2017 Railroad Fire in Madera and Mariposa Counties
Credit: Madera County Sheriff's Office
Read the Road Map
September 16, 2018 - The California Fire Plan is the state's road map for reducing the risk of wildfire. The Fire Plan is a cooperative effort between the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. By placing the emphasis on what needs to be done long before a fire starts, the Fire Plan looks to reduce fire fighting costs and property losses, increase firefighter safety, and to contribute to ecosystem health. The current plan was finalized in the Summer of 2018.
Executive Summary
The Strategic Fire Plan is one of the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection’s (Board) preeminent policies. 1 The Board has adopted these Plans since the 1930s and periodically updates them to reflect current and anticipated needs. Over time, as the environmental, social, and economic landscape of California’s wildlands has changed, the Board has evolved the Strategic Fire Plan to better respond to these changes and to provide the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) with appropriate guidance “…for adequate statewide fire protection of state responsibility areas.” (PRC § 4130)
Earlier iterations of this plan were exhaustive and provided fine-grained detail on vegetation types, placement of suppression personnel and equipment, budgetary considerations, and assets at risk. During preparation of the 2010 Strategic Fire Plan (2010 Plan), the Board changed the previous Plan structure to provide broad, strategic direction to CAL FIRE. The 2010 Plan also required CAL FIRE—a decentralized agency with 21 administrative field units, along with 6 contract counties, implementing multiple fire prevention, natural resource management, and fire suppression programs—to annually report back to the Board on their Unit Fire Plans and accomplishments.
The 2010 Plan approach has proven successful. CAL FIRE’s annual updates to the Board, coupled with its Unit Fire Plans, have demonstrated CAL FIRE’s ability to meet the 2010 Plan’s goals and objectives. The structure and flexibility built into the 2010 Plan provided clear guidance to CAL FIRE and its partners, and CAL FIRE has continued successful implementation at all levels. The policy direction provided by the 2010 Plan also has helped to support CAL FIRE budget requests for additional resources required to attain the provided goals and objectives. Given the success of the new approach, the Board continued this format for the 2018 Strategic Fire Plan (2018 Plan) and incorporated updated goals and objectives to reflect lessons learned, new priorities, and changed conditions.
Since the 2010 Plan, California has experienced environmental changes, and CAL FIRE has made significant organizational changes. The effects of climate change, overly dense forests, and prolonged drought have resulted in unprecedented tree mortality in the state’s forests, as well as an increase in the number, area, and severity of wildland fires. Loss of life and structures as a direct or proximate result of wildland fires is at an all-time high. In turn, CAL FIRE has set its focus upon increasing the pace and scale of fire prevention activities while simultaneously fielding a growing year-round wildland fire suppression force. The 2018 Plan anticipates that these trends will continue.
This 2018 Plan reflects CAL FIRE’s focus on (1) fire prevention and suppression activities to protect lives, property, and ecosystem services, and (2) natural resource management to maintain the state’s forests as a resilient carbon sink to meet California’s climate change goals and to serve as important habitat for adaptation and mitigation. Additionally, the continued inclusive collaboration among local, state, federal, tribal, and private partners remains paramount to effectively manage towards a more fire resilient wildlandurban interface and natural environment. The Plan construes “collaboration” very broadly, from working together to implement a single fuel break, working together to develop a Community Wildfire Protection Plan, to developing and administering the statewide, multiagency California Fire Management Agreement.
The elements of the 2018 Plan are all consistent with the findings and direction provided in recent assessments, policy reports, and high-level collaborative strategies referenced herein. This scope includes Governor Brown’s Executive Order B-52-18 and establishment of the California Forest Management Task Force.
Implementation of the 2010 Plan demonstrated to the Board and to CAL FIRE that its goals and objectives are not discrete and separate elements, but rather are highly interrelated parts of a holistic strategy. The seven goals in the 2010 Plan have been expanded to eight goals, with a new goal focusing on a wide range of fire prevention activities throughout the state.
New technology allows more rapid and expansive data collection and analysis across the state in pre-, during-, and post-fire environments. Over time, detailed analysis of these data will further assist CAL FIRE in focused efforts to meet the goals and objectives of the 2018 Plan. This is most readily apparent in the ability of CAL FIRE to analyze and share data within and across Departmental programs and Units, as well as with other public and private partners. Moving forward requires melding of knowledge that is informed through emerging science, improved data, and integrated analysis of a variety of factors (e.g., environmental conditions, prevention activities, suppression tactics, land use planning, forest health initiatives, and the effects of wildland fire on the built environment). The Board, CAL FIRE, and our partners can build on this emerging science and data to achieve higher levels of success in the implementation of this 2018 Plan.
This Strategic Fire Plan is focused and concise, ensuring it will be efficient guidance for CAL FIRE and the many stakeholders who share similar missions, responsibilities, and common interests. It was developed through collaboration among the members of the Fire Plan Steering Committee, which included representatives of federal, state, and local governments, as well as labor.2 This Committee of subject matter experts worked for over a year preparing this document, and the 2018 Plan went through a Board-led public review and comment process to incorporate additional input. This process included two public workshops, which were held in Santa Rosa and Ventura in May 2018.
The Board expects Unit Fire Plans will continue to implement current efforts, and where necessary, establish new programs and projects to meet the 2018 Plan goals and objectives. As a monitoring mechanism, CAL FIRE will report to the Board annually on progress toward meeting the 2018 Plan’s goals, provide an aggregation of the Unit Fire Plans, and identify opportunities for adaptive management. The ability of the Board and CAL FIRE to meet the 2018 Plan’s goals and objectives will evolve over time as statewide initiatives are implemented and as funds, resources, staffing, and collaborative opportunities become available.
The Board looks forward to working with CAL FIRE and our many partners toward successful implementation of this 2018 Strategic Fire Plan. This success will not be possible without strong collaboration and dedicated funding that targets fire prevention, natural resource management, and fire suppression activities across the state. For Californians to live sustainably in conjunction with fire over the long term, the State must deploy a multi-faceted and balanced approach to all elements of fire management including fire prevention, natural resource management, planning, and fire suppression and recognize both the inevitability and the necessity of fire in healthy wildland ecosystems.
Source: CAL FIRE
