BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2465
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 28, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES
Wesley Chesbro, Chair
AB 2465 (Chesbro) - As Amended: April 21, 2014
SUBJECT : Burning of lands: private burns
SUMMARY : Requires the Department of Forestry and Fire
Protection (CAL FIRE) to create a uniformed prescribed burn plan
template for forest fuel treatment. Requires CAL FIRE and the
Air Resources Board (ARB) to develop a webpage that contains the
uniformed prescribed burn plan template and centralizes state
information pertinent to prescribed burning for the purpose of
promoting prescribed fire as a fuel treatment technique.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Prohibits a person from burning any brush, stumps, logs,
fallen timber, fallows, slash, grass-covered land,
brush-covered land, forest-covered land, or other flammable
material, in any state responsibility area unless the person
has a written permit from CAL FIRE.
2)Private Burn Permit.
a) Declares that it is a public purpose for CAL FIRE to
cooperate with any person desiring to use prescribed
burning as a means of converting brush-covered lands into
forage lands, which has as its objective prevention of high
intensity wild land fires, watershed management, range
improvement, vegetation management, forest improvement,
wildlife habitat improvement, and maintenance of air
quality, or any combination thereof.
b) Requires CAL FIRE to provide advisory service to
applicants for permits as to precautions to be taken by the
applicant to prevent damage to the property of others by
reason of the prescribed burning. Requires CAL FIRE to
provide standby fire protection, to such extent as
personnel, fire crews, and firefighting equipment are
available.
c) Authorizes any landowner with brush-covered land within
a state responsibility area to apply to CAL FIRE for
AB 2465
Page 2
permission to burn the brush from such lands. Requires the
application to be on a form prescribed by CAL FIRE and to
contain a description of the lands and such other pertinent
information as the CAL FIRE may require.
3)The Vegetation Management Program (VMP).
a) Authorizes CAL FIRE to enter into an agreement,
including a grant agreement, for prescribed burning or
other hazardous fuel reduction with the landowner of
property that is included within any wild land for any of
the following purposes: (i) prevention of high-intensity
wild land fires through reduction of the volume and
continuity of wild land fuels; (ii) watershed management;
(iii) range improvement; (iv) vegetation management; (v)
forest improvement; (vi) wildlife habitat improvement;
and/or, (vii) air quality maintenance.
b) Authorizes the state to assume a proportionate share of
the costs of site preparation and prescribed burning or
other hazardous fuel reduction conducted on wild lands
other than wild lands under the jurisdiction of the federal
government.
c) Authorizes CAL FIRE to purchase insurance for the fuel
treatment project. If CAL FIRE does not purchase
insurance, requires CAL FIRE to agree to indemnify and hold
harmless the person or public agency it is contracting with
respect to liability arising out of performance of the
contract.
d) Protects a person from liability for any costs incurred
by CAL FIRE in suppressing any wild land fire originating
or spreading from a prescribed burning operation conducted
pursuant to a VMP contract to the extent that those costs
were not incurred as a violation of any provision of the
contract.
e) In any area of the state where there are substantially
more requests for prescribed burning operations or other
hazardous fuel reduction pursuant to this article than can
be conducted directly by CAL FIRE in a single fiscal year,
authorizes CAL FIRE, with the approval of the Director of
Finance, to enter into an agreement with private
consultants or contractors or with other public agencies
AB 2465
Page 3
for furnishing all or a part of the state's share of the
responsibility for planning the operation, preparing the
site, and conducting the prescribed burning or other
hazardous fuel reduction.
1)Creates the Smoke Management Guidelines for Agricultural and
Prescribed Burning, which addresses, among other things,
prescribed burning for forest improvement, to provide
direction to regional air districts in the regulation and
control of agricultural burning. (According to 17 CCR �
80100, these guidelines are intended to provide for the
continuation of agricultural burning, including prescribed
burning, as a resource management tool, and provide increased
opportunities for prescribed burning and agricultural burning,
while minimizing smoke impacts on the public.)
THIS BILL :
1)Makes findings and declaration regarding wildfires and
prescribed burns.
2)To assist landowners in conducting prescribed burns for the
purpose of forest fuel treatment, requires CAL FIRE, in
consultation with ARB and local air districts, to, no later
than July 1, 2015, do all of the following:
a) Develop a page on CAL FIRE's website that provides all
of the following:
i) Information on the regulations governing prescribed
burns for forest fuel treatment;
ii) Specific information about permissive burn days and
no-burn days;
iii) The uniform prescribed burn template;
iv) Contact information for the offices at CAL FIRE,
ARB, and local air districts that can assist a person who
is interested in a prescribed burn for forest fuel
treatment; and,
v) Any other information that CAL FIRE determines is
appropriate regarding prescribed burns for forest fuel
treatment.
