Existing law requires the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force to develop a comprehensive implementation strategy to track and ensure the achievement of the goals and key actions identified in the states Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan issued by the task force in January 2021. Existing law requires the task force to submit, as part of the implementation strategy, a report to the appropriate policy and budget committees of the Legislature on progress made in achieving the goals and key actions identified in the states action plan, on state expenditures made to implement these key actions, and on additional resources and policy changes needed to achieve these goals and key actions, as provided.

This bill would require the task force, on or before July 1, 2024, and annually thereafter, to compile and post on its internet website specified information relating to specified state and federal grant programs relating to fire prevention, as provided.

Existing law requires the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force to develop a comprehensive implementation strategy to track and ensure the achievement of the goals and key actions identified in the states Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan issued by the task force in January 2021. Existing law requires the task force to submit, as part of the implementation strategy, a report to the appropriate policy and budget committees of the Legislature on progress made in achieving the goals and key actions identified in the states action plan, on state expenditures made to implement these key actions, and on additional resources and policy changes needed to achieve these goals and key actions, as provided.

This bill would require the task force, on or before July 1, 2024, and annually thereafter, to compile and post on its internet website specified information relating to specified state and federal grant programs relating to fire prevention, as provided.

SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

Senator Anthony Portantino, Chair

2023 - 2024 Regular Session

AB 788 (Petrie-Norris) - Fire prevention: grant programs: reporting

Bill Summary:

This bill would require the California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force (Task Force), on or before July 1, 2024, and annually thereafter, to compile and post on its internet website specified information relating to certain state and federal grant programs related to fire prevention, as provided.

Fiscal Impact:

• CalFire estimates ongoing costs of about $2.1 million in the first year and $1.6 million annually thereafter (General Fund and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund [GGRF]) to implement the provisions of this bill.

Background:

While wildland fires have always been present in the state, the number of days with extreme fire risk has more than doubled in the last 40 years. This is likely to continue to increase. One of the impacts of climate change in the state is an increase in the frequency and intensity of wildfires. In forested regions, decades of fire suppression, historic logging practices and drought have produced unhealthy forests -- in some forests, the current tree density is up to an order of magnitude greater than the density a century ago. These conditions exacerbate the risk of an extreme wildfire developing when a fire occurs.

Catastrophic and devastating wildfires have occurred repeatedly in the state in recent years. Nine of the twenty largest and seven of the twenty most destructive wildland fires in state history occurred in 2020 and 2021 when almost 7 million total acres burned. The 2020 August Complex Fire in northern California – the largest fire in California’s modern history – burned over 1 million acres by itself, and the 2021 Dixie Fire was almost 1 million acres. Two wildland fires in recent years burned over the crest of the Sierras, which had not been previously observed. In the last several years, tens of thousands of structures – almost entirely homes – have been destroyed from wildland fire, insured losses incurred are in the billions of dollars, prime habitat has been destroyed or damaged, and, tragically, hundreds of lives have been lost. In addition, millions of Californians have been exposed to unhealthy air quality due to the wildfires. Improving the health and resiliency of the state’s wildlands and forests to wildland fire are important to protecting public and environmental health and safety.

Wildland fires in the state can be broadly separated into two different types – fuel-driven and wind-driven. In a fuel-driven fire, fire prevention efforts, fuel breaks and fuels management, including prescribed fire, may be the most effective methods to reduce the risk and promote healthier and more resilient forests. In a wind-driven fire, however, home and community-hardening, including maintaining a defensible space buffer around a home are critical factors. Some of the most catastrophic fires, such as the 2018 Camp Fire, can exhibit characteristics of both fire types. Of note, there are multiple methods available to help reduce the risk wildland fire poses to communities across the state, and optimal resilience is obtained by coordinated implementation of those most suited for the particular location.

Communities have continued to expand into forested and other areas at high risk of wildland fire. Although relatively small in area, millions of homes are located in and approximately 25% of the state’s population lives in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) – loosely defined as a zone where development intermingles with undeveloped vegetative fuels. Expansion in these areas has increased the number of people and homes more likely to be affected by wildfire. Home hardening and vegetation management are key to a structure’s ability to survive a wildfire. Creating and maintaining defensible space is an important component of reducing a home’s risk of destruction from wildfire. In order to minimize wildfire risk, structures built in the WUI should be hardened against wildfire.

In response to the risks posed by wildfire to California, the state and its federal partners announced a shared stewardship strategy to increase the pace and scale of fuel reduction treatments to improve forest and wildland resilience to wildfire to one million acres annually by 2025, among other goals. This strategy and the steps to achieve it are detailed in the 2021 California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan (Action Plan) developed by the California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force (Task Force). In addition, an unprecedented amount of funding has been allocated for wildfire and forest resilience programs, including $2.8 billion in investments in last fiscal year’s budget.

The Task Force was originally created in 2018 and revamped for the implementation of the Action Plan. Its executive committee is composed of federal, state, tribal, and local government representatives and is co-chaired by the Secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency and the regional leader of the US Forest Service. Additional state members of the executive committee include California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire), the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research, and the California Environmental Protection Agency. The Task Force is supported by numerous additional public and private stakeholders, and has coordinated the collaborative multi-entity effort to complete the key actions identified in the Action Plan and achieve the state’s goals to increase forest and wildland resiliency and reduce the risk of wildland fire.

The Task Force meets regularly and releases regular updates on progress, including the availability of new planning tools and grant programs, and related scientific research, upcoming workshops, and other news.

