Golden State Today

The Governor’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force has announced 25 key deliverables aimed at enhancing California's efforts to protect communities from the increasing threat of wildfires. This initiative follows the devastating Los Angeles firestorms and is part of a broader strategy to address wildfire risks amid climate change.

These deliverables are designed to build on Governor Gavin Newsom’s emergency proclamation, which seeks to expedite wildfire prevention projects across the state. The list includes priority actions for this year that align with California’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan, initiated in 2021. Many of these actions are already in progress.

Governor Newsom emphasized the urgency of using all available resources to safeguard communities from wildfires. "The Los Angeles firestorms put another exclamation point on the need to use every tool we have available," he stated, highlighting the importance of accelerating California's efforts.

California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot acknowledged the progress made by the Task Force but noted that more work is needed. “These deliverables chart out critical solutions we will put in place,” he said, aiming to protect people and their homes while restoring landscape health.

The 2025 Key Deliverables focus on improving home and community resilience, streamlining regulatory processes, expanding landscape-scale programs, scaling up beneficial fire use, increasing post-fire restoration efforts, creating forest sector jobs, and developing a science-based framework for measuring progress.

Since taking office, Governor Newsom has prioritized firefighters and wildfire resilience as top concerns. The state has significantly increased investments in wildfire prevention since 2020, totaling over $2.5 billion with an additional $1.5 billion anticipated from the 2024 Climate Bond.

Progress includes completing or initiating over 2,200 landscape health and fire prevention projects since 2021 and treating nearly 1.9 million acres by 2023. CAL FIRE has awarded more than $450 million for wildfire prevention projects statewide since 2019.

In addition to expanding its aerial firefighting fleet, CAL FIRE has increased drone usage and adopted AI-powered tools for quicker fire detection.