Prescribed grazing: local assistance grant program: Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force.

Existing law requires the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to appoint a Range Management Advisory Committee and to consult with the advisory committee on rangeland resource issues under consideration by the board. The bill would require, on or before July 1, 2025, the advisory committee, in consultation with specified entities, to develop guidance for local or regional prescribed grazing plans, as provided. The bill would require the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (department) and the Department of Conservation to consider and incorporate this guidance in specified grant programs, as provided. Existing law requires the department to establish a local assistance grant program for eligible groups for purposes of specified fire prevention and home hardening education activities in the state, including public education outreach activities and projects to improve compliance with defensible space requirements through increased inspections, assessments, and assistance for low-income residents, as provided. Existing law authorizes the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection to authorize advance payments from a local assistance grant award, subject to specified conditions, and requires the grantee of the advance payment to file an accountability report with the department 4 months from the date of receiving the funds and every 4 months thereafter. Existing law makes funding for this program subject to an appropriation by the Legislature. This bill would expand the fire prevention and home hardening education activities eligible for these grants to include projects involving the application of prescribed grazing, as provided. The bill would change the eligibility criteria for projects to improve compliance with defensible space requirements to make eligible, instead of low-income residents, those residents with socioeconomic characteristics that increase the risk of wildfire or adverse health outcomes, or that inhibit the ability to respond to a wildfire, as specified. For purposes of an advance payment of grant funds, the bill would instead require the grantee to file an accountability report with the department no later than 6 months from the date of receiving the funds and no later than every 6 months thereafter. Existing law requires the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force, established by former Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr., to develop a comprehensive implementation strategy to track and ensure the achievement of the goals and key actions identified in the state's "Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan," as provided. Existing law requires, on or before March 1, 2026, and every 5 years thereafter, the task force to update the action plan. This bill would require the task force, on or before June 30, 2025, in consultation with the advisory committee, to develop a strategic action plan to expand the use of prescribed grazing, as provided. The bill would require the task force to consider incorporating prescribed grazing in the January 1, 2026, update to the "Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan." This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 4124.5 of the Public Resources Code proposed by SB 504 to be operative only if this bill and SB 504 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.