Some existing grant programs:

• Forestry assistance program. Under this program, CalFire works with private landowners, particularly smaller nonindustrial landowners, to upgrade the management of their lands, and improve both the productivity of the land and the degree of protection and enhancement of the forest resource system as a whole.
• Comprehensive wildfire mitigation program. Enacted pursuant to AB 38 (Wood, Chapter 391, Statutes of 2019), this program requires the Natural Resources Agency, in consultation with the Office of the State Fire Marshal and the Task Force, to review the regional capacity of each county that contains a very high fire hazard severity zone to improve forest health, fire resilience, and safety. Cal OES can enter into a joint powers agreement with CalFire to administer a comprehensive wildfire mitigation and assistance program to encourage cost-effective structure hardening and facilitate vegetation management.
• Wildfire Prevention Grants. CalFire provides grants for local projects in and near fire threatened communities that focus on increasing the protection of people, structures, and communities. Qualified activities include hazardous fuels reduction, wildfire prevention planning and wildfire prevention education with an emphasis on improving public health and safety while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  CalFire considers the wildfire hazards and risk of an area, the geographic balance of projects, and whether the project is complementary to other wildfire prevention or forest health activities when awarding grants.
• Local assistance grant program. This program is fire prevention and home hardening education activities. Groups eligible for grants include local agencies, resource conservation districts, fire safe councils, the California Conservation Corps, certified community conservation corps, University of California Cooperative Extension, CaliforniaVolunteers, Native American tribes, and qualified nonprofit organizations.
• Federal Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC). This grant program provides funds annually for hazard mitigation planning and projects to reduce risk of damage before a disaster. Funding is available in federal funding for eligible FEMA BRIC projects and project scoping activities.
• Federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HGMP). FEMA provides hazard mitigation funding assistance for eligible mitigation measures that reduce disaster losses. "Hazard mitigation" is any sustainable action that reduces or eliminates long-term risk to people and property from future disasters. The funds are administered by Cal OES.
• Federal Fire Management Assistance Grant Program (FMAG). Administered by FEMA, grants are available to states, local, and tribal governments, for the mitigation, management, and control of fires on publicly or privately owned forests or grasslands, which threaten such destruction as would constitute a major disaster.

Proposed Law:

This bill would require the Task Force, on or before July 1, 2024, and annually thereafter, to compile and post on its internet website specified information relating to certain state and federal grant programs related to fire prevention, as provided. Specifically, this bill would:

1. Define “program” as any of the following:
   1. The Forestry Assistance Program.
   2. The Comprehensive Wildfire Mitigation Program.
   3. The local assistance grant program for fire prevention and home hardening education activities.
   4. The department’s grant programs not otherwise identified in paragraphs (1) to (3), inclusive, including, but not limited to, those grant programs related to wildfire prevention, forest health, forest legacy, urban and community forestry, forest health research, forest improvement, wildfire resilience, workforce and business development, and volunteer fire capacity.
   5. The federal Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program.
   6. The federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.
   7. The federal Fire Management Assistance Grant Program.
   8. The federal Community Wildfire Defense Grant Program.
   9. Any other relevant publicly funded grant program administered in California to benefit forest health and resilience, harden homes and communities, or prevent and mitigate wildfires, if information on the program is readily available.
2. Require the Task Force, on or before July 1, 2024, and every July 1 thereafter, to compile and post on its internet website all of the following information for each program, for each fiscal year in which the Legislature appropriated program funding or program projects occurred in the state, as applicable::
   1. The amount of funding allocated from the program.
   2. The list of recipients and subrecipients that received an allocation from the program, including the location of the project.
   3. The amount of funding that has been encumbered by each recipient.
   4. A brief description of the project, including the location, current status, and the proposed schedule for the project’s completion.
   5. A brief description of the anticipated benefits of the project, which may include benefits for fire prevention and mitigation, habitat, forest resiliency, climate resiliency, public safety, or protection of important natural resources, including water quality and water supply.
3. Make multiple relevant legislative findings and declarations.

Related Legislation:

SB 675 (Limón, 2023) among other provisions would require the Task Force, on or before June 30, 2025 and in consultation with others, to develop a strategic action plan to expand the use of prescribed grazing to support the state’s efforts to improve wildfire and forest resiliency, and reduce community fire risk.

AB 388 (Connolly, 2023) among other provisions would authorize the California Natural Resources Agency’s conservancies, departments, and boards to award regional block grants to specified entities to implement regional plans, strategies, agreements, and initiatives to achieve the goals and key actions of these plans and strategies to improve wildfire and forest resilience, including achieving the Action Plan’s goals.

SB 456 (Laird, Chapter 387, Statutes of 2021) directed the Task Force in collaboration and coordination with other state entities and others to implement the Action Plan. In addition, SB 456 formally aligned the Action Plan with the state’s climate adaptation and resiliency framework, established annual reporting requirements, and required the Task Force to update the Action Plan every five years, as provided.

-- END --

SENATE COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES AND WATER

Senator Dave Min, Chair

2023 - 2024 Regular

Bill No: AB Hearing Date: July 10, 2023

Subject: Fire prevention: grant programs: reporting

BACKGROUND AND EXISTING LAW

While wildland fires have always been present in the state, the number of days with extreme fire risk has more than doubled in the last 40 years. This is likely to continue to increase. One of the impacts of climate change in the state is an increase in the frequency and intensity of wildfires. In forested regions, decades of fire suppression, historic logging practices and drought have produced unhealthy forests -- in some forests, the current tree density is up to an order of magnitude greater than the density a century ago. These conditions exacerbate the risk of an extreme wildfire developing when a fire occurs.

Catastrophic and devastating wildfires have occurred repeatedly in the state in recent years. Nine of the twenty largest and seven of the twenty most destructive wildland fires in state history occurred in 2020 and 2021 when almost 7 million total acres burned. The 2020 August Complex Fire in northern California – the largest fire in California’s modern history – burned over 1 million acres by itself, and the 2021 Dixie Fire was almost 1 million acres. Two wildland fires in recent years burned over the crest of the Sierras, which had not been previously observed. In the last several years, tens of thousands of structures – almost entirely homes – have been destroyed from wildland fire, insured losses incurred are in the billions of dollars, prime habitat has been destroyed or damaged, and, tragically, hundreds of lives have been lost. In addition, millions of Californians have been exposed to unhealthy air quality due to the wildfires. Improving the health and resiliency of the state’s wildlands and forests to wildland fire are important to protecting public and environmental health and safety.

Wildland fires in the state can be broadly separated into two different types – fuel-driven and wind-driven. In a fuel-driven fire, fire prevention efforts, fuel breaks and fuels management, including prescribed fire, may be the most effective methods to reduce the risk and promote healthier and more resilient forests. In a wind-driven fire, however, home and community-hardening, including maintaining a defensible space buffer around a home are critical factors. Some of the most catastrophic fires, such as the 2018 Camp Fire, can exhibit characteristics of both fire types. Of note, there are multiple methods available to help reduce the risk wildland fire poses to communities across the state, and optimal resilience is obtained by coordinated implementation of those most suited for the particular location.

