(a)
The Office of the State Fire Marshal shall establish the Community Wildfire Mitigation Assistance Program to coordinate regional and local efforts with state policies, strategies, and programs for community wildfire mitigation in order to improve wildfire preparedness and prevention, with an emphasis on the most vulnerable communities.
(b)
The program shall do all of the following:
(1)
Provide technical assistance to local jurisdictions with community wildfire preparedness and prevention services and identify funding opportunities and best practices, including, but not necessarily limited to, defensible space, structure hardening, fuel reduction around communities, wildland
building code standards, and land use planning.
(2)
Identify both of the following:
(A)
Programs administered by state, regional, and local agencies to address and minimize the risks of wildfire and coordinate the implementation of those programs.
(B)
Public and private programs that may be leveraged to facilitate defensible space, home hardening, and community fuel reduction to minimize the impacts of wildfire to habitable structures.
(3)
Conduct outreach efforts to regional and local wildfire mitigation groups, including assessing compliance, educating and informing regional and local agencies, stakeholders, and the public of applicable new laws and regulations.
(4)
Provide technical
consultation with the development of city and county safety elements.
(5)
Develop guidance and decision-support tools useful for data visualization, planning, and analysis.
(6)
Establish a statewide clearinghouse for use by state, regional, and local entities to provide a centralized source of data, information, research articles, studies, white papers, reports, best practices, model ordinances, demonstration projects, tools, and other resources related to community wildfire preparedness, mitigation, and risk reduction.
