The money will go towards home hardening, fire prevention grants, and more.
California governor Gavin Newsom announced plans on April 8 for an extensive wildfire investment package in preparation for the 2021 wildfire season. Newsom, along with Senate President pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins (D-San Diego) and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood), released a $536 million funding plan for resilience measures. This comes in addition to the almost $81 million previously announced to support Cal Fire and hire 1400 new firefighters.\
The Office of the Governor of California explained on Twitter that over $1 billion has been proposed for wildfire resilience, the highest amount in history. This $536 million plan is primarily focused on early action measures as this year is already shaping up to be extremely dry.
CA is investing a historic amount — $1 billion — to prepare for wildfire season. pic.twitter.com/5qtg92rPGR
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) April 10, 2021
According to the governor’s statement, focus will be on “greater investments in forest health projects, improvements on defensible space, home hardening against fires, fire prevention grants, and prevention workforce training. The plan includes public and private lands vegetation management, community-focused efforts for prevention and resilience and economic stimulus for the forestry economy.”
CA isn’t waiting until peak wildfire season to protect our communities.
We proposed more than $1B for wildfire resilience including fuel breaks, forest health & home hardening, and today we announced a $536M early action wildfire package to help protect Californians. pic.twitter.com/SP9pkBGr3R
— Office of the Governor of California (@CAgovernor) April 8, 2021
In order to fund this investment plan, $125 million was taken from Greenhouse Gas Reduction Funds and $411 million was taken from the state’s General Fund. Much of the plan was created by assemblymembers Richard Bloom and Phil Ting, and senators Bob Wieckowski, Susan Rubio, and Mike McGuire, among others.
[Featured Image: Picture of 2021 wildfires burning between Joshua Tree and Los Angeles. Photo by Patrick Campanale on Unsplash]