Communities have continued to expand into forested and other areas at high risk of wildland fire. Although relatively small in area, millions of homes are located in and approximately 25% of the state’s population lives in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) – loosely defined as a zone where development intermingles with undeveloped vegetative fuels. Expansion in these areas has increased the number of people and homes more likely to be affected by wildfire. Home hardening and vegetation management are key to a structure’s ability to survive a wildfire. Creating and maintaining defensible space is an important component of reducing a home’s risk of destruction from wildfire. In order to minimize wildfire risk, structures built in the WUI should be hardened against wildfire.

In response to the risks posed by wildfire to California, the state and its federal partners announced a shared stewardship strategy to increase the pace and scale of fuel reduction treatments to improve forest and wildland resilience to wildfire to one million acres annually by 2025, among other goals. This strategy and the steps to achieve it are detailed in the 2021 California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan (Action Plan) developed by the California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force (Task Force). In addition, an unprecedented amount of funding has been allocated for wildfire and forest resilience programs, including $2.8 billion in investments in last fiscal year’s budget.

The Task Force was originally created in 2018 and revamped for the implementation of the Action Plan. Its executive committee is composed of federal, state, tribal, and local government representatives and is co-chaired by the Secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency and the regional leader of the US Forest Service. Additional state members of the executive committee include California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research, and the California Environmental Protection Agency. The Task Force is supported by numerous additional public and private stakeholders, and has coordinated the collaborative multi-entity effort to complete the key actions identified in the Action Plan and achieve the state’s goals to increase forest and wildland resiliency and reduce the risk of wildland fire.

The Task Force meets regularly and releases regular updates on progress, including the availability of new planning tools and grant programs, and related scientific research, upcoming workshops, and other news.

Existing law:

1. Requires the Task Force to develop a comprehensive implementation strategy to track and ensure the achievement of the goals and key actions identified in the state’s “Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan” issued by the Task Force in January 2021. (Public Resources Code (PRC) §4771)
2. Requires the Task Force to submit, as part of the implementation strategy, a report to the appropriate policy and budget committees of the Legislature on progress made in achieving the goals and key actions identified in the state’s action plan, on state expenditures made to implement these key actions, and on additional resources and policy changes needed to achieve these goals and key action. (PRC §4771 (e)(1))
3. Authorizes CAL FIRE to administer the forestry assistance program to provide loans to encourage forest resource improvements and otherwise facilitate good forest land management through a program of financial, technical, and educational assistance, as well as through applied research. (PRC §4792)
4. Requires the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (CalOES) to enter into a joint powers agreement with CAL FIRE to develop and administer a comprehensive wildfire mitigation program to encourage cost-effective structure hardening and retrofitting that creates fire-resistant homes, businesses, and public buildings, and facilitate vegetation management, the creation and maintenance of defensible space, and other fuel modification activities that provide neighborhood or communitywide benefits against wildfire. (Government Code §8654.4)
5. Requires CAL FIRE to establish a local assistance grant program for fire prevention and home hardening education activities in California. (PRC §4124.5)
6. Establishes the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) pursuant to President Carter’s Executive Order 12127, effective April 1, 1979, to provide clear direction for emergency management and disaster response and recovery.
7. Establishes the federal Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program to support states, local communities, tribes, and territories as they undertake hazard mitigation projects, reducing the risks they face from disasters and natural hazards. (Title 42, United States Code §203)(42 USC 203)
8. Establishes the federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program to provide grants to communities during federal disasters. (42 USC 5133)
9. Establishes the federal Fire Management Assistance Grant Program to provide grant assistance to assist in reimbursement for equipment, supplies, and personnel to any state, tribal, or local government for the mitigation, management, and control of any declared fire on public or private forest land or grassland that threatens such destruction as would constitute a major disaster. (42 USC 5187)

PROPOSED LAW

This bill would require the Task Force, on or before July 1, 2024, and annually thereafter, to compile and post on its internet website specified information relating to certain state and federal grant programs related to fire prevention, as provided.

Specifically, this bill would:

1. Define “program” as any of the following:
   1. The Forestry Assistance Program.
   2. The Comprehensive Wildfire Mitigation Program.
   3. The Wildfire Prevention Grants Program.
   4. The local assistance grant program for fire prevention and home hardening education activities.
   5. The federal Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program.
   6. The federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.
   7. The federal Fire Management Assistance Grant Program.
   8. The federal Community Wildfire Defense Grant Program.
2. Require the Task Force, on or before July 1, 2024, and every July 1 thereafter, to compile and post on its internet website all of the following information for each program, for each fiscal year in which the Legislature appropriated funding:
   1. The amount of funding allocated from the program.
   2. The list of recipients and subrecipients that received an allocation from the program, including the location of the project.
   3. The amount of funding that has been encumbered by each recipient.
   4. A brief description of the project, including the location and the proposed schedule for the project’s completion.
   5. A brief description of the anticipated benefits of the project, which may include benefits for fire prevention and mitigation, habitat, forest resiliency, climate resiliency, public safety, or protection of important natural resources, including water quality and water supply.
3. Make multiple relevant legislative findings and declarations.

ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT

According to the author, “California has invested significant time and resources developing and implementing a comprehensive approach to wildfire related disaster preparedness, mitigation, and resilience. The California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan (Action Plan) lays out a detailed framework and associated implementation strategy and expenditure plan for establishing healthy and resilient forests and communities that can withstand and adapt to wildfire, drought, and climate change.

Implementation of the Action Plan requires coordination amongst state agencies and departments, the State Legislature, hundreds of stakeholders, and communities across California. The Task Force has oversight and coordination responsibility to ensure the Action Plan is implemented.”

“Implementation of the Action Plan also requires significant fiscal resources to undertake projects to improve forest health and resilience, create fuel breaks, harden homes and communities, and build resilient lifeline infrastructure to withstand wildfire disasters when they do occur. Since FY 2020-21, the State has appropriated approximately $2.8 billion for programs to support the State’s wildfire and forest resilience goals and objectives.”

“While wildfire and forest resilience projects have been and continue to be awarded to communities throughout the state, the data is reported piecemeal across various state agencies, departments, boards, and offices. Further, the reporting is not adequate to understand that status of projects and programs and how the investments are making a collective difference in communities. Understanding the status of current programs is vital information in order to target and maximize additional investments in fire prone areas.”

ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION

None received

COMMENTS

This bill is aligned with the Task Force’s purpose and goals. The Task Force is an important coordinator and convenor across the public and private sectors related to wildfire, wildland and forest resiliency, and related issues. The Task Force has a clear commitment to transparency, data collection, and communication, and acts essentially as a clearinghouse for wildfire-related information. For example, monthly updates highlight not only Task Force actions, but new federal grant programs and events, among other things. Although perhaps meant more in the context of scientific data, one of the Task Force’s goals is to “Expand and Improve Monitoring, Reporting, and Decision-Support Tools.”

Specific to projects and project expenditures, the Task Force currently posts high level information about planned expenditures based upon state budget appropriations on its website. This bill calls for more granular detail about each project funded in the particular categories. In the April 2023 “Governor’s’ Update”, the Task Force reported that its Monitoring, Reporting and Assessment Work Group is assembling federal, state, local, and private data on planned, active, and completed projects statewide, including those on forests, grasslands, shrublands, and covering approximately 60 different activities (type of work completed).The goal of this effort includes tracking progress toward state/federal acreage targets; facilitating regional planning and monitoring; and assessing benefits/costs beyond “acres treated.” The Task Force anticipates having a publicly available treatment tracking map and dashboard by summer 2023. It is unknown if the Work Group plans on including the information required by this bill, although there may well be some overlap.

Providing more granular detail in a single, user-friendly location facilitates transparency, oversight, and accountability. The author provided a November 2022 study by the Pew Charitable Trusts titled Wildfires: Burning through State Budgets which made three recommendations to policymakers. The third recommendation is:

“States should explore opportunities to better track and share data on wildfire spending. Wildfire spending data should be made more accessible, transparent, and comprehensive across all levels of government, which could improve intergovernmental coordination and provide policymakers with evidence to more strategically allocate resources.”

This bill seeks to implement this recommendation.

Specified programs are not comprehensive. The state and federal government fund wildfire prevention, wildland and forest resilience, community hardening, and vegetation management through multiple grant programs. There is apparent overlap in the high level goals of different grant programs. It is unclear why the four specified CAL FIRE grant programs were chosen, but it should be noted that other state entities also fund wildfire prevention grant programs. Further, CAL FIRE’s Forest Health program is consistently one of the single largest sources of grant funding at CAL FIRE and is for forest resilience - one of the author’s goals. While there may be merit in starting with a limited number of programs, the information provided will not be comprehensive (as noted in the Assembly Natural Resources Committee’s bill analysis) and is likely to omit important and related efforts conducted under other programs. This means it is likely that the author’s stated goals will not be realized, and short of the Pew recommendation cited as inspiration. As further noted in the Assembly Appropriations Committee’s bill analysis, CAL FIRE, the California Natural Resources Agency, and Cal OES all anticipate either no or minor and absorbable costs as they already collect the required information from grantees. This same information is required to be collected of other state-level wildfire and forest resilience-related grant programs. There is merit in the author’s argument that the information is siloed and not readily available.

In view of this, the Committee may wish to amend the bill to include a more comprehensive list of wildfire and forest resilience, community hardening, and other related grant programs. [Amendment #1]

The author may wish to consider, as the bill moves forward, what an appropriate deadline is for the display of granular information from the more comprehensive list of projects as the existing deadline is only six months from enactment.

Technical amendments. This bill requires the state to report on federal grant programs that are not necessarily always administered by the state. The Task Force exhibits close cooperation between federal and state entities, but there may be instances where federal grant information is not readily-available to the state. In addition, while more detailed information regarding a grantee’s project is required, the current status of the project is not included.

In view of this, the Committee may wish to qualify the federal grant reporting requirement, and additionally require that the current status of a project be reported as well. [Amendment #2]

California Transportation Commission model. According to the Assembly Natural Resources Committee’s bill analysis, SB 1 (Beale, Chapter 5, Statutes of 2017), also known as the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017, provided funding for local jurisdictions to fix and maintain roads and bridges through transportation related taxes and fees. SB 1 requires the California Transportation Commission (CTC) to track the performance of all SB 1 funded programs under its purview and report to the public how well recipients of SB 1 funds are delivering on promises made to the taxpayers. As a result, CTC has tracked $17.36 billion in gas tax expenditures across more than 9,000 transportation projects. CTC’s website^[1] tracking the expenditures includes details on the project name, implementing agency, project description, cost, fund type, project status, federal and state districts, geography, and date when the project info was updated.

Grant programs identified in this bill.

• Forestry assistance program. Under this program, CAL FIRE works with private landowners, particularly smaller nonindustrial landowners, to upgrade the management of their lands, and improve both the productivity of the land and the degree of protection and enhancement of the forest resource system as a whole.
• Comprehensive wildfire mitigation program. Enacted pursuant to AB 38 (Wood, Chapter 391, Statutes of 2019), this program requires the Natural Resources Agency, in consultation with the Office of the State Fire Marshal and the Task Force, to review the regional capacity of each county that contains a very high fire hazard severity zone to improve forest health, fire resilience, and safety. Cal OES can enter into a joint powers agreement with CAL FIRE to administer a comprehensive wildfire mitigation and assistance program to encourage cost-effective structure hardening and facilitate vegetation management.
• Wildfire Prevention Grants. CAL FIRE provides grants for local projects in and near fire threatened communities that focus on increasing the protection of people, structures, and communities. Qualified activities include hazardous fuels reduction, wildfire prevention planning and wildfire prevention education with an emphasis on improving public health and safety while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  CAL FIRE considers the wildfire hazards and risk of an area, the geographic balance of projects, and whether the project is complementary to other wildfire prevention or forest health activities when awarding grants.
• Local assistance grant program. This program is fire prevention and home hardening education activities. Groups eligible for grants include local agencies, resource conservation districts, fire safe councils, the California Conservation Corps, certified community conservation corps, University of California Cooperative Extension, CaliforniaVolunteers, Native American tribes, and qualified nonprofit organizations.
• Federal Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC). This grant program provides funds annually for hazard mitigation planning and projects to reduce risk of damage before a disaster. Funding is available in federal funding for eligible FEMA BRIC projects and project scoping activities.
• Federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HGMP). FEMA provides hazard mitigation funding assistance for eligible mitigation measures that reduce disaster losses. "Hazard mitigation" is any sustainable action that reduces or eliminates long-term risk to people and property from future disasters. The funds are administered by Cal OES.
• Federal Fire Management Assistance Grant Program (FMAG). Administered by FEMA, grants are available to states, local, and tribal governments, for the mitigation, management, and control of fires on publicly or privately owned forests or grasslands, which threaten such destruction as would constitute a major disaster.

