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Supervisor Parlin recommending the Board authorize the Chair to sign a letter of support for the Governor’s proposed Wildfire and Forest Resilience Expenditure Plan.
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DISCUSSION / BACKGROUND
On January 21,2021 Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC) asked member counties for letters of support for the Governor’s proposed Wildfire and Forest Resilience Expenditure Plan (Expenditure Plan).
RCRC is supporting the Governor’s Expenditure Plan to help prevent future catastrophic wildfire events like we’ve seen in recent years. If passed by the Legislature, the proposal would allocate a total of $1 billion to forest health and wildfire prevention programs between the current and 2021-22 budget years.
The Expenditure Plan will fund implementation programs and projects that will immediately benefit residents in RCRC member counties such as home hardening retrofits for low-income residents, as well as providing grants to communities for fuels treatment projects and community fire hardening efforts such as fuel breaks.
The Expenditure Plan will also jumpstart a move toward establishing an innovative wood products industry in California, which is vital to the maintenance of wildland fuels treatment. Finally, the Expenditure Plan will allow the state’s forest health agencies to continue working with federal land managers to minimize the threat of wildfire on national forest lands and other federally managed lands.
While there is support among stakeholders for the Governor’s proposal, it is imperative that California's rural counties express their support to the Legislature for this robust effort to fund forest resilience and wildfire prevention measures in California. RCRC recently submitted its own letter to both Senate and Assembly Budget Subcommittees supporting the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Expenditure Plan. RCRC staff encourages RCRC member counties to submit their own letters of support to communicate the importance of t...
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