AB 2465
Page 4
b) Develop a uniform prescribed burn template. Requires
the template to provide assistance to a person, who is
interested in conducting forest fuel treatment through a
prescribed burn, to do all of the following:
i) Use best management practices to ensure the owner
exercises due diligence in controlling the burn;
ii) Minimize impacts to the environment and public
health while maximizing the fire resiliency of the
treated forest; and,
iii) Obtain the appropriate regulatory approval from CAL
FIRE and local air districts.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
1)Background . For thousands of years, California's forests were
sculpted by frequent, low- to moderate-intensity wildfires.
However, fire suppression, the preferential harvest of
large-diameter trees, and forestland conversion over the past
150 years have worsened fuel conditions over millions of acres
of forests such that recent wildfires have tended to be larger
and more severe, and this trend will likely continue given
climate change.
Fire experts generally recognize that if hazardous fuels
(e.g., downed wood, shrubs, intermediate-size trees that can
carry fire into the forest canopy) are not reduced, the number
of severe wildland fires and the costs associated with
suppressing them will continue to increase. For example, the
cost to respond to last year's Rim Fire, which burned more
than 250,000 acres in the central Sierra Nevada region, was
estimated at $125.8 million as of September 27, 2013. In
2008, the Basin Complex and Indians Fire in Monterey County
burned almost 240,000 acres and cost approximately $120
million. These two fires are considered among the largest and
most costly in state history.
The ecological impacts of these larger fires are also
significant. Preliminary reports show that the Rim Fire
severely altered the habitat that is home to several of
AB 2465
Page 5
California's rarest animals: the great gray owl, the Sierra
Nevada red fox, and the Pacific fisher. These fires also
uncover sediments that erode into streams, affecting various
types of fish and wildlife.
A recent scientific article published by the journal of
Bioscience
(http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/fettig/psw_2012_fettig00
1(stephens).pdf) explains that forest fuel reduction using
prescribed fire and mechanical treatment (i.e., removal of
small trees with heavy equipment and/or grinding up small
trees and shrubs) is generally effective at reducing future
fire intensity and improving tree health without negatively
impacting understory vegetation, soil density or erosion,
wildlife, or carbon storage.
Prescribed fire is a relatively inexpensive way to reduce
surface and ladder fuels. Mechanical treatments are generally
more expensive, though the small and intermediate sized trees
removed can produce wood products such as sawlogs or biomass
chips to offset treatment costs. This is highly dependent,
however, on the proximity of the site to a sawmill or biomass
facility since transporting chips and logs is relatively high.
With regard to prescribed fire, the Northern California
Prescribed Fire Council website explains the following:
Prescribed fire-or fire ignited under known conditions
of fuel, weather, and topography to achieve specified
objectives-is used in a variety of landscapes and
contexts in northern California. Prescribed fire is
an important tool in wildfire hazard reduction,
ecosystem restoration, vegetation management, and
wildlife habitat enhancement; it is also an important
cultural resource, and it has application in forest
management and rangeland improvement. The versatile
nature of prescribed fire is evidenced by its diverse
users, which include state and federal land management
agencies, timber companies, tribes, non-governmental
organizations (including fire safe councils), and
private landowners, among others.
2)CAL FIRE's VMP . CAL FIRE administers the VMP, which is a
cost-sharing program that focuses on the use of prescribed
fire and mechanical means for addressing wild land fire fuel
AB 2465
Page 6
hazards and other resource management issues on state
responsibility area lands.
The VMP allows private landowners to enter into a contract
with CAL FIRE to use prescribed fire to accomplish a
combination of fire protection and resource management goals.
Implementation of VMP projects is by CAL FIRE units. The
projects that fit within a unit's priority areas (e.g., those
identified through the California Fire Plan) and are
considered to be of most value to the unit are those that will
be completed. The VMP has been in existence since 1982 and
has averaged approximately 35,000 acres per year since its
inception.
3)Fuel Treatment Workshop . On March 11, 2014, the author's
office held a stakeholder workshop on fuel treatment. The
workgroup participants (approximately 40 people) consisted of
forestry academics, members of environment nongovernmental
organizations, foresters, state agency staff, as well as
others with an interest in fuel treatment. Based on an
anonymous survey taken at the workshop, 66 percent of the
participants indicated that they had been involved with a
prescribed fire project. One hundred percent of the
participants agreed that prescribed fire is a good tool for
forest management. During this workshop, some of the
stakeholders expressed interest in the creation of a uniformed
prescribed burn plan template (similar to templates developed
throughout the country) to help provide private forestland
owners with information needed to conduct prescribe fire in a
manner that meets all regulatory requirements and promotes
best management practices. It was also apparent during the
workshop discussions that forest landowners could benefit from
better communication and coordination with CAL FIRE, ARB, and
local air districts. This bill will create a uniformed
prescribed burn plan template and require CAL FIRE and ARB to
develop a webpage that contains the template and centralizes
existing information maintained by CAL FIRE and ARB to help
people utilize state resources regarding prescribed fire.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
AB 2465
Page 7
None on file
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Mario DeBernardo / NAT. RES. / (916)
319-2092