CALFORESTS LEADING THE CHARGE IN THE FIGHT AGAINST WILDFIRES

The California Forestry Association (Calforests) is the leading trade association for the state’s forestry sector and represents over 70 companies committed to the sustainable stewardship of 3.5 million acres of private, working forests and the manufacturing of renewable wood products. The forestry sector employs over 172,000 people and contributes nearly $20 billion to the state’s economy – much of that in rural communities.

In recent years, Calforests has ramped up its efforts in the space of wildfire prevention and suppression, serving as a more engaged and active partner to both the state and federal governments than in years past. As our members’ lands have been decimated by catastrophic wildfires in recent years, the forestry sector is united by a common interest to do all that we can to address the state’s wildfire crisis.

While weather conditions certainly played a role in a “modest” fire season in 2022, Calforests also believe that its call for greater coordination and collaboration between state and federal agencies also made a difference. In fact, reports on the ground indicate that the unprecedented level of cooperation amongst federal and state fire protection forces played a major role in snuffing out several wildfires before they reached a critical stage.

Furthermore, tactical advantages were captured by suppression forces during these periods of favorable weather conditions by deploying aggressive firefighting strategies. In addition to agency to enhanced cooperation, it has also been noted that an increased level of communication between suppression forces and the members of Calforests during wildfire events increased significantly and that the reliance on consultations with landowners assisted in well-informed, strategic decision making during extended attack events. While there were measurable adjustments in suppression response, more can be accomplished, and Calforests will continue efforts to build upon progress made to date.

Wildfire prevention through vegetation management is also critical. Calforests is firmly committed to the practice of responsible, proactive forest management. Managing private forestlands in this way mitigates the potential for catastrophic wildfires and our members are continuously working to urge and partner with the USFS to engage more robustly in fuels management and fuel hazard reduction for the protection of communities, water resources, habitat, air quality, and recreation. In fact, the California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force recently announced that members of Calforests contributed 200,000 acres of treatments last year that are achieving forest resiliency in Northern California, which represents a larger contribution than any contributing public sector.

Post fire restoration and reforestation continues on hundreds of thousands of acres of wildfire scars across Calforests members holdings. New opportunities are upon the horizon after months of working within legislative and agency personnel on burgeoning reforestation programs that have currently been made available through CAL FIRE. Calforests, along with its member companies, are the unequivocal leaders in reforestation, with an impressive track record on post fire recovery within California.

Calforests members look forward to driving policy solutions to combat the challenges California’s forests face.

Russell W. Noack Public Policy Advocates, LLC

2023-24 SESSION BEGINS

The California Legislature has returned to the Capitol to begin the 2023-24 Session. The first order of business was to organize the two Houses after an unprecedented number of new members were elected to office in November. Even though nearly one quarter the body turned over, over three quarters of the seats remained in Democratic hands. The Senate organization was orderly, and the makeup of standing committees was released early in January. However, in the Assembly, after a marathon and often heated caucus meeting, the Assembly Democrats elected Anthony Rendon of Lakewood to continue to serve as Speaker, but they also elected Robert Rivas of Salinas to assume that critical leadership position effective July 1 of this year. An unusual circumstance indeed, which led to an extended delay in the construction of committees with the committee lists just being announced on January 18. It will take some time before these committees convene to begin sifting through newly introduced bills.

UPDATE: 2023-24 STATE BUDGET

Governor Newsom released his May Revision to the 2023-24 State Budget on May 12th. The proposal seeks to close an estimated $32 billion shortfall while maintaining recent increased expenditures in education, health care, public safety, housing and homelessness, and climate action and preserving $37.2 billion in total reserves. The May Revision continues to sustain various programs and subject areas of importance to the fire service including:

• Housing and Homelessness Maintains $3.4 billion in funding proposed for homelessness programs.

• Climate—Maintains $2.7 billion in a multi-year wildfire and forest resilience package and adds $290 million for a flood risk reduction package to reduce flood risk and enhance flood system resilience. The May Revision includes an additional $1.1 billion in General Fund shifts across climate resilience programs that would be bond eligible.

• Infrastructure—The May Revision includes proposals to facilitate and streamline project approval and completion to maximize California’s share of the federal infrastructure spending opportunity and expedite the implementation of projects that meet our social, climate, and economic goals.

• Basic Aid Wildfire Property Tax Backfill—An increase of $632,000 one-time Proposition 98 General Fund to backfill reduced property tax revenues for certain school districts that were impacted by the Kincade Fire.

