Following is a letter to California State Legislators from the California Alliance for Nature:
March 12, 2021
California State Legislature
Sacramento, CA
Re: The Proposed Wildfire Budget – Lives and homes first
Dear Honorable Member of the California State Legislature,
The Newsom administration’s new budget proposal to address wildfire risk has, for the first time, allocated funds to support proven strategies that will save lives and protect homes – focusing directly within and around communities at risk to make them fire-safe.
This is a hopeful beginning. However, only 5% of the proposed $1 billion budget will be available to communities to protect themselves from wildfire. The rest, $922 million, is being allocated for plans to fund the clearance of half a million acres of habitat per year including the logging of forests far from most communities at risk – an approach that has consistently failed to protect our neighborhoods from wildfire and will cause significant damage to the natural environments we treasure.1
Primary Goal: Make saving lives and homes the top priority