL FIRE to create a uniformed prescribed burn plan template for forest fuel treatment. This bill also requires CAL FIRE and the Air Resources Board (ARB) to develop a webpage that contains the uniformed prescribed burn plan template and centralizes state information pertinent to prescribed burning for the purpose of promoting prescribed fire as a fuel treatment technique.

FISCAL EFFECT:

1. Increased annual costs of $2.3 million for CAL FIRE to develop, maintain and manage the information required to be incorporated on the webpage (State Responsibility Area Fund).
2. Increased one-time costs for CAL FIRE to develop the uniform prescribed burn template of approximately $1.5 million for staffing and $400,000 in contracts (State Responsibility
   Area Fund.)
3. Unknown costs, likely less than $100,000 (special fund), for ARB to consult with CAL FIRE.

COMMENTS:

1. Purpose. According to the author, prescribed burning is recognized as an important tool in the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s 2010 Strategic Fire Plan for California. This plan includes the objective of increasing public education and awareness in support of ecologically sensitive and economically efficient vegetation management activities, including prescribed fire, forest thinning and other fuels treatment projects.

This bill will assist forest landowners in exercising due diligence to control prescribed burning so as to prevent fire escape and encourage more responsible prescribed burning.

1. Background. The most recent draft of the Forest Carbon Plan released by the Natural Resources Agency and California Environmental Protection Agency states that “current rates of fuel reduction, thinning of overly dense forests, and use of prescribed and managed fire are far below levels needed to restore forest health, prevent extreme fires, and meet the state’s GHG reduction targets.” The Forest Carbon Plan calls for aggressively increasing the number of acres treated to reduce fuels.

According to the Forest Carbon Plan, it is estimated that as many as 15 million acres of California forests are unhealthy and some form of restoration activity is needed. The Forest Carbon Plan states the rate of treatment needs to be increased to approximately 500,000 acres per year to preserve forest health.

There have been discussions of increasing prescribed fire and CAL FIRE, with additional funding, would be able to increase the number of acres it treats. However, CAL FIRE alone could not increase the acres treated either mechanically or with prescribed fire to the levels outlined in the Forest Carbon Plan. Additional information, permit clarity, grants, or other forms of assistance could increase the number of acres treated by private practitioners of prescribed fire. This would help the state meet its treatment goals.

This bill provides additional information and permit clarity to assist those seeking permission from CAL FIRE to utilize prescribed burn.

1. Prior Legislation. AB 2465 (Chesbro), of the 2013-2014 Legislative Session, almost identical to this bill, was vetoed by the Governor. In his veto message, the Governor stated:

Rather than creating an independent template as required by this bill, I am directing CAL FIRE to build further on their existing work and develop an Appendix to the State Fire Plan on prescribed fires for consideration by the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection (Board).  CAL FIRE will work in collaboration with the Air Resources Board, local air districts, academics, nongovernmental organizations, local governments, and tribes on recommended actions for enhancing the practice of prescribed burns.

In response to the veto message, the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection adopted a memorandum of understanding (MOU) into the State Fire Plan’s appendix. The MOU is between CAL FIRE; Sierra Nevada Conservancy; USDA Forest Service, Pacific South West Region; conservation groups; and community fire protection groups. The MOU calls on the signers to work cooperatively to increase the use of fire to meet ecological and other management objectives.

Analysis Prepared by: Jennifer Galehouse / APPR. / (916) 319-2081

\Date of Hearing: April 3, 2017

ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES

Cristina Garcia, Chair

ABPCA Bill Id:AB 771 (

Author:Quirk) – As Introduced Ver:February 15, 2017

SUBJECT: Burning of forest lands: forest land owners

SUMMARY: Requires Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) and the Air Resources Board (ARB) to develop a webpage that contains a uniformed prescribed burn plan template and centralizes state information pertinent to prescribed burning for the purpose of promoting prescribed fire as a fuel treatment technique.

