Newsom issues strategic plan on prescribed burns to reduce wildfires

Wednesday, March 30, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force issued a strategic plan to expand using prescribed fire, which it argues can be a beneficial tool for mitigating the threat and intensity of wildfires.

The “Strategic Plan for Expanding the Use of Beneficial Fire” follows the issuance of “California’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan” in January 2021. And for several years preceding the action plan, former Gov. Jerry Brown and Newsom have created task forces composed of firefighting managers, scientists and emergency management staff — local, state and federal — to address increasing threats and dangers of the expanding number and size of wildfires.

“As climate change continues to exacerbate wildfire conditions, we’re bringing federal, state, tribal, and local partners together to more effectively address the scale of this crisis,” said Newsom in the press release. “California is putting in the work to help protect our communities from the devastating impacts of wildfires, build for the long-term, and safeguard our treasured state for generations to come.”

One of the first tools the action plan identified was: “Significantly expand the use of prescribed fire across the state.” Among its goals were to increase the acreage prescribed burns treat, to establish a training center, to investigate liability issues for private landowners and to encourage tribal fire use for cultural and many other practices.

The plan’s executive summary states its intent: “For too long, beneficial fire has been ignored as a management option, caught up in regulatory hurdles, or siloed within individual agencies or entities.”

Within the plan are details and specifics on how to expand prescribed burns, their value and goals for acreage. For example, by 2025, the goal will be to apply prescribed burns on 400,000 acres in the state. Using prescribed burning will not be limited to Cal Fire. Federal agencies, tribes, nongovernmental and other state agencies will employ this tool where appropriate on the lands they manage.

Increasing its use will involve several pilot projects to evaluate larger and longer landscape-scale burns.

In order to burn more acreage, educated and trained staff will be necessary: Consequently, the plan envisions creating a Prescribed Fire Training Center and other programs.

The center’s purpose will be to develop a workforce trained in burn planning, burn implementation, cultural awareness, public communication, air quality modeling and permitting, data analysis and modeling, and operational support.

Other goals include using the private sector and Native American tribes and a more efficient regulatory process. The plan anticipates incentives and protections for the use of prescribed burns on private land. “… building upon new legislation to reduce liability for private landowners seeking to conduct prescribed fires, the state and its partners will expand the Prescribed Fire Burn Boss certification program and establish a Prescribed Fire Claims Fund for private burners and tribes.”

Cal Fire’s new online permitting system should improve the regulatory process for prescribed burn certificates and there also will be an evaluation of the California Air Resources Board smoke management programs.

“The plan gives me hope because it represents the vision and priorities of the people who know prescribed fire best — the community leaders, cultural burners, and agency practitioners who have been leading and championing this work for years,” Area Fire Adviser Lenya Quinn-Davidson, UC Cooperative Extension, said in the press release. “California is ready for a bolder, more collaborative approach to prescribed fire, and this plan gives us a great place to start.”

Newsom already has proposed greater funding ($1.5 billion) for wildfire management, and a proposed $1.2 billion additional investment for fiscal years 2022-23 and 2023-24.

“This plan is vital to improve the health and resilience of the state’s forests, reduce wildfire risk of vulnerable communities, and increase stewardship by Native American fire practitioners,” added Task Force Co-Chair and U.S. Forest Service Regional Forester Jennifer Eberlien.