Climate Change

The 2021 and 2022 Budget Acts allocated approximately $54 billion over five years to advance the state’s climate and opportunity agenda. The May Revision continues to prioritize the state’s climate agenda and maintains approximately $48 billion (89 percent) of these investments.

Wildfire And Forest Resilience

The May Revision maintains $2.7 billion (98 percent) over four years to advance critical investments in restoring forest and wildland health to continue to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires in the face of extreme climate conditions. The May Revision also includes the following:

• Climate Catalyst Fund

$25 million one-time General Fund, which partially restores the General Fund reduction proposed in the Governor’s Budget.

NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS

The May Revision maintains $1.4 billion (89 percent) in investments over multiple years in programs and projects to support naturebased solutions.

Extreme Heat

The May Revision maintains $444 million (68 percent) in investments over multiple years in programs and projects to support extreme heat.

Community Resilience

The May Revision maintains $1.6 billion (85 percent) in investments over multiple years in programs and projects to promote community resilience.

Coastal Resilience

The May Revision maintains $734 million (57 percent) in investments over multiple years in programs and projects for coastal resilience.

Water

The May Revision maintains $8.5 billion (97 percent) in investments over multiple years in programs and projects to bolster the capacity of communities and ecosystems to endure droughts and floods.

Significant Adjustments

Addressing statewide flood impacts, the May Revision includes $290 million one-time General Fund. $250 million to support various at-risk communities, including those in the Tulare Basin, from these impacts and to better withstand future flood events, including:

• Flood Contingency—$125 million onetime General Fund as a flood contingency set aside to support costs associated with preparedness, response, recovery, and other associated activities related to the 2023 storms, the resulting snowmelt, and other flooding risks, including, but not limited to, supporting communities and vulnerable populations, such as farmworkers, from these impacts and to better withstand future flood events.

• Flood Control Subventions—$75 million one-time General Fund to support local flood control projects, including in communities impacted by recent storms, such as the Pajaro River Flood Risk Management Project.

• Small Agricultural Business Relief Grants

An increase of $25 million one-time General Fund to expand the scope of the current California Small Agricultural Business Drought Relief Grant Program to provide direct assistance to eligible agriculturerelated businesses that have been affected by the recent storms.

• Disaster Response Emergency Operations Account Set Aside—$25 million one-time General Fund in the current year in anticipation of potential additional disaster relief and response costs associated with recent storms and future flooding.

• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (AB 988)

The May Revision includes $15 million one-time 988 State Suicide and Behavioral Health Crisis Services Fund in 2023-24 to support eligible 988 call center behavioral health crisis services, for a total of $19 million in 2023-24 and $12.5 million in 2024-25 and ongoing.

California Office Of Emergency Services

The 2023 Five-Year Infrastructure Plan includes $176.5 million ($1.8 million General Fund and $174.7 million Public Buildings Construction Fund).

In 2023-24 for two capital projects including the security checkpoint enhancements at the Cal OES Headquarters facility in Sacramento and the construction of a new Southern California Regional Emergency Operations Center (SREOC).

DEPARTMENT OF FORESTRY & FIRE PROTECTION

The 2023 Five-Year Infrastructure Plan includes $1.1 billion ($236 million General Fund and $857.8 million Public Buildings Construction Fund) over the next five years for the continuation and addition of critical infrastructure projects statewide, including but not limited to, the replacement of aging fire stations, unit headquarters and communication facilities, the creation of a new training center, and the replacement of helitack bases and improvements to air attack bases to accommodate CAL FIRE’s new helicopter fleet and C-130 aircraft deployment plans.

For the 2023-24 fiscal year, the Administration proposes $36.9 million ($30.4 million General Fund and $6.5 million Public Buildings Construction Fund) for the continuation and addition of critical major capital projects, including the replacement of various fire stations, unit headquarters, conservation camps, and helitack bases, as well as for air attack base infrastructure improvements. These projects are in various stages of completion from acquisition to design and construction. The Administration also proposes initial funding for the Additional CAL FIRE Training Center: New Facility project which will address CAL FIRE’s long-term training facility needs.

Governor Newsom and legislative leadership will now enter into serious negotiations to reach a final State Budget by the June 15, 2023, deadline. Senate President pro Tempore Toni Atkins and Senator Nancy Skinner, the Chair of the Senate Budget &

Fiscal Review Committee issued a joint statement noting this year’s Budget will be challenging but they, “appreciate the revised proposal reflecting many of the Senate’s key values, which includes avoiding ongoing cuts to core programs, preserving our primary Rainy Day Fund and expanding responsible borrowing – including a Climate Bond – to avoid cuts to climate and infrastructure projects.”