Recent related legislation

SB 675 (Limón, 2023) among other provisions would require the Task Force, on or before June 30, 2025 and in consultation with others, to develop a strategic action plan to expand the use of prescribed grazing to support the state’s efforts to improve wildfire and forest resiliency, and reduce community fire risk. (This bill is pending before the Assembly Appropriations Committee.)

AB 388 (Connolly, 2023) among other provisions would authorize the California Natural Resources Agency’s conservancies, departments, and boards to award regional block grants to specified entities to implement regional plans, strategies, agreements, and initiatives to achieve the goals and key actions of these plans and strategies to improve wildfire and forest resilience, including achieving the Action Plan’s goals. (This bill is pending on the Senate floor.)

SB 456 (Laird, Chapter 387, Statutes of 2021) directed the Task Force in collaboration and coordination with other state entities and others to implement the Action Plan. In addition, SB 456 formally aligned the Action Plan with the state’s climate adaptation and resiliency framework, established annual reporting requirements, and required the Task Force to update the Action Plan every five years, as provided.

SUGGESTED AMENDMENTS

AMENDMENT 1

In proposed PRC 4772(a):

• Delete paragraph (3) and renumber.
• Insert after the new paragraph (3) (regarding local assistance grants):

“(4) The department’s grants programs not otherwise identified in paragraphs (1) – (3), including, but not limited to, wildfire prevention, forest health, forest legacy, urban and community forestry, forest health research, forest improvement, wildfire resilience, workforce and business development and volunteer fire capacity.”

• Add a new paragraph at the end of the list that reads:

“(9) Any other relevant publicly-funded grant program administered in California to benefit forest health and resilience, harden homes and communities, prevent and mitigate wildfires, as feasible.”

AMENDMENT 2

In proposed PRC 4772(b):

• Add “as applicable” after “Legislature appropriated funding” in (b).
• Insert “current status” between “location” and “and the proposed schedule” in paragraph (4).

SUPPORT

BuildStrong California (sponsor)

American Property Casualty Insurance Federation

Humboldt Redwood Company

Mendocino Redwood Company

Mesa Water District

Personal Insurance Federation of California

OPPOSITION

None Received

-- END --

1. https://rebuildingca.ca.gov/map ↑

ASSEMBLY THIRD READING

ATR Bill Id:AB 788

Author:(Petrie-Norris)

As Introduced Ver:February 13, 2023

Majority vote

SUMMARY

Requires the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force (Task Force), on or before July 1, 2024, and annually thereafter, to compile and post on its internet website specified information relating to specified state and federal grant programs relating to fire prevention.

Major Provisions

1. Defines "program" as any of the following programs: the Forestry Assistance Program; the Comprehensive Wildfire Mitigation Program; the Wildfire Prevention Grants Program; the local assistance grant program for fire prevention and home hardening education activities; the federal Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program; the federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program; the federal Fire Management Assistance Grant Program; and, the federal Community Wildfire Defense Grant program.
2. Requires, on or before July 1, 2024, and every July 1 thereafter, the Task Force to compile and post on its internet website specified information for each program, for each fiscal year in which the Legislature appropriated funding.

COMMENTS

The Pew Charitable Trusts November 2022 report, Wildfires: Burning Through State Budgets, made the following recommendations for policymakers who are tasked with managing the growing risks and spending associated with wildfire:

1. States should evaluate and strengthen current budgeting practices to account for growing risk. By comparing actual spending versus expected spending, assessing the threat of future fires, and implementing other tools, states can more accurately understand how much to budget for wildfire management, including mitigation.
2. States should explore opportunities to better track and share data on wildfire spending. Wildfire spending data should be made more accessible, transparent, and comprehensive across all levels of government, which could improve intergovernmental coordination and provide policymakers with evidence to more strategically allocate resources.

The author argues that understanding the status of current programs is vital information to target existing and future investments. Data is also needed to understand the impacts previous investments achieved and to make program modifications in improved outcomes, to the extent possible.

Grant reporting is currently required for all of the grant programs listed in the bill, but that information is siloed by program and by agency, and there is not a place where all spending on wildfire prevention activities can be tracked by project type or geographic implementation.

With the impacts of climate change exacerbating drought and increasing unpredictability in weather patterns, tracking the efficacy of investments in forest health and fire risk prevention will be an ongoing priority.

AB 788 require the Task Force to create and maintain a comprehensive data portal, including a searchable data base of projects by city, county, and legislative district, on wildfire and forest resilience programs, projects, and expenditures. According to the author, the sheer magnitude of investments needed to increase the pace and scale of wildfire and forest resilience activities requires an accurate understanding of where investments have been made and where needs remain.

According to the Author

Implementation of the Action Plan also requires significant fiscal resources to undertake projects to improve forest health and resilience, create fuel breaks, harden homes and communities, and build resilient lifeline infrastructure to withstand wildfire disasters when they do occur. Since FY 2020-21, the State has appropriated approximately $2.8 billion for programs to support the State's wildfire and forest resilience goals and objectives. While wildfire and forest resilience projects have been and continue to be awarded to communities throughout the state, the data is reported piecemeal across various state agencies, departments, boards, and offices. Further, the reporting is not adequate to understand that status of projects and programs and how the investments are making a collective difference in communities. Understanding the status of current programs is vital information in order to target and maximize additional investments in fire prone areas.

Arguments in Support

The Humboldt and Mendocino Redwood Companies write, "Creating a location on the task force website that brings together all of this work is important for many reasons. Planning for effective future fuel reduction treatments will be better informed if all past work in a given watershed can be found in one location. Maintenance needs for projects like shaded fuel breaks can be ascertained by consulting the website to find older treatments. Firefighting agencies might also refer to the website during wildfire events to find strategic locations where fuel reduction work has been completed."

Arguments in Opposition

None on file

FISCAL COMMENTS

According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, this bill would result in no additional costs to the Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention; minor and absorbable costs to the Natural Resources Agency; and, minor and absorbable costs to Governor's Office of Emergency Services.

