Regional Priority Plan

Photo by Colin H. Richard

Table of Contents

Executive Summary

In 2019, the Resource Conservation District of Greater San Diego County (RCDGSDC) received funding through the California Natural Resources Agency to participate in a state-wide wildfire resilience effort – the Regional Forest and Fire Capacity (RFFC) Program. Prior to this, our RCD and sister entity, the Fire Safe Council of San Diego County, had long been engaged in wildfire preparedness. For many years, our programs have focused on supporting homeowners in creating and sustaining defensible space and empowering residents to inform and protect their communities through the development of community Fire Safe Councils and Community Wildfire Protection Plans.

The RCD and Fire Safe Council also conducted outreach through participating in safety fairs and community events and worked with agency partners to develop educational workshops. Over time our work transitioned to include larger landscape forest health projects, such as supporting vegetation management and addressing the Gold Spotted Oak Borer that has been so devastating in our county. Collaboration has always been at the heart of this work –we are stronger together.

Being part of the RFFC Program has allowed us to continue to evolve the nature of our work, develop and strengthen partnerships, and become better connected with regional and statewide efforts - and it comes at a critical time. Our

changing climate, with longer droughts and more extreme weather, means that our fire season is now year-round and our already high wildfire risk landscapes are at greater risk. More communities are situated near wildlands, exposing residents to increased threat from wildfire. Our unique landscapes in Southern California have evolved with fire, but our ability to manage these landscapes has diminished due to lack of capacity and changing management practices. As a region, we are at a point where we need to learn to live with fire – to restore healthy forests and landscapes that are more resilient, to build up capacity among agencies, land managers, and land stewards to manage those landscapes, and to ensure our communities are resilient through structural hardening and defensible space.

This Regional Priority Plan (RPP), a core deliverable of our RFFC Program grant, identifies the unique challenges and needs of San Diego County in protecting our wildlands and communities from wildfire and increasing resilience in the face of a changing climate. This report summarizes our work on the RFFC program so far and includes a list of priority projects gathered through wide consultation with a range of partners that will contribute to regional resilience. We will continue to gather project data and provide support with development, partnership coordination, and implementation.

Land Acknowledgement Statement

Since time immemorial, the San Diego County region has been the home of the Kumeyaay, Payómkawichum (Luiseño), Cahuilla, and Cupeño Native people. We acknowledge that people have come before us and lived with care and respect on these lands. We recognize that we are now on the lands of these indigenous people who are still here and will always be. We honor the Indigenous people living today as well as their ancestors, and we deeply respect their resilience and connection to the land.

Photo by Colin H. Richard

Background

RESOURCE CONSERVATION DISTRICT OF GREATER SAN DIEGO COUNTY

The Resource Conservation District of Greater San Diego County (RCDGSDC) is a local governmental special district focused on critical natural resource conservation. The RCDGSDC provides resources and programs on farming, pollinator health, education, and wildfire resilience to engage and empower individuals to protect the land, wildlife, and our communities.

The District is part of a statewide network of Resource Conservation Districts (RCDs) enabled through Division 9 of the California Public Resources Code and overseen by the San Diego County Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO). Each RCD serves a district defined by its LAFCO. The service area of the RCDGSDC encompasses 2,886 square miles within the county, and additional adjacent areas are sometimes served though MOUs with neighboring Resource Conservation Districts, and permission from the San Diego LAFCO. Within the RCDGSDC, a seven-member Board of Directors appointed by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors oversees an Executive Director who in turn manages a staff of 22 (up from just 12 staff members when this project began in 2019) who deliver services to residents and conserve resources within District boundaries.

The Fire Safe Council of San Diego County (FSCSDC) is a separate 501(c)3 organization that is managed in partnership by the staff of the RCDGSDC and governed by a Board of Directors that includes representatives from local, state, federal, and tribal fire agency partners. The FSCSDC provides programs and services to further fire prevention and safety throughout the county and encourages community involvement. The relationship of these organizations is critical to the successful execution of this block grant, as this existing framework laid the foundation for connecting communities, agencies, tribes, and other stakeholders working on wildfire prevention, preparedness, and safety.

REGIONAL FOREST AND FIRE CAPACITY PROGRAM

This plan is developed as part of the Regional Forest and Fire Capacity (RFFC) Program. California Public Resources Code section 4208.1 established the RFFC Program to support regional leadership to build local and regional capacity and to develop, prioritize, and implement strategies and projects that create fire adapted communities and landscapes by improving ecosystem health, community wildfire preparedness, and fire resilience. To accomplish the RFFC Program’s objectives, block grants are utilized by recipients to support partner capacity, project readiness, implementation of demonstration projects, and regional priority planning to achieve landscape-level and community wildfire resilience consistent with the California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan as well as the California Forest Carbon Plan and Executive Order B-52-18.

