Bill > AB2513

This bill expands wildfire prevention and forest resilience efforts by authorizing new grant programs and clarifying existing ones. Specifically, it allows the Director of the Department of Conservation to directly award "regional landscape grants" to "regional entities" (which include local governments, tribal governments, resource conservation districts, joint powers authorities, or non-governmental organizations with demonstrated capacity) to implement strategies for creating fire-adapted communities and landscapes. These grants will be funded through the Regional Forest and Fire Capacity Program and will aim to achieve the goals of California's Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan. The bill also expands the types of eligible activities under the local assistance grant program, which provides funding for fire prevention and home hardening education, to include "vegetation modification" and "ignition prevention," defined as activities to reduce the likelihood of fire ignitions caused by human activity or infrastructure. Furthermore, moneys appropriated for landscape-scale projects by the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection will now also be allocated for projects that improve "ecosystem health" (defined to include forests, chaparral, shrublands, grasslands, and coastal sage ecosystems) and for these new regional landscape grants. Finally, the bill renames the Forest Health Program to the Ecosystem Health Program.

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB2513