VOTES

ASM NATURAL RESOURCES: 11-0-0

YES: Luz Rivas, Flora, Addis, Friedman, Hoover, Mathis, Muratsuchi, Pellerin, Ward, Wood, Zbur

ASM APPROPRIATIONS: 15-0-1

YES: Holden, Megan Dahle, Bryan, Calderon, Wendy Carrillo, Dixon, Mike Fong, Hart, Lowenthal, Mathis, Papan, Pellerin, Sanchez, Weber, Ortega

ABS, ABST OR NV: Robert Rivas

UPDATED

VERSION: February 13, 2023

CONSULTANT: Paige Brokaw / NAT. RES. / (916) 319-2092 FN: 0000676

Date of Hearing: May 10, 2023

ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

Chris Holden, Chair

ABPCA Bill Id:AB 788

Author:(Petrie-Norris) – As Introduced Ver:February 13, 2023

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

SUMMARY:

This bill requires, on or before July 1, 2024, and annually thereafter, the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force (Task Force), to compile and post on its website information about certain state and federal fire prevention grant programs.

Specifically, this bill:

1. Defines “program” as any of the following programs: Forestry Assistance Program, Comprehensive Wildfire Mitigation Program, Wildfire Prevention Grants Program, the local assistance grant program for fire prevention and home hardening education activities, the federal Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, the federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, the federal Fire Management Assistance Grant Program, and the federal Community Wildfire Defense Grant program.
2. Requires, on or before July 1, 2024, and every July 1 thereafter, the Task Force to compile and post on its website all of the following information for each program, for each fiscal year in which the Legislature appropriated funding:
   1. The amount of funding allocated from the program.
   2. The list of recipients and subrecipients that received an allocation from the program, including the location of the project.
   3. The amount of funding encumbered by each recipient.
   4. A brief description of the project, including the location and the proposed schedule for the project’s completion.
   5. A brief description of the anticipated benefits of the project, which may include benefits for fire prevention and mitigation, habitat, forest resiliency, climate resiliency, public safety, or protection of important natural resources, including water quality and water supply.

FISCAL EFFECT:

1) The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) anticipates no additional costs as a result of this bill, because in its view, it already tracks and reports grant award determinations and supporting information such as funding allocations, project descriptions and locations, and project benefits for all its grant programs, including the programs included in this bill.

2) The California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) anticipates minor and absorbable costs as a result of this bill, because in the agency’s view, all the reporting required by this bill is already required under current law. CNRA cites three major reports that are due annually that are largely duplicative of what is required in this bill, namely CAL FIRE’s annual fire prevention activities report, the Task Force’s annual report, and the Wildfire Resilience Budget Implementation report.

3) The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) anticipates minor and absorbable costs as a result of this bill, because in its view, it already tracks and reports on the three federal programs it administers that are included in this bill.

However, because this bill has the primary purpose of creating a reporting requirement, it is a candidate for the committee’s suspense file, consistent with the committee’s rules and practice.

COMMENTS:

1) Purpose. According to the author:

Since FY 2020-21, the State has appropriated approximately $2.8 billion for programs to support the State’s wildfire and forest resilience goals and objectives. While wildfire and forest resilience projects have been and continue to be awarded to communities throughout the state, the data is reported piecemeal across various state agencies, departments, boards, and offices. Further, the reporting is not adequate to understand that status of projects and programs and how the investments are making a collective difference in communities. Understanding the status of current programs is vital information in order to target and maximize additional investments in fire prone areas.

2) Background.

Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force. The Task Force was established in 2018 to develop a framework for establishing healthy and resilient forests that can withstand and adapt to wildfire, drought, and a changing climate. The Task Force developed the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan in 2021 to integrate recommendations from existing state and federal plans that tackle various aspects of the state’s forest health and wildfire crisis. The Action Plan advances nearly 100 actions under four goals, namely to (a) increase the pace and scale of forest health projects, (b) strengthen community protection, (c) manage forests to achieve the state’s economic and environmental goals, and (d) drive innovation and measure progress. The Action Plan will be updated every five years; the next plan will be released in January 2026.

Wildlife Resilience Funding. The Legislative Analyst’s Office notes the state historically has provided some baseline funding from the General Fund for wildfire prevention and resilience activities, typically in the tens of millions of dollars annually. However, the state has greatly increased its funding for such activities in recent years. The fiscal year (FY) 2020-21, 2021-22, and 2022-23 budgets committed $2.8 billion over four years to over two dozen programs to continue strengthening forest and wildfire resilience, with CAL FIRE receiving the largest share (approximately 60%). Of this total, $2 billion is from the General Fund and the remaining $755 million is from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. The Governor’s January budget for FY 2023-24 proposes maintaining 97% of this funding. In addition, the programs listed in this bill that are overseen by Cal OES are federally funded and have received significant amounts of funding in the last several years. For example, in 2022, Cal OES secured $180 million for nine projects submitted for FY 2021 through the BRIC program to support local communities most at risk for hazards, such as flood, earthquake, wildfire, drought, and sea level rise.

The author argues that understanding the status of current programs is important for transparency and accountability and to better target existing and future investments. The author and supporters of this bill contend that while reporting is currently required for all the grant programs covered in this bill, the information is siloed by program and by agency, and there is not a centralized location where all spending on wildfire prevention activities can be tracked at a more granular level by project type, geographic location, and amount allocated and encumbered in each fiscal year.

SB 1 Project Reporting. SB 1 (Beall), Chapter 5, Statutes of 2017, also known as the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017, invests $54 billion over a decade to fix roads, freeways, and bridges across the state and to increase support for transit, active transportation, intercity rail, and safety. The state’s “Rebuilding California” website includes an interactive map and a frequently updated project list with detailed information about planned, in-progress, and completed projects, including the implementing agency, project description, cost, fiscal year, project status, state legislative and congressional districts, counties and cities, Caltrans districts, and the date the project information was last updated. According to the supporters of this bill, this platform might serve as a model for tracking and reporting on the state’s wildfire resilience investments.

The agencies implicated by this bill do not view the requirements of this bill as being different or additive to their current reporting practices. The author may wish to be more specific about the types of information, and the level of detail this bill is to require of agencies in their reporting.

Analysis Prepared by: Nikita Koraddi / APPR. / (916) 319-2081

Date of Hearing: March 27, 2023

ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES

Luz Rivas, Chair

ABPCA Bill Id:AB 788 (

Author:Petrie-Norris) – As Introduced Ver:February 13, 2023

SUBJECT: Fire prevention: grant programs: reporting

SUMMARY: Requires the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force (Task Force), on or before July 1, 2024, and annually thereafter, to compile and post on its internet website specified information relating to specified state and federal grant programs relating to fire prevention.