The initial round of funding for the program was awarded to eight block grant recipients, six of which were working in this regional capacity and two of which were working at the statewide level. The program is continually evolving and growing, and as of early 2023, there are 13 block grantees working on the program. The state has been divided into geographic regions for this program, and the participants work collaboratively within their regions as well as state-wide. These regions currently include Northern, Central, Sierra-Cascade-Inyo, and the Southern California Regions.

The RCDGSDC falls within the Southern California (SoCal) Region

When this project initiated in 2019, our fellow regional block grantees included Inland Empire Resource Conservation District and Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. Irvine Ranch Conservancy, Inland Empire Community Foundation, and San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy are now part of the group as well.

In San Diego County, a program was developed that builds a framework for collaboration with regional stakeholders to identify, plan, and implement projects while focusing on actions that increase our regional capacity. The program goals include facilitating equitable collaboration, identifying opportunities for joint stewardship projects, providing resources for project and environmental planning, offering tools for prescribed burning and Gold Spotted Oak Borer (GSOB) management, and supporting workforce development opportunities.

In addition, a major deliverable of the first round of RFFC funding is to develop this Regional Priority Plan and Priority Project List, which will be used as a tool to advance regional collaboration, coordination, and project implementation. The RCDGSDC and RFFC partners’ progress toward achieving these goals is outlined in this report.

Purpose of the Regional Priority Plan

The purpose of this Regional Priority Plan (RPP) is to address the immediate need to increase regional capacity to identify, plan, and implement strategies and projects that create fire adapted communities and landscapes by improving ecosystem health, community wildfire preparedness, and wildfire resilience.

The RPP identifies and organizes projects through the Priority Projects List and summarizes the RCDGSDC’s efforts to identify, strengthen, and support capacity building partnerships, demonstration projects, and programs in the region to reduce wildfire risk and protect communities and natural resources and improve wildfire resilience. This includes the establishment of a local RFFC Collaborative group, a network of regional partner groups including land managing agencies, tribal nations, fire agencies, non-profit organizations, and community Fire Safe Councils. This group is currently made up of 45 entities, which were engaged to inform the Priority Projects List- this input has been crucial to the initial round of RPP data collection in which over 110 projects have been identified.

Plan Goals

• Increase engagement and coordination with stakeholders and regional partners to identify, plan, and implement projects that promote improving ecosystem health, community wildfire preparedness, and fire resilience.

• Develop a framework for organizing and managing priority project data.

• Increase regional capacity to identify, develop, and support programs that provide resources to address organizational needs such as workforce development and advanced training opportunities.

Geography of the Plan Area

The plan area encompasses San Diego County, which includes a highly varied topography with a mixture of urban and rural communities, more than 30 types of vegetative communities, and three distinct zones: mountain, desert, and coastal. It is the second most populous of California’s 58 counties, and according to 2021 Census data there are approximately 3.2 million residents. The area encompasses 4,300 square miles, 70 miles of beach along the Pacific Ocean, the Cuyamaca, Laguna, and Palomar Mountain Ranges, and includes hundreds of square miles of federally and state managed parks, forests, and preserves, as well as several Department of Defense properties. It borders Orange and Riverside Counties to the North, Mexico to the South, Imperial County to the East, and the Pacific Ocean to the West.

San Diego includes 18 incorporated cities and large areas of unincorporated County land, with a diverse structure of land ownership and management. More than 54% of the total land area in San Diego County is managed by federal, state, and local governments. Notably, San Diego County is home to 18 federally recognized tribal nations, more than any other county in the United States; however, the land under tribal ownership is comparably low, with total land holdings of just over 193 square miles. These communities are often in need of resources and capacity building.

Photo by Colin H. Richard

Why is an RPP needed?

The following excerpt from the Southern California Regional Profile summarizes our region’s unique challenges with respect to climate change and wildfire risk.

Like most of the state, Southern California has a Mediterranean climate, including hot-dry summers and cool-moist winters. However, this region has the highest year-to-year variability in annual precipitation of anywhere in the continental United States. This variability is expected to increase under climate change. Droughts are projected to become more frequent and intense, while extreme precipitation events also intensify. The recent atmospheric-river storms that closed 2022, one of California’s driest years on record, with flooding and mudslides is a poignant example of these extremes.

