California Finalizes Program To Speed Up Wildfire Prevention Projects

Sacramento, CA — State leaders are touting the completion of a program that is designed to reduce the amount of time it takes to get a forest fuel management project through the environmental review process.

The California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection has certified a new California Vegetation Treatment Program (CalVTP) that helps analyze potential environmental impacts associated with different types of projects. It will help them move quicker through the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review process.

Governor Gavin Newsom says, “I commend the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection for working with the environmental community, state regulators and public safety officials to develop a long-term solution to increase the pace and scale of critical vegetation treatment in a way that safely and responsibly protects our environment. The scale of the wildfire crisis in California is unprecedented, and we need a response to match the scale and severity of this challenge.”

The program will benefit projects like fuel-breaks, planned burning and vegetation treatments. The programmatic analysis is designed to reduce redundancies in each project’s environmental review by allowing project sponsors to build upon verified environmental analysis contained in the CalVTP as they begin their site-specific study for their individual efforts.

The state has set a goal of treating 500,000 acres of non-federal lands each year.