EXISTING LAW:

1. Requires the Task Force to develop a comprehensive implementation strategy to track and ensure the achievement of the goals and key actions identified in the state’s “Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan” issued by the Task Force in January 2021. (Public Resources Code (PRC) § 4771)
2. Requires the Task Force to submit, as part of the implementation strategy, a report to the appropriate policy and budget committees of the Legislature on progress made in achieving the goals and key actions identified in the state’s action plan, on state expenditures made to implement these key actions, and on additional resources and policy changes needed to achieve these goals and key action. (PRC § 4771 (e)(1))
3. Authorizes the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) to administer the forestry assistance program to provide loans to encourage forest resource improvements and otherwise facilitate good forest land management through a program of financial, technical, and educational assistance, as well as through applied research. (PRC § 4792)
4. Requires the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (CalOES) to enter into a joint powers agreement with CAL FIRE to develop and administer a comprehensive wildfire mitigation program to encourage cost-effective structure hardening and retrofitting that creates fire-resistant homes, businesses, and public buildings, and facilitate vegetation management, the creation and maintenance of defensible space, and other fuel modification activities that provide neighborhood or communitywide benefits against wildfire. (Government Code § 8654.4)
5. Requires CAL FIRE to establish a local assistance grant program for fire prevention and home hardening education activities in California. (PRC § 4124.5)
6. Establishes the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) pursuant to President Carter’s Executive Order 12127, effective April 1, 1979, to provide clear direction for emergency management and disaster response and recovery.
7. Establishes the federal Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program to support states, local communities, tribes and territories as they undertake hazard mitigation projects, reducing the risks they face from disasters and natural hazards. (42 United States Code (U.S.C.) § 203)
8. Establishes the federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program to provide grants to communities during federal disasters. (42 U.S.C. 5133)
9. Establishes the federal Fire Management Assistance Grant Program to provide grant assistance to assist in reimbursement for equipment, supplies, and personnel to any state, tribal, or local government for the mitigation, management, and control of any declared fire on public or private forest land or grassland that threatens such destruction as would constitute a major disaster. (42 U.S.C. 5187)

THIS BILL:

1. Defines “program” as any of the following programs:
   1. The Forestry Assistance Program.
   2. The Comprehensive Wildfire Mitigation Program.
   3. The Wildfire Prevention Grants Program.
   4. The local assistance grant program for fire prevention and home hardening education activities.
   5. The federal Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program.
   6. The federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.
   7. The federal Fire Management Assistance Grant Program.
   8. The federal Community Wildfire Defense Grant program.
2. Requires, on or before July 1, 2024, and every July 1 thereafter, the Task Force to compile and post on its internet website all of the following information for each program, for each fiscal year in which the Legislature appropriated funding:
   1. The amount of funding allocated from the program.
   2. The list of recipients and subrecipients that received an allocation from the program, including the location of the project.
   3. The amount of funding that has been encumbered by each recipient.
   4. A brief description of the project, including the location and the proposed schedule for the project’s completion.
   5. A brief description of the anticipated benefits of the project, which may include benefits for fire prevention and mitigation, habitat, forest resiliency, climate resiliency, public safety, or protection of important natural resources, including water quality and water supply.

FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown.

COMMENTS:

1. Need for the bill. According to the author:

California has invested significant time and resources developing and implementing a comprehensive approach to wildfire related disaster preparedness, mitigation, and resilience. The California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan (Action Plan) lays out a detailed framework and associated implementation strategy and expenditure plan for establishing healthy and resilient forests and communities that can withstand and adapt to wildfire, drought, and climate change.

Implementation of the Action Plan requires coordination amongst state agencies and departments, the State Legislature, hundreds of stakeholders, and communities across California. The Task Force has oversight and coordination responsibility to ensure the Action Plan is implemented.

Implementation of the Action Plan also requires significant fiscal resources to undertake projects to improve forest health and resilience, create fuel breaks, harden homes and communities, and build resilient lifeline infrastructure to withstand wildfire disasters when they do occur. Since FY 2020-21, the State has appropriated approximately $2.8 billion for programs to support the State’s wildfire and forest resilience goals and objectives.

While wildfire and forest resilience projects have been and continue to be awarded to communities throughout the state, the data is reported piecemeal across various state agencies, departments, boards, and offices. Further, the reporting is not adequate to understand that status of projects and programs and how the investments are making a collective difference in communities. Understanding the status of current programs is vital information in order to target and maximize additional investments in fire prone areas.

1. Wildfire prevention. Wildfires have been growing in size, duration, and destructivity over the past 20 years. Growing wildfire risk is due to accumulating fuels, a warming climate, and expanding development in the wildland-urban interface. The 2020 fire season broke numerous records. Five of California’s six largest fires in modern history burned at the same time, destroying thousands of buildings, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes, and exposing millions of residents to dangerously unhealthy air. Managing forest health and efforts to restrict fire spread is vital to wildfire prevention. The 2021-2022 Budget Act committed $2.8 billion over four years to continue strengthening forest and wildfire resilience statewide. The Governor’s January 10 budget proposed maintaining $5.7 billion (97%) of that funding.
2. California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force. The Task Force is a collaborative effort to align federal, state, local, public and private, and tribal entities together to support projects tailored for regional fire prevention needs.

The Task Force’s January 2021 California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan (Action Plan) is the initial five-year plan for implementing the Agreement for Shared Stewardship of California’s Forest and Rangelands (Shared Stewardship Agreement) with the United States Forest Service (USFS), coordinating the state’s forestry efforts with other federal, local, tribal, regional, and private organizations. The Action Plan details goals to treat 500,000 acres annually by 2025 through the Shared Stewardship Agreement; to underscore building resilience in threatened communities through adaptive strategies, such as hardening homes, buildings, and infrastructure, and increasing defensible space and fuel breaks; forest thinning and prescribed fire; and, move innovation in monitoring and research.

The Action Plan aligns with the $2.8 billion in investments in last fiscal year’s budget to combat wildfire risk and improve the health of forested landscapes. The Task Force’s expenditure plan^[1] identifies the breakdown of the funding across the various wildfire prevention programs, including those included in this bill.

1. Fire prevention financing programs. This bill requires the Task Force to compile and post information on legislative appropriations for the following programs. It is important to note that these programs are not an exhaustive list of programs appropriating taxpayer dollars for forest health and wildfire prevention in California.

