BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 824
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 27, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES
Das Williams, Chair
AB 824
(Gatto) - As Amended March 26, 2015
SUBJECT: Fire prevention activities
SUMMARY: Requires the Department of Forestry and Fire
Protection (CALFIRE) to report to the Legislature on its
coordination and cooperation with the federal government and
include a map of the areas of coordination.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Requires the Board of Forestry (Board) to classify all lands
within the state for the purpose of determining areas in which
the financial responsibility of preventing and suppressing
fires is primarily the responsibility of the state (these
areas are known as "state responsibility area" or "SRA").
2)Requires CALFIRE to provide an annual report to the
Legislature detailing CALFIRE's fire prevention activities.
3)Requires the report to include the following specified data
and information:
AB 824
Page 2
a) The number of hours of fire prevention education
performed.
b) The number of defensible space inspections conducted,
including statewide totals and totals for each region.
c) The number of citations issued for noncompliance.
d) The number of acres treated by mechanical fuel
reduction.
e) The number of acres treated by prescribed burns.
f) Projected fire prevention activities for the following
fiscal year.
g) Information on each of the "Amador contracts." (An
Amador contract continues CALFIRE staffing and station
coverage through the winter.)
THIS BILL:
1)Requires that coordination and cooperation with the federal
government be considered a fire prevention activity for the
purposes of the report.
AB 824
Page 3
2)Requires the report to the Legislature on fire prevention
activities to include a map of the areas of coordination
between CALFIRE and the federal government, particularly in
areas of high fire hazard severity or in wildlife-urban
interface areas.
3)Renames "Amador contracts" as "Amador agreements" to be
consistent throughout the section.
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
COMMENTS:
1)Author's statement.
The main problem this bill attempts to address is the
lack of adequate fire prevention activities that are
carried out collaboratively between the state and
federal government. Wildland areas are divided up into
a network of federal, state, and local land; however,
fires are not limited by these jurisdictional lines.
While local, state, and federal agencies often work
collaboratively in battling fires, there is a great
deal of room for improvement in collaborative fire
prevention activities.
AB 824
Page 4
The current framework for fire prevention activities
does not sufficiently recognize and promote
collaboration between the state and federal
government. This bill seeks to remedy that by
reframing the definition of "fire prevention
activities" to reflect a more cooperative mission and
by requiring CALFIRE to include information about
those cooperative activities to the Legislature. This
information would be included in a report that CALFIRE
already produces and submits to the legislature.
2)California wildfires. The federal government is responsible
for fire fighting in approximately one-third of the state
(around 30 million acres) between all of the federal land
management agencies, which includes the United States Forest
Service (USFS), the National Park Service and the Bureau of
Land Management. California wildfires happen in local,
federal, and CALFIRE jurisdiction and can cross boundaries. In
2013, the number of California wildfires and acres burned for
all jurisdictions were:
-----------------------------------------
|Jurisdiction | Fires | Acres |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
|-------------+-------------+-------------|
| CALFIRE | 3,672 | 114,472 |
| | | |
| | | |
|-------------+-------------+-------------|
| Federal | 2,213 | 450,126 |
|Firefighting | | |
| Agencies | | |
AB 824
Page 5
| | | |
| | | |
|-------------+-------------+-------------|
| Local | 3,004 | 37,036 |
| Governments | | |
| | | |
| | | |
-----------------------------------------
3)FLAME Act. Congress passed the Federal Land Assistance,
Management, and Enhancement Act of 2009 (the FLAME Act). This
legislation established a separate account for funding for
emergency wildfire suppression activities undertaken on
Department of the Interior and National Forest System lands.
In addition to the funding language, the Act required the
Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior, acting jointly,
submit to Congress a report containing a cohesive strategy
addressing how the two departments, working together, will
address the wildland fire problems. Leadership in both
departments recognized that in order to be truly national in
scope, a cohesive strategy must go beyond federal fire
agencies and include tribal, state, local, public, and
stakeholder interests. Wildfire knows no jurisdictional
boundaries, and the agencies and entities having direct or
indirect fire management responsibilities are therefore linked
at all levels. The report found that inclusion, collaboration,
and cooperation are absolute requirements in today's wildland
fire environment.
Last summer, as part of the FLAME Act implementation, the
Eldorado National Forest was one of two forests in California
selected to begin implementation of the National Cohesive
Wildland Fire Management Strategy. CALFIRE and the USFS
developed "Fire Adapted 50," which is a joint effort to reduce
fuel, improve forest health, and increase effectiveness of
wildland fire response. This is an example of what CALFIRE
AB 824
Page 6
will be required to report to the Legislature to meet the
requirements of this bill. Information about these efforts to
coordinate and cooperate with the federal government should be
studied by the Legislature to see how both state and federal
government can improve their response to wildfires.
4)REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
Center for Biological Diversity
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by:Michael Jarred / NAT. RES. / (916) 319-2092
AB 824
Page 7