EXISTING LAW:

1. Prohibits a person from burning any brush, stumps, logs, fallen timber, fallows, slash, grass-covered land, brush-covered land, forest-covered land, or other flammable material in any state responsibility area unless the person has a written permit from CAL FIRE.
   
2. Declares that it is a public purpose for CAL FIRE to cooperate with any person desiring to use prescribed burning as a means of converting brush-covered lands into forage lands, which has as its objective prevention of high intensity wild land fires, watershed management, range improvement, vegetation management, forest improvement, wildlife habitat improvement, and maintenance of air quality, or any combination thereof.
   
3. Requires CAL FIRE to provide advisory service to applicants for permits as to precautions to be taken by the applicant to prevent damage to the property of others by reason of the prescribed burning. Requires CAL FIRE to provide standby fire protection, to such extent as personnel, fire crews, and firefighting equipment are available.
4. Authorizes any landowner with brush-covered land within a state responsibility area to apply to CAL FIRE for permission to burn the brush from such lands. Requires the application to be on a form prescribed by CAL FIRE and to contain a description of the lands and other pertinent information CAL FIRE requires.
   
5. Authorizes CAL FIRE to enter into an agreement, including a grant agreement, for prescribed burning or other hazardous fuel reduction with the landowner of property that is included within any wild land for any of the following purposes:
   
   1. Prevention of high-intensity wild land fires through reduction of the volume and continuity of wild land fuels;
      
   2. Watershed management;
      
   3. Range improvement;
      
   4. Vegetation management;
      
   5. Forest improvement;
      
   6. Wildlife habitat improvement; and/or,
      
   7. Air quality maintenance.
      
6. Authorizes the state to assume a proportionate share of the costs of site preparation and prescribed burning or other hazardous fuel reduction conducted on wild lands, other than wild lands under the jurisdiction of the federal government.
7. Authorizes CAL FIRE to purchase insurance for the fuel treatment project. If CAL FIRE does not purchase insurance, requires CAL FIRE to agree to indemnify and hold harmless the person or public agency it is contracting with respect to liability arising out of performance of the contract.
8. Protects a person from liability for any costs incurred by CAL FIRE in suppressing any wild land fire originating or spreading from a prescribed burning operation conducted pursuant to a VMP contract to the extent that those costs were not incurred as a violation of any provision of the contract.
9. Authorizes CAL FIRE, with the approval of the Director of Finance, to enter into an agreement with private consultants or contractors or with other public agencies for furnishing all or a part of the state's share of the responsibility for planning the operation, preparing the site, and conducting the prescribed burning or other hazardous fuel reduction.
10. Creates the Smoke Management Guidelines for Agricultural and Prescribed Burning, which addresses, among other things, prescribed burning for forest improvement, to provide direction to regional air districts in the regulation and control of agricultural burning. (According to 17 CCR § 80100, these guidelines are intended to provide for the continuation of agricultural burning, including prescribed burning, as a resource management tool, and provide increased opportunities for prescribed burning and agricultural burning while minimizing smoke impacts on the public.)
    

THIS BILL:

1. Makes findings and declarations regarding wildfires and prescribed burns.
   
2. To assist landowners in conducting prescribed burns for the purpose of forest fuel treatment, requires CAL FIRE, in consultation with ARB and local air districts, no later than July 1, 2018, to do all of the following:
   1. Develop a page on CAL FIRE's website that provides all of the following:
      
      1. Information on the regulations governing prescribed burns for forest fuel treatment;
         
      2. Specific information about permissive burn days and no-burn days;
      3. The uniform prescribed burn template;
      4. Contact information for the offices at CAL FIRE, ARB, and local air districts that can assist a person who is interested in a prescribed burn for forest fuel treatment; and,
         
      5. Any other information that CAL FIRE determines is appropriate regarding prescribed burns for forest fuel treatment.
   2. Develop a uniform prescribed burn template. Requires the template to provide assistance to a person who is interested in conducting forest fuel treatment through a prescribed burn. States that it is the intent of the Legislature that the uniform prescribed burn template meet the following objectives:
      
      1. Use best management practices to ensure the owner exercises due diligence in controlling the burn;
         
      2. Maximizing the benefits and protection for the environment and the public; and,
      3. Obtain the appropriate regulatory approval from CAL FIRE and local air districts.
         
