Wildfires.

(1) Existing law requires the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection to identify areas of the state as very high fire hazard severity zones, as provided. Existing law requires a local agency, within 30 days of receiving a transmittal from the director that identifies very high fire hazard severity zones, to make the information available for public review. This bill would require the director to also identify areas in the state as moderate and high fire hazard severity zones. The bill would modify the factors the director is required to use to classify areas into fire hazard severity zones, as provided. The bill would instead require a local agency, within 30 days of receiving a transmittal from the director that identifies fire hazard severity zones, to make the information available for public review and comment. Because the bill would impose additional duties on local agencies, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law creates in the Office of the State Fire Marshal a State Board of Fire Services to succeed to all the powers, duties, and responsibilities of the former State Fire Advisory Board. Existing law requires the board to consist of members, including, among others, the State Fire Marshal, the Chief Deputy Director of the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the Director of Emergency Services, and the Chairperson of the California Fire Fighter Joint Apprenticeship Program. This bill would require the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection to appoint a cultural burning liaison. The bill would require the cultural burning liaison to, among other duties, serve on the State Board of Fire Services and to advise the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection on developing increased cultural burning activity. (3) Existing law authorizes the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection to enter into an agreement, including a grant agreement, for prescribed burning operations or other hazardous fuel reduction efforts, with any person for specified purposes. Existing law requires the agreement to designate an officer of the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection or a certified burn boss with the final authority regarding the prescribed burn operation and to specify the duties of, and the precautions taken by, the person contracting with the department and any personnel furnished by that person. Existing law requires the State Fire Marshal, with the involvement of the Statewide Training and Education Advisory Committee, to develop a curriculum for a certification program for burn bosses. This bill would require the State Fire Marshal, on or before July 1, 2023, to develop a proposal to establish a prescribed fire training center, as provided. This bill would require the department, on or before July 1, 2023, to make recommendations on how to understand and model wildfire risk for a community and specific parcels. The bill would require the department to establish an advisory workgroup and would require the department to consult with the advisory workgroup, as specified, in the development of the recommendations. The bill would require the department to post the recommendations on the department's internet website. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2025. Existing law requires the department to actively engage certain entities to enhance its public education efforts regarding fire prevention and public safety. This bill would additionally require the department to actively engage those entities, relevant California State Universities, California Native American tribes, tribal organizations, and cultural fire practitioners to enhance its public education efforts regarding restoring fire processes and function, and cultural burning, as defined. Existing law authorizes an entity that controls brush-covered land, forest lands, woodland, grassland, shrubland, or a combination of those types of land within a state responsibility area to apply to the department for permission to use prescribed burning for certain public purposes. This bill would require the department, in issuing the permit, to consider the availability of nondepartmental contingency resources when determining whether to require department contingency resources as part of the required precautions for the prescribed burn. The bill would require the department, to the extent feasible, to employ burn suspensions at the unit level and not at the state or regional level to not unreasonably restrict prescribed burnings that are within prescription. The bill would require the department to develop and deploy an automated system for issuing burn permits. Existing law authorizes prescribed burning, mastication, herbicide application, mechanical thinning, or other vegetative treatments of chaparral or sage scrub only if the department finds the activity will not cause "type conversion" away from the chaparral and coastal sage scrub currently on site. This bill would authorize the department to order remediation for any type conversion caused in violation of the above provision. This bill would require the department to take into consideration the salary, classification, and recruitment efforts for its personnel that conducts fuel reduction to fill vacancies and retain seasoned fuel reduction experts, and engage in recruitment efforts with California Native American tribes, tribal organizations, and cultural fire practitioners to fill vacancies in positions that engage in fuel reduction on behalf of the department. (4) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Sections 51178 and 51178.5 of the Government Code proposed by AB 9 to be operative only if this bill and AB 9 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. (5) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.