(a)
There is hereby established in the department the Regional Forest and Fire Capacity Program to support regional leadership to build local and regional capacity and develop, prioritize, and implement strategies and projects that create fire adapted communities and landscapes by improving ecosystem health, community wildfire preparedness, and fire resilience. For strategies and projects that seek to create fire adapted communities, regional entities shall maximize risk reductions to people and property, especially in the most vulnerable communities.
(b)
(1)
The department shall, upon an appropriation by the Legislature for these purposes, do both of the following:
(A)
(i)
Provide block grants to regional entities to develop regional strategies that develop governance structures, identify wildfire risks, foster collaboration, and prioritize and implement projects within the region to achieve the goals of the program.
(ii)
Regional priority strategy development shall be in coordination with public landowners and other relevant forest and fire planning efforts in wildfire and forest resiliency planning.
(B)
Ensure, to the extent feasible, there are regional entities to cover every part of the state that contains or is adjacent to a very high or high fire hazard severity zone identified by the State Fire Marshal pursuant to Section 51178 of the Government Code or Article 9 (commencing with Section 4201).
(2)
Regional entities may implement program activities directly or
provide subgrants or contracts, and collaborative planning efforts with local entities, including municipal governments, tribal governments, nongovernmental organizations, community organizations, fire safe councils, land trusts, resource conservation districts, joint power authorities, special districts, fire departments, residents, private and public forest landowners and managers, businesses, and others, to assist the regional entity in accomplishing all of the following objectives:
(A)
Develop regional priority strategies that develop and support fire adapted communities and landscapes by improving forest health, watershed health, fire risk reduction, or fire resilience needed to achieve local, regional, or statewide public safety, climate resiliency, and ecosystem goals included in the “Agreement for Shared Stewardship of California’s Forest and Rangelands” and “California’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan.”
(B)
Complete project development and permitting to generate implementation-ready projects that address regional landscape resilience and community fire protection priorities for funding consideration.
(C)
Implement forest management demonstration projects that showcase scalable models for management, funding, and achieving and quantifying multiple benefits.
(D)
Implement community fire preparedness demonstration projects that create durable risk reduction for structures and critical community infrastructure.
(E)
Develop outreach, education, and training as needed to facilitate and build capacity to implement this section.
(F)
Collect and assess data and information as needed to identify and
map communities, infrastructure, forests, and watersheds at risk of, and vulnerable to, wildfire, in collaboration with appropriate state agencies, including, but not limited to, the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
(c)
The department shall, upon an appropriation by the Legislature for these purposes, provide block grants to eligible coordinating organizations under the program to support the statewide implementation of the program through coordination of and technical assistance to regional entities, as well as to support forest health and resilience efforts across regions and throughout the state.
(d)
To maximize the benefits of the program, the department shall do all of the following:
(1)
Facilitate peer-to-peer learning within and between regions to share information, experiences, and resources to
build regional capacity.
(2)
Provide technical assistance to regions to enhance regional capacity and assist in the development and prioritization of projects.
(3)
Assist regions in identifying potential funding sources for regional priorities.
(4)
Encourage the development of local cost share opportunities.
(5)
Publish and update on the department’s internet website the following information related to implementation of the program:
(A)
A list of regional entities and eligible coordinating organizations funded by the program.
(B)
The outcomes of any block grant provided to a regional entity or eligible coordinating
organization, including a summary of the benefits, such as the number of people and properties for which wildfire risk has been mitigated, ecosystem health benefits, or other measurements of progress towards state goals for public health and safety, climate resilience, and biodiversity, as applicable.
(C)
A description of progress towards ensuring there are regional entities to cover every part of the state that contains or is adjacent to a very high or high fire hazard severity zone identified by the State Fire Marshal pursuant to Section 51178 of the Government Code or Article 9 (commencing with Section 4201).
(e)
Until July 1, 2025, the department may authorize advance payments on a grant awarded under this section in accordance with subdivision (d) of Section 11019.1 of the Government Code.
