Forest restoration and protection: wildfire prevention.

(1) Existing law declares the policy of the state that the protection and management of natural and working lands is an important strategy in meeting the state's greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals. Existing law requires all state agencies to consider this policy when revising, adopting, or establishing policies, regulations, expenditures, or grant criteria relating to the protection and management of natural and working lands. This bill would require all state agencies, when funding restoration efforts on natural and working lands, to prioritize restoration projects that have a permanent, enforceable mechanism to ensure that the project area will be managed in a manner that maintains the desired conditions and the value of the state's investment. (2) Existing law requires the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the State Air Resources Board to develop and fund a program to enhance air quality and smoke monitoring, and to provide a public awareness campaign regarding prescribed burns, as provided. This bill would require the department, on or before April 1, 2023, to provide to the relevant policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature a report that details how the department will increasingly implement prescribed burn projects to burn at least 50,000 acres annually by January 1, 2025, and how the state, by January 1, 2030, will increasingly use, develop, implement, facilitate, and support prescribed burn, cultural fire, and managed wildfire projects to achieve the extent of beneficial fire outcomes consistent with historic fire frequencies and maintaining desirable fuel loads. (3) Existing law requires the Natural Resources Agency and the California Environmental Protection Agency to jointly develop and submit to the Legislature a plan for forest and watershed restoration investments for the drainages that supply the Oroville, Shasta, and Trinity Reservoirs, as specified. This bill would require the Natural Resources Agency, on or before April 1, 2023, to submit to the relevant policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature a report that describes the agency's strategy for completing and implementing this plan.