Adoption of April 2021 Wildfire and Forest Resilience Early Action Package

On April 13, 2021, the Governor signed SB 85 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review), which amends the 2020‑21 Budget Act to provide additional funding for various wildfire and forest resilience activities. This post provides a brief summary of this funding package.

Provides $536 Million for Various Programs As shown in Figure 1, the package includes $536 million in 2020‑21 for roughly two dozen different programs managed by 14 departments. Over half of the funds—$283 million—support programs designed to promote healthy forests and landscapes, generally by removing hazardous fuels. More than one one-third of the funds—$198 million—support installation and maintenance of wildfire fuel breaks. The remaining funds—totaling $55 million—support projects to encourage community hardening, forest sector economic stimulus, and science-based forest management. Most of the funding in the package is to support existing programs.

Most Funding Is One-Time From General Fund. Of the total funding for the package, $411 million is from the General Fund and $125 million is from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF). The amounts from the General Fund are provided on a one-time basis, though in many cases departments anticipate expending the funds over multiple years. The amounts from GGRF are intended to bring total GGRF spending on forest health and prescribed fire activities to $200 million annually, consistent with requirements in Chapter 626 of 2018 (SB 901, Dodd). (The 2020‑21 Budget Act provided less than the statutory direction because of uncertainty about the amount of GGRF revenues at the time the budget act was adopted in June 2020.)

Early Action Intended to Provide Immediate Funding in Advance of Fire Season. The adoption of the early action package is intended to enable departments to start work immediately on projects rather than waiting until the passage of the 2021‑22 budget in June. By starting work immediately, the administration anticipates that projects will be in place roughly one fire season sooner than they would have been otherwise. For example, some projects funded by this package could be implemented in time to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires in fall 2021—peak fire season in California—rather than being completed in 2022 if they had been funded as part of the 2021‑22 budget.

Package Includes Language Expediting Projects and Directing Fire Prevention Funding. The bill includes language intended to support certain departments’ efforts to complete projects quickly by expediting their contracting processes, such as through exempting them from competitive bidding requirements. Additionally, the package includes language intended to ensure that fire prevention grants are distributed to fire prone areas throughout the state regardless of vegetation type. Specifically, the language requires the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) to prioritize fire prevention projects in locations of high fire risk and that would protect large numbers of structures and people relative to the size of the grant. The language also requires CalFire to do additional outreach to areas of the state that historically have had low application rates for these grants.

Additional Wildfire-Related Budget Actions Proposed for 2021‑22 Budget. In addition to early action funding, the Governor’s January budget proposed funding in 2021‑22 for wildfire and forest resilience activities (for a total of $1 billion over the two years). In our recent publication The 2021‑22 Budget: Wildfire Resilience Package, we identified overarching issues for the Legislature to consider as it evaluates the Governor’s current- and budget-year proposals. We also provided comments on individual proposals included in the Governor’s proposed plan in our publication The 2021‑22 Budget: Wildfire Resilience Package—Analysis of Individual Programs.