3. Authorizes CAL FIRE to contract with an institution within the University of California with an expertise in fire research and outreach to develop the website or the uniform prescribed burn template.

FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown

COMMENTS:

1. Background. California forests are important for achieving state goals to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Forests can be a major sequester of GHG from the atmosphere, yet forest fires also release substantial GHG emissions as they burn. Human fire suppression strategies over the past 100+ years have increased the tree density of forests, and consequently the risk of large, intense, GHG releasing fires in California forests has increased. The recent tree mortality crisis and drought conditions have exacerbated this problem.

Prescribed and managed burning of forests is one tool that increases short-term GHG emissions in order to mitigate the risk of larger fires with higher GHG emissions in the future. For example, recent research has shown that had the land associated with the Rim Fire, a >250,000-acre fire in the Sierra Nevada in 2013, been intentionally managed for resource objectives, the impact could have been 5 times less. Further, the GHG emissions from the Rim Fire were substantial, releasing an amount equivalent to the annual GHG emissions from 2.3 million vehicles or 3.2 coal-fired power plants. Prescribed and managed burns provide a low to moderate severity fire alternative that was common in the mid-elevations of the Sierra Nevada prior to fire suppression policies. Recent studies show that the Sierra Nevada is far below historic levels of low and moderate severity fire, which prescribed burning mimics. Among forest management alternatives, the use of prescribed burning and mechanical thinning as part of a comprehensive plan to enhance the resilience of forest ecosystems may provide mitigation for long-term GHG emissions and is also likely to provide ecological benefits. The barriers to increased use of prescribed or managed fire include funding, public acceptance, liability, and air quality concerns.

One-third of California is covered in forests. These forests are composed of 57% federal land, including US Forest Service; National Park Service; Bureau of Land Management portions; and 15% industrial timber lands. The remainder is made up of lands owned by individuals, corporations, and Native American Tribes totaling 25% and lands owned by CAL FIRE, local open space, and land trusts totaling 3%. Despite a small percentage of state-owned lands, the state is responsible for fire protection on more than just land it owns. In total, that land includes 31 million acres of forests, watersheds, and rangeland.

A century of fire suppression strategies across the state have contributed to an increased density of trees, but also reduced tree size. In the Stanislaus National Forest, a team of UC Berkeley researchers found a density of 400 trees per acre in 2013, compared with 60-90 trees per acre found in historical reports from 1911. In addition, the researchers found more undergrowth species, and a smaller average size of the tree than in 1911. California’s history of logging has contributed to smaller tree size by removing large, old growth trees. Larger trees are a more secure way to store GHG emissions because they are more resilient to disturbances such as drought and fire.

More than 100 million trees in California have perished since the start of the drought. On October 30, 2015, Governor Brown issued a state of emergency proclamation and sent a letter to the Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture urging (USDA) federal support and partnership to address the tree mortality crisis. Furthermore, Governor Brown established a tree mortality task force to address the crisis. Although the tree mortality crisis disproportionately impacts the Sierra Nevada, forests of other regions in the state, including the mountains of the Los Angeles Basin and the coastal ranges up and down the state, present similar problems because of drought, insect impacts, and disease. Therefore, the importance of logistical planning and specific coordination for managing prescribed fires is significant. The diversity of tree species, forest composition, and climate among these regions suggests that site specific prescribed or managed fire approaches are needed to make the best use of this management tool. Climate change in California will increase the likelihood of conditions that lead to tree mortality.

