Fire protection: fuels reduction grant program.

Existing law creates the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection within the Natural Resources Agency, and the department is responsible for fire protection, fire prevention, maintenance, and enhancement of the state's forest, range, and brushland resources, contract fire protection, associated emergency services, and assistance in civil disasters and other nonfire emergencies. This bill would authorize the department to develop and implement a fuels reduction program that provides competitive grants or other financial incentives to communities located in the wildland-urban interface or very high fire hazard severity zones to conduct fuels reduction efforts that minimize the risk or decrease the intensity of a wildfire in or around a community. Cities, counties, districts, and nonprofit organizations would be authorized to receive the grants. The bill would require the department to develop criteria for the review and approval of grant applications, that may include the establishment of cost-sharing requirements and appropriate oversight and reporting requirements. This bill would require that an eligible community meet certain specified criteria. The bill would require the department to seek funding from specified sources, not including the General Fund, that the program funding used by the department for reasonable and necessary administrative expenses not exceed 5% of the funding source, and that the department report to the Legislature yearly and post the report on its Internet Web site.