Climate change also impacts wildfire resilience. Warmer and drier landscapes are at greater risk to wildfire, especially when ignitions occur during dry windy weather. The largest, and most catastrophic, wildfires in the Southern California region typically occur during the Santa Ana wind season. Santa Ana winds are a unique climatic feature of the Southern California region which occur during October to April, peaking in frequency and severity from December to January. The winds originate from high-pressure regions over the Great Basin and Mojave Desert, and they blow gusts of hot, dry air to the Southern California coast. Wildfire ignitions that would normally be suppressed relatively easily can quickly grow out of control during high wind events. The longer dry season forecast under climate change makes it more likely that intense Santa Ana Wind events will occur before winter rains occur and when vegetation is still highly flammable.

Ignitions are another critical component to the region’s wildfire resilience. While California’s natural fire regime is driven by lightning strikes, lightning events and Santa Ana winds rarely coincide seasonally. Instead, a recent study found that 100% of the fires that occurred during Santa Ana wind events from 1948-2018 were ignited by human activities. Primary ignition sources include powerline failures, arson, vehicles, campfires, and motorized equipment such as power tools. Although the compounding danger of wildfire and climate change is daunting, one key strategy to addressing the threat in Southern California is reducing the number of wildfires that start. Ignitions — and consequently, area burned by wildfire — have primarily increased in Southern California as a result of population growth and increased development near wildland areas. 75% of buildings destroyed by wildfire in California are located in the wildland-urban interface.

Prior to Euro-American settlement, most chaparral ecosystems experienced fire every 30 to 130 years. These fires were primarily set by ancestral land managers, not lightning. Today, due primarily to human-caused ignitions, many areas of Southern California are experiencing fire return intervals of 20 years or less. Multiple, short fire-return intervals of less than 15 years reduce the capacity of chaparral species to regenerate.

Montane forests in Southern California mostly occur within the four National Forests and are often referred to as “sky islands” because they are restricted to high-elevation mountain habitat. Similar to the Sierra Nevada region, montane forests are dominated by pine and fir species, and the natural fire regime of this habitat would have entailed frequent, lowto moderateseverity fire. Before Euro-American settlement, the mean fire return interval was 7-15 years, however, 20th century fire suppression policies caused these forests to burn less frequently. This is the opposite of what is occurring in ecosystems at lower elevations, where fire is igniting much more frequently than naturally occurred. Suppression of the natural fire regime has resulted in denser forests dominated with smaller trees, more ladder fuels, and the build-up of surface fuels.

The Southern California Regional Profile is a 2023 report prepared by the Science Advisory Panel for the California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force with regional stakeholders.

RFFC Program Focus Areas

To work toward achieving the program goals, RCDGSDC developed a program and divided work into two main focus areas: Capacity Building Demonstration Projects and Regional Priority Planning.

Capacity Building Demonstration Project Highlights

Demonstration projects are implementation projects that were developed and executed with partners through subgrant agreements, and each models a potential solution for an identified regional capacity barrier. Through round 1 funding, gaps and opportunities were identified to build partnerships and regional capacity, and then investments were made in demonstration projects with seven partners including non-profit organizations, tribes, practitioners, community Fire Safe Councils, and other community groups.

The demonstration project types funded through RFFC round 1 include Indigenous workforce training programs, targeted GSOB management, and resources for planning and capacity building. In addition to investing in partner capacity, RCDGSDC also invested in strengthening the capacity of the program to increase outreach and engagement, development of systems for data collection and stewardship, and curating resource toolkits.

Indigenous Workforce Training Programs

CLIMATE SCIENCE ALLIANCE INDIGENOUS FIRE STEWARDSHIP CADRE AND WORKFORCE TRAINING PROGRAM

In collaboration with Climate Science Alliance and the Tribal Working Group, the Stewardship Pathways Program was developed to address many of the capacity issues in the region, such as Tribal economic and workforce development, interagency collaboration, shortage of trained field crews, and the inclusion of cultural and prescribed burning as potential fuel management tools.

The program is open to people from across Southern California who are interested in creating or expanding a

career focused on advancing Indigenous climate stewardship. Climate Science Alliance staff oversee the administration and management of the program. They coordinate the Southern California Interagency Wildland Fire and Fuels Cadre, a group of partners, who contribute their time and expertise to plan and implement the trainings. The program is hosted by the La Jolla Band of Luiseño Indians, under the leadership of Chief Wesley Ruise Jr. and Joelene Tamm. This wildland fire and fuels training program is unique in that it brings technical training together with climate science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge.

