The California Vegetation Treatment Program: integrating biological resource protection into wildfire risk reduction

Abstract

California’s wildfire crisis is continuing and could worsen with climate change. As noted in a report of California Governor Newsom’s Wildfire Strike Force (2019): “Climate change has created a new wildfire reality for California. The state’s fire season is now almost year-round. More than 25 million acres of California wildlands are classified as under very high or extreme fire threat. Approximately 25 percent of the state’s population—11 million people—lives in that high-risk area.” Since 2010, the number of wildfires occurring annually has increased, as has the total land area burned. The largest, most destructive, and deadliest wildfires on record in California history were wind-driven wildfires that occurred in 20181 (CAL FIRE 2019a, CAL FIRE 2019b, CAL FIRE 2019c). In addition, thousands of fires occur in the state every year that do not reach catastrophic levels. The state’s response to this crisis includes a comprehensive array of risk reduction and management strategies, such as vegetation treatments, home hardening, expanded evacuation capacity, comprehensive emergency planning, and improved land use practices, as well as investment in new suppression and response equipment and resources, use of technology tools, and establishment of strong utility oversight. In May of 2018, California Governor Brown signed Executive Order B-52-18, which bolstered one of these strategies by substantially increasing the pace and scale of vegetation treatments allowed in the state. Under the order, up to approximately 2,000 km2 on nonfederal lands are targeted for treatment each year. This expanded target is a substantial increase compared to the current level of vegetation treatment activity in California. Legislation was subsequently passed in 2018 to expand on this Executive Order, including Senate Bill (SB) 1260, which required a streamlined process under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to help expedite implementation of vegetation treatments to address wildfire risk. On 30 December 2019, the California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection (Board) fulfilled the SB 1260 requirement for streamlined CEQA coverage by approving the Cali-