Legislative Update

The Joint Legislative Task Force continues the process of analyzing bills and making recommendations to the FDAC and Cal Chief’s Boards for establishing positions and creating priorities. Once again, this year, Cal EMS legislation has been both numerous and far reaching in its significance. In this category, the following bills we are supporting have moved out of their committees of origin and are waiting to be heard in the Appropriation Committees the week of May 15th:

Assembly Bill 40 (Freddie Rodriguez) would require Cal EMSA to develop a statewide standard of 30 minutes, 90% of the time for ambulance patient offload time (APOT) and create an electronic signature system that captures the point of arrival and when transfer of care is executed. Eligible hospitals would be required to develop APOT reduction protocols and EMSA would be required to monitor all hospitals required to submit reports. The general acute care hospitals are actively engaged in an effort to reach a compromise on this measure.

Assembly Bill 1168 (Bennett) would overturn the City of Oxnard decision and therefore allow cities or fire districts that had .201 rights when they entered into a Joint Powers Agreement (JPA) with counties to provide pre-hospital EMS to maintain those rights when they exit a JPA. AMR, CSAC, RCRC EMDAC, EMSAC, AFSCME and many individual counties remain strongly opposed and despite efforts by the author, appear prepared to fight this bill all the way through the process.

Assembly Bill 1180 (Rodriguez) would expand the eligibility criteria for being the Director of Cal EMSA beyond being a physician to include someone who has substantial experience in emergency medicine, medical services, and emergency management.

Assembly Bill 482 (Wilson) would maintain funding for Emergency Medical Air Transportation by transferring $8 million to the Fund to support MediCal reimbursements.

Assembly Bill 767 (Gipson) would extend the sunset date for community paramedicine programs to January 1, 2031, and add short term follow-up for persons discharged from a hospital to the list of eligible services under the program.

Other priority bills that we are supporting and are moving through the legislative process include:

Senate Bill 577 (Hurtado), which is a sponsored bill to expand the authority of the State Fire Marshal to receive fire service training and education fees from sources other than user fees and, if successful, to reduce or waive fees in order to promote the opportunity for a wider diversity of applicants to seek firefighter training.

Assembly Bill 297 (Fong) extends the sunset date to January 1, 2034, for CAL FIRE to authorize advance payments from a local assistance grant program for fire prevention and home hardening educational activities.

Assembly Bill 700 (Grayson) would establish a California Firefighter Cancer Prevention and Research Program to award grants to institutions to conduct research on biomarkers of exposure to chemical carcinogens absorbed by firefighters that ultimately lead to a cancer diagnosis.

Assembly Bill 788 (Petrie-Norris) would require the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force to compile and post on its website information to make it easier for local agencies and others to become aware of fire prevention grant programs.

Senate Bill 436 (Dodd) would require Cal OES to develop a Wildfire Mitigation Strategic Plan to implement such actions, establish a wildfire risk baseline and forecast and annual wildfire mitigation scenarios report.

Senate Bill 470 (Alvarado-Gil) would extend existing drought relief programs to fund projects that provide benefits in addition to drought relief to include projects to reduce the risk of wildfire through water delivery system improvements for fire suppression purposes.

Senate Bill 504 (Dodd) would require CAL FIRE to give priority under the fire prevention grant program to any local governmental agency qualified to perform defensible space and home hardening assessments and to report to CAL FIRE as specified.

The following two bills would place bond measures on the November 2024 Ballot:

Assembly Bill 1567 (E. Garcia) would authorize a $15.1 billion bond act to fund safe water, wildfire prevention, drought preparation, flood protection, extreme heat mitigation, and workforce development.

Senate Bill 867 (Allen) would authorize a $15.5 billion bond act to fund all of the above plus forest and coastal resilience smart agriculture, parks, outdoor access, and clean energy programs.

As the Legislative Session gathers steam, our leaders will continue to collaborate with our fire service partners by meeting quarterly to develop mutual strategies to increase the success of our legislative efforts. These meetings include discussing longer term planning on the effort to sustain and advance local fire department funding at the Capitol. Further, the Legislative Task Force will continue to monitor and analyze amendments on the nearly 200 measures that are being tracked this year. The next Task Force Zoom Meeting is set for Friday, May 19, 2023.