NATIVE AMERICAN CONSERVATION CORPS PROGRAM- CA STATE PARKS COLORADO DESERT DISTRICT

In collaboration with CA State Parks – Colorado Desert District, the Native American Conservation Corps (NACC) program was designed along the lines of a Conservation Corps with the objective to offer youth from local Tribes knowledge and on-the-job experience during their sixmonth training session in the Cuyamaca Rancho State Park. Ultimately the goal of the NACC program is to provide youth with the training and experience needed to access careers in forest management and wildland fire, whether they choose to work in their own community or with a local agency.

The first round of the program was made possible through collaboration of partners including: San Diego River Conservancy, Kumeyaay-Diegueno Land Conservancy, CA

Pictured: Arborist training class, photo courtesy of Joelene Tamm

Targeted Goldspotted Oak Borer (GSOB) Management Efforts

Goldspotted Oak Borer (GSOB) Agrilus auroguttatus is an invasive pest contributing to the ongoing oak tree mortality occurring in many areas of San Diego County, including on federal, state, private, and Native American lands. Isolated areas of infestation have also been confirmed in Riverside, Orange, Los Angeles, and San Bernardino Counties in southern California. Widespread oak mortality can have severe implications for the environment and human safety (gsob.org). The RCDGSDC has invested in targeted GSOB management efforts that encourage communities to work together in research, education, outreach, and implementation efforts to address the current and potential impacts of GSOB.

LA JOLLA BAND OF LUISEÑO INDIANS

Cultural and economic resources on the lands managed by the La Jolla Band of Luiseño Indians have been severely impacted by GSOB. Hundreds of trees on the lands managed by the Band are dead or in the process of dying due to this beetle. Funding supported the development of a Natural Resources Department within the Tribal government to mitigate the significant number of hazardous trees, creating falling hazards and high wildfire fuel loads. La Jolla works

to combat climate change and mitigate these disturbances through active forest management practices. The natural resource program currently employs a crew of seven, two of which are experienced sawyers, two biomass processors, two managers, and an intern. Focus areas include biomass utilization, tree removal, tree health surveys, integrated pest management, silviculture, outreach and education, internships, and research partnerships.

OAK GROVE

The small rural community of Oak Grove on the north side of Palomar Mountain is demonstrating tools and techniques to successfully control Goldspotted Oak Borer (GSOB) infestation in a mature oak woodland. To save these historic oak trees, RCDGSDC partners with the Oak Grove community and a practitioner to leverage an ongoing local effort and invest in support of the monitoring and treatment of more than 2,600 oak trees annually since 2020. Funding supported contracting with Green Tree Forest Service in partnership with University of California wildlife biologist Dr. Tom Scott to utilize the Carbaryl trunk spraying treatment method and analysis. In 2022, the project produced a how-to video documentary and outreach materials. The Oak Grove GSOB Project serves as a model for community action, early detection, monitoring, and best treatment practices to save the greatest number of oak trees at the least cost.

NATE HARRISON SERENITY RANCH

RFFC partner Tree Culture Institute implemented a silviculture management strategy in a GSOB infested mixed oak woodland on Palomar Mountain at the Nate Harrison Serenity Ranch. The project included biological surveying and monitoring, gathering oak tree health data including GSOB infection rate, manual understory fuels reduction, hazard tree felling, and grazing. The project was designed to demonstrate the efficacy of the silviculture method to reduce flammability and improve forest health. Project data was collected as a GIS dataset to support continued monitoring of this site in high detail.

Pictured: 2021 NACC Participants and Staff State Parks, RCDGSDC, San Diego Canyonlands, and the Santa Ysabel Iipay Nation.

Resources and Staff

The RCDGSDC invested in additional capacity building for staff positions for teams at Jamul Indian Village and Pala Band of Mission Indians to work on project planning and readiness, and pest monitoring and management plans. In addition, investments were made in development and improvement of public resource kits for topics including defensible space management, writing community wildfire protection plans (CWPPs), creation of new community Fire Safe Councils, cultural and prescribed burning, GSOB management, and others.

In some cases, RCDGSDC can assist partners with environmental compliance for their projects. For example, we partnered with Girls Scouts San Diego Imperial Council to support their forest management efforts at Camp Winacka and Camp Whispering Oaks, to be the lead agency on their California Vegetation Treatment Program (CalVTP)

document. This collaboration is the first project in San Diego utilizing the CalVTP. This work will allow increased pace and scale of implementation, by conducting a broader environmental review and streamlining long-term project implementation under their Forest Management Plan.