• Forestry assistance program. Under this program, CAL FIRE works with private landowners, particularly smaller nonindustrial landowners, to upgrade the management of their lands, and improve both the productivity of the land and the degree of protection and enhancement of the forest resource system as a whole.
• Comprehensive wildfire mitigation program. Enacted pursuant to AB 38 (Wood, Chapter 391, Statutes of 2019), this program requires the Natural Resources Agency, in consultation with the Office of the State Fire Marshal and the Task Force, to review the regional capacity of each county that contains a very high fire hazard severity zone to improve forest health, fire resilience, and safety. Cal OES can enter into a joint powers agreement with CAL FIRE to administer a comprehensive wildfire mitigation and assistance program to encourage cost-effective structure hardening and facilitate vegetation management.
• Wildfire Prevention Grants. CAL FIRE provides grants for local projects in and near fire threatened communities that focus on increasing the protection of people, structures, and communities. Qualified activities include hazardous fuels reduction, wildfire prevention planning and wildfire prevention education with an emphasis on improving public health and safety while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  CAL FIRE considers the wildfire hazards and risk of an area, the geographic balance of projects, and whether the project is complementary to other wildfire prevention or forest health activities when awarding grants.
• Local assistance grant program. This program is fire prevention and home hardening education activities. Groups eligible for grants include local agencies, resource conservation districts, fire safe councils, the California Conservation Corps, certified community conservation corps, University of California Cooperative Extension, CaliforniaVolunteers, Native American tribes, and qualified nonprofit organizations.
• Federal Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC). This grant program provides funds annually for hazard mitigation planning and projects to reduce risk of damage before a disaster. Funding is available in federal funding for eligible FEMA BRIC projects and project scoping activities.
• Federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HGMP). FEMA provides hazard mitigation funding assistance for eligible mitigation measures that reduce disaster losses. "Hazard mitigation" is any sustainable action that reduces or eliminates long-term risk to people and property from future disasters. The funds are administered by Cal OES.
• Federal Fire Management Assistance Grant Program (FMAG). Administered by FEMA, grants are available to states, local, and tribal governments, for the mitigation, management, and control of fires on publicly or privately owned forests or grasslands, which threaten such destruction as would constitute a major disaster.

1. Keeping tabs on how the money is spent. The Pew Charitable Trusts November 2022 report, Wildfires: Burning Through State Budgets, made the following recommendations for policymakers who are tasked with managing the growing risks and spending associated with wildfire:

• States should evaluate and strengthen current budgeting practices to account for growing risk. By comparing actual spending versus expected spending, assessing the threat of future fires, and implementing other tools, states can more accurately understand how much to budget for wildfire management, including mitigation.
• States should explore opportunities to better track and share data on wildfire spending. Wildfire spending data should be made more accessible, transparent, and comprehensive across all levels of government, which could improve intergovernmental coordination and provide policymakers with evidence to more strategically allocate resources.

The author argues that understanding the status of current programs is vital information to target existing and future investments. Data is also needed to understand the impacts previous investments achieved and to make program modifications in improved outcomes, to the extent possible.

Grant reporting is currently required for all of the aforementioned grant programs, but that information is siloed by program and by agency, and there is not a place where all spending on wildfire prevention activities can be tracked by project type or geographic implementation.

1. Tracking state funding. With a $22 billion budget shortfall, and multi-billion dollar deficits in the foreseeable future, tracking taxpayer dollars to ensure they are spent as efficiently and effectively as possible is both pragmatic and responsible. In addition, with the impacts of climate change exacerbating drought and increasing unpredictability in weather patterns, tracking the efficacy of investments in forest health and fire risk prevention will be an ongoing priority.

In 2017, the Legislature approved SB 1 (Bealle, Chapter 5, Statutes of 2017), also known as the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017, which provided funding for local jurisdictions to fix and maintain roads and bridges through transportation related taxes and fees. SB 1 requires the California Transportation Commission (CTC) to track the performance of all SB 1 funded programs under its purview and report to the public how well recipients of SB 1 funds are delivering on promises made to the taxpayers. As a result, CTC has tracked $17.36 billion in gas tax expenditures across more than 9,000 transportation projects. CTC’s website tracking the expenditures includes details on the project name, implementing agency, project description, cost, fund type, project status, federal and state districts, geography, and date when the project info was updated.

The CTC’s ability to detail information for more than $17 billion provides a model for the Task Force to map the state’s $2.7+ billion investments in wildfire prevention.

1. This bill. AB 788 require the Task Force to create and maintain a comprehensive data portal, including a searchable data base of projects by city, county, and legislative district, on wildfire and forest resilience programs, projects, and expenditures.

The author’s intent is to help the state fully understand how California’s investments are influencing the state’s overall wildfire risk, where resources have been directed, what the outcomes have been, and where resources need to be directed in future budgets and programs. The sheer magnitude of investments needed to increase the pace and scale of wildfire and forest resilience activities requires an accurate understanding of where investments have been made and where needs remain.

Last May, the Task Force announced the Forest & Wildland Stewardship Interagency Tracking System on its website to report on the status of wildfire and forest resilience projects. The goal is to provide transparency and accountability for state and federal land management efforts toward the acreage targets stated in the Agreement for Shared Stewardship and other documents, including strategy documents created by the Task Force. Data will be collected on the project, the treatment, and the activity. The expected product is a spatial database that can provide both summary information on statewide activity and GIS maps capable of showing local implementation, for use by policymakers, land managers, scientists, and the public.

That effort would grease the skids to implement this bill, should it be enacted, and build a system for tracking wildfire prevention investments much like the one for SB 1 funds.

1. Related legislation. AB 388 (Connolly) would, among other things, require the director of CAL FIRE to post on its internet website a description, amount, and outcome of each regional block grant or fund transfer to implement projects that contribute to the achievement of the Action Plan’s goals. AB 388 is scheduled to be heard in the Assembly Natural Resources Committee on March 27.

REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:

Support

American Property Casualty Insurance Association
Buildstrong Coalition
Humboldt and Mendocino Redwood Companies
Personal Insurance Federation of California

Opposition

None on file.

Analysis Prepared by: Paige Brokaw / NAT. RES. /

1. Expenditure Plan – California Wildfire & Forest Resilience (wildfiretaskforce.org) ↑