June 2015 Board of Forestry Report
Click Here for the Report (PDF)
The report contains charts with the expenditures in each county.
WHAT IS THE STATE RESPONSIBILITY AREA?The State Responsibility Area (SRA) is the land where the State of California is financially responsible for the prevention and suppression of wildfires. Comprising just over 31 million acres across the entire State, SRA does not include lands within city boundaries or in federal ownership.
WHAT IS THE SRA FEE?
The SRA Fire Prevention Fee was enacted by Assembly Bill X1 29 in July 2011, to pay for fire prevention activities across the State on lands designated as SRA. The fee is applied to all habitable residential structures within the SRA.
Effective July 1, 2014, the fee is levied at the rate of $152.33 per habitable structure, which is defined as a building that can be occupied for residential use. Owners of habitable structures who are also within the boundaries of a local fire protection agency receive a reduction of $35 per habitable structure. On average, the total fee collection is approximately $74 million per year.
WHAT DOES THE FEE PAY FOR?
The fee funds a variety of important fire prevention services in the SRA. Such activities include fuel reduction projects that lessen the risk of wildfire to communities, evacuation routes, and infrastructure. Other activities include defensible space inspections, fire prevention engineering, land use planning, emergency evacuation planning, fire prevention education, fire hazard severity mapping, implementation of the State and local Fire Plans, and fire-related law enforcement activities such as arson investigation. In Fiscal Year 2014-15, the fee will have funded over $77 million of fire prevention activities across the State.
STATEWIDE FIRE PREVENTION ACTIVITIES INCLUDE:
Prevention Projects and Activities in CAL FIRE Units and Contract Counties:
o Fire Prevention Bureaus – Funding allows for additional coordination with Fire Safe Councils to create or improve Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPPs), and also provides support for CAL FIRE stations and personnel to engage in prevention activities.
o Law Enforcement – Supports CAL FIRE law enforcement activities focused on fire prevention, investigations, civil and criminal case management, and prosecution associated with fires caused by negligence or arson.
o Education – Provides support public education and outreach, teaching homeowners how to reduce wildfire risk around their properties. Public Education also includes advertising via print, radio, television, and social media outlets.
o Pre-Fire Engineering – Funding supports Unit Fire Plan development through mapping and data recording of prevention projects and fire activity, increased application of fire resistive construction for structures in wildfire areas, identification of evacuation routes, and community evacuation planning.
o Volunteers in Prevention – Funding allows the Department to oversee local citizens who provide a wide array of ancillary services coordinated via the CAL FIRE Units. Activities range from assisting with defensible space inspections to patrolling on holidays and times of high fire severity.
o Post Fire Damage Inspections – Post fire assessment data and analysis of damaged and destroyed homes is performed to improve safety factors in building construction and land management.
o Fire Suppression Cost Recovery – Funding supports comprehensive fire prevention objectives by recovering fire suppression costs from those who have intentionally, negligently, or in violation of law, caused an unwanted wildfire, as authorized by State statute.
Vegetation Management Program (VMP’s):
o Funding supports a cost-sharing program that uses mechanical means and prescribed fires to reduce hazardous vegetation on public and private lands, resulting in better fire resilience and community protection.
Defensible Space Inspections:
o Provides for additional personnel to perform Defensible Space Inspections within SRA across the State. Inspections have also provided increased education and awareness to the public of compliance requirements for Public Resources Code Section 4290. Engine company personnel assigned to fire stations have also become more involved with both inspections and public education.
Input into Safety Elements of Local General Plans (per Senate Bill 1241):
o Senate Bill 1241 authorized the establishment of a CAL FIRE program focused on coordinating efforts between local fire officials and local planning officials to ensure effective local land use so as not to increase fire and resource risk to SRA lands. These improved prevention measures will be included in Safety Elements contained within local General Plans. These measures are subject to approval by the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Fire Hazard and Fire Severity Mapping:
o Funds efforts to define areas of highest priority for various pre-fire and fire prevention activities, in an effort to reduce wildfire risk to communities throughout the SRA.
Conservation Camp Fire Prevention Work:
o Funding provided for fuel reduction and modification work by Conservation Camps within the 21 CAL FIRE Administrative Units and all 6 of the Contract Counties in the State.
SRA Fire Prevention Fund Grant Program:
o 83 Grant Recipients have received $9.525 million during Fiscal Year 2014/15 to help reduce wildfire risk related to the current drought. Funding is provided to local community organizations to assist with work on vegetation treatment projects and education in locations throughout the State where the effects of the drought have increased the fire danger to structures within SRA. (A full list of Grant funded projects, along with a map showing project locations has been included at the end of this report.)
California Conservation Corps (CCC) Project Work:
o Funding for CCC Crews to conduct fire prevention projects in the SRA. To date, the CCCs have conducted 73 projects statewide representing 169,000 hours of work. (A map showing the Counties where CCC projects have been conducted is included at the end of this report.)
The table below shows three years of expenditures on each of the areas described above.
HOW HAS THE MONEY BEEN DISTRIBUTED?
The goal of the SRA Fire Prevention Program is, over time, to return fees (in the form of fire prevention activities) across the entire SRA. Fire prevention activities are based upon the priorities laid out in the 2010 Strategic Fire Plan and are administered through CAL FIRE’s 21 Administrative Units and 6 Contract Counties. The 21 Units represent multiple counties and a listing of the counties by Unit is contained on Page 6. The 6 Contract Counties are Kern, Los Angeles, Marin, Orange, Santa Barbara, and Ventura. These Counties are provided funding by the State to provide fire protection services to SRA lands within those Counties, which include prevention activities.
In working towards the goal of returning fees across the entire SRA, CAL FIRE considers the totality of SRA fee funded work conducted in each of the Departments 21 Units and 6 Contract Counties. This includes work conducted in the Units, statewide efforts such as fire hazard mapping or land use planning, and work conducted by the California Conservation Corps. The existing fire prevention activities conducted across the State, and the attendant expenditures on fire prevention programs, compared with fees collected in each of the 21 Units and Contract Counties was considered as one of the factors in determining the 83 grant awards.
In the Appendix to this report there is a table showing the detailed breakout by each of the 21 Units and 6 Contract Counties of (1) fees collected, and (2) expenditures for 3 fiscal years (2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15).