In 2022, RCDGSDC became a host to two GrizzlyCorps Fellows who have helped to build our own capacity to implement the RFFC program and support our local collaborative of partners with project planning and resources. GrizzlyCorps is an AmeriCorps fellowship launched in 2020 designed by Project Climate at UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment in partnership with California Volunteers. The program sends recent college graduates into rural communities across California to promote regenerative agri-food systems and fire and forest resilience.

Regional Priority Planning

To curate and support collaborative regional planning and organizing for implementation of wildfire resiliency efforts in our region, RCDGSDC invested in building a framework to coordinate and strengthen communication and relationships with regional partners. Part of this effort has involved providing resources to help partners with project development before and alongside the data collection period. RCDGSDC invited local stakeholder groups such as Tribes, land managing agencies, resource protection agencies, fire agencies, community Fire Safe Councils, non-profit organizations, local practitioners, advisory and research groups, and other community organizations to engage in this process to identify and organize wildfire resiliency projects.

PROVIDING RESOURCES

RCDGSDC supported groups with developing projects and addressing barriers to project progress through providing planning and implementation resources and technical assistance. In addition to the specific capacity building demonstration projects referenced earlier, funding also provided support to other groups to further project readiness through GSOB Management plans, Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPP), environmental compliance for fuels reduction projects, and working toward increased awareness and accessibility for prescribed burning.

One major achievement in partnership with the Fire Safe Council of San Diego County is the streamlining and increased accessibility of the annual CWPP Writers’ Workshop Series. A CWPP is a comprehensive document required for most grant awards that identifies priorities for protection of life, property, and critical structures in fire-prone communities in the wildland-urban interface. Participants are provided with a template, support with mapping, and connections to local fire agencies for each community to plan and develop or update their CWPP document. The interactive workshop allows for subject matter experts to provide guidance and support. Once the documents are drafted by the community group, a review committee of regional representatives completes the authorization and signatures for approved plans. In January 2023, the first CWPP Writers’ Workshop focused on Tribal nations was included in the series, hosted by Pala Band of Mission Indians. There are currently 33 approved community-level CWPP documents in San Diego County, many CWPP projects have been included in the Priority Project List.

Droughts are projected to become more frequent and intense, while extreme precipitation events also intensify.

DATA COLLECTION

After two years of building relationships and networks, and offering support, RCDGSDC was ready to begin collecting data for the RPP. This was done through a phased approach, as follows. First a series of bi-monthly public meetings were conducted, which included targeted outreach to invite community leaders, Tribal nations, organizations, and agencies to participate in the regional priority planning process. Then, groups submitted project data using the online project submission form.

OUTREACH AND ENGAGEMENT PHASE

Stakeholders were asked to share their list of planned and conceptual projects and to identify barriers that are preventing this work from being completed as well as possible solutions. This project data helped to inform the Plan and Priority Project List, creating the first draft of this living document. The Project List will bring greater awareness and understanding of the diverse needs of the region for local, state, and federal decision makers and funders for future investments.

Stakeholders proposed potential solutions and projects that could protect critical infrastructure, communities, and landscapes through targeted efforts such as suppressing GSOB infestations, modification of fuels adjacent to roads to prevent ignitions, creation or maintenance of fuel breaks in strategic locations, vegetation clearance in critical locations to reduce wildfire intensity and rate of spread, restoration of habitats, and implementation of cultural and prescribed burning as potential fuel management tools. Also identified were critical capacity building needs which include assistance with gathering and sharing information with the community, project planning and environmental compliance, investments to provide forestry and fuels workforce training opportunities, access to equipment, skilled staff positions to assist with this work, and interagency collaboration.

PROJECT SUBMISSION PHASE

To gather project information from a diverse group of stakeholders, a data collection system was developed that could track all projects consistently. With the help of GrizzlyCorps Fellows, RCDGSDC developed an online survey tool using Formstack and invited stakeholders to participate using the online Project Submission Form. Standardizing the consistency of the data in this way is an important component in understanding the projects that stakeholders want to work on, projects that they have started to plan, or even already have in progress - allowing for greater understanding of what the critical next steps are toward implementation, and how best to advocate for each project. The first public data collection period opened in Fall 2022 and closed in December of 2022. Some of the project information collected includes Project Sponsor or Lead Organization, Treatment Types, Project Status, Location, Scheduling Priority/Urgency, Cost, Commitment from partners, and Impact Areas.