California’s forests are not only susceptible to the effects of climate change but are also contributing to emissions. Dead, decaying, and dying trees have been shown to emit GHGs, reducing the carbon storage capacity of the forests. Moreover, wildfires are now the single largest source of black carbon emissions in California, representing 66% of black carbon emissions in 2013. Black carbon or soot is a major contributor to climate change. If high severity fires, aided by drought and infestations of bark beetles, lead to large areas of forest being permanently converted from forest to shrub land, it would be a substantial loss in carbon storage, which is an important component of California’s ability to achieve GHG reduction goals.

The most recent draft of the Forest Carbon Plan released by the Natural Resources Agency and California Environmental Protection Agency states that “current rates of fuel reduction, thinning of overly dense forests, and use of prescribed and managed fire are far below levels needed to restore forest health, prevent extreme fires, and meet the state’s GHG reduction targets.” The Forest Carbon Plan calls for aggressively increasing the number of acres treated to reduce fuels.

1. AB 2465. AB 2465 (Chesbro, 2014) was almost identical to this bill and the veto message was:

I am returning Assembly Bill 2465 without my signature. 

Today, California faces unprecedented wildfires due to high fuel accumulations, climate change, and in the last three years, drought.  There are many prevention activities that are needed to reduce the likelihood and the impacts of wildfires.  Prescribed fires are a longstanding form of land management that can help reduce the intensity of wildfires and renew ecosystems.

As part of the State's Strategic Fire Plan, CAL FIRE recognizes prescribed fire as an important tool for land managers to use to improve their lands and to address the poor health of many of our forests. 

Rather than creating an independent template as required by this bill, I am directing CAL FIRE to build further on their existing work and develop an Appendix to the State Fire Plan on prescribed fires for consideration by the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection (Board).  CAL FIRE will work in collaboration with the Air Resources Board, local air districts, academics, nongovernmental organizations, local governments, and tribes on recommended actions for enhancing the practice of prescribed burns.

In response to the veto message, the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection adopted a memorandum of understanding (MOU) into the State Fire Plan’s appendix. The MOU is between CAL FIRE; Sierra Nevada Conservancy; USDA Forest Service, Pacific South West Region; conservation groups; and community fire protection groups. The MOU calls on the signers to work cooperatively to increase the use of fire to meet ecological and other management objectives.

1. AB 771. While this MOU has been a positive sign of groups working together on prescribed fire, the pace and scale of prescribed fire has not significantly increased. Twenty years ago CAL FIRE burned 50 thousand acres in a year. Last year, less than 15 thousand acres received fuel treatment. According to the Forest Carbon Plan, it is estimated that as many as 15 million acres of California forests are unhealthy and some form of restoration activity is needed. The Forrest Carbon Plan states the rate of treatment needs to be increased to approximately 500,000 acres per year to preserve forest health. There have been discussions of increasing prescribed fire and CAL FIRE, with additional funding, could increase the number of acres it treats. However, CAL FIRE alone could not increase the acres treated either mechanically or with prescribed fire to the levels outlined in the Forest Carbon Plan.

Additional information, permit clarity, grants, or other forms of assistance could increase the number of acres treated by private practitioners of prescribed fire. This would help the state meet its treatment goals. AB 771 does provide additional information and permit clarity to assist private practitioners of prescribed fire. The author and committee are engaged in discussions with stakeholders on how California can appropriately partner with private practitioners of prescribed fire to expand the use of prescribed fire. These discussions may inform future amendments to this bill.

1. Related legislation.

AB 1712 (Committee on Natural Resources) clarifies that prescribed fire that meets wildland management objectives on forest lands, woodland, grassland, shrubland, or any combination thereof within a state responsibility area may apply to CAL FIRE for permission to utilize prescribed fire. This bill is awaiting hearing in this committee.

REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:

Support

Central Coast Prescribed Fire Council
Pacific Forest Trust
Rural County Representatives of California
Sierra Forest Legacy
The Watershed Research and Training Center

Opposition

None on file

Analysis Prepared by: Michael Jarred / NAT. RES. /