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“ Identify, plan, and implement strategies and projects that create fire adapted communities and landscapes

13% 26% 19% 19% 9% 14%

WHO PARTICIPATED?

The following organizations have engaged in the priority planning process and priority project list to date:

Tribes including La Jolla Band of Luiseño Indians, Pala Band of Mission Indians, Jamul Indian Village, Pauma Band of Mission Indians, Santa Ysabel Iipay Nation, and Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians.

Agencies including Bureau of Land Management-California Desert District, CA State Parks Colorado Desert District, Cleveland National Forest, County of San Diego Fire, Red Cross, San Diego River Conservancy, San Dieguito River Conservancy, US Fish and Wildlife Service-Southern California Fire Management Zone, US Geological Survey/San Diego Management and Monitoring Program (SDMMP), CA Department of Conservation, and CAL FIRE San Diego Unit.

Non-profit organizations including San Diego Audubon Society, San Diego Regional Fire Foundation, San Diego Canyonlands, San Dieguito River Valley Conservancy, Encino Foundation, The Nature Collective, Volcan Mountain Foundation, Climate Science Alliance, Girl Scout San Diego Imperial Council, and Green Infrastructure Consortium.

Community Fire Safe Councils including Coastal Canyon, Kensington, Mount Laguna, San Diego County, Outer Jamul, University City, and Campo.

Practitioners including Green Tree Forest Service, Tree Culture Institute, and Mongol Tribe.

Advisory and Research Groups and Other Community Groups/Entities including Southern Montane Forest Project, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E), San Diego Targeted Grazing Taskforce, Community of Oak Grove, Dr. Tom Scott - UC Irvine, and Fellows through the GrizzlyCorps Program.

Priority Projects List

The Priority Projects List is a compilation of data received by participants in our first public data collection in 2022. Over 110 projects were submitted and mapped. While many projects have multiple activities required for success, for the purposes of this plan we categorized projects by one main treatment type, which we understand as the primary implementation method. Almost half of the projects (47%) submitted are categorized as Fuel Reduction, consisting of manual, mechanical, or grazing to reduce fuel loads, and Fuel Break establishment or maintenance. 17% of projects are Prescribed Burning, 13% of projects are Capacity Building, 12% are GSOB Management, 6% are Ecological Restoration, 2% are Hazard Dead Tree Removal, and 3% are categorized as Other

Next Steps

RCDGSDC will continue to engage and coordinate with partners to track priority projects, wildfire funding, capacity, and other priority needs for the region to advocate on their behalf. The Priority Project List will evolve in subsequent data collection and management periods as additional organizations, tribes, and communities participate, and as project status changes are tracked through to implementation. In alignment with this work, an additional $6.9M in grants and other funding has been secured that leverages and increases the scope and impact of the RFFC program. As part of the next phase of the RFFC Program, RCDGSDC plans to:

• Continue to convene and grow our local collaborative group (currently 45+ groups engaged) and work on aligning efforts across the region.

• Develop a framework for data stewardship and ongoing management and maintenance of the Priority Project List. This data includes detailed regional project information including the status, scope, scale, impact areas, partnerships, and other key information about each project.

• Utilize this framework to build relationships and assist in project readiness and implementationprogress will be shared and tracked at both the regional and state level.

• Develop a framework for regional block grant implementation and management to fund priority projects identified in the Priority Project List.

• Strengthen efforts to support community level groups such as Fire Safe Councils, Homeowners Associations (HOAs), or other communities with planning and implementation through:

º Community Wildfire Protection Plans

º Defensible space assistance, vegetation chipping, and clean up days

º Education and outreach on structure hardening, fire preparedness, ignition reduction, defensible space zones, etc.

º Goldspotted Oak Borer and other pest management resources and tools

• Strengthen efforts to support landscape scale planning and implementation with Tribal Partners and Collaborative Partnerships through:

º GSOB and other pest management plans and resources to suppress infestations

º Fuels modification and hazard dead tree removal

º Reforestation and habitat restoration

º Cultural Burning and prescribed burning

• Implementing the second phase of the Indigenous Fire Stewardship Pathway program with Climate Science Alliance and La Jolla Band of Luiseño Indians.

Acknowledgements

The Resource Conservation District of Greater San Diego County would like to acknowledge generous support from the Department of Conservation and all of our local partners and participants for their time and effort to make this Regional Priority Plan for San Diego County possible.

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Collaboration has always been at the heart of this work – we are stronger together.

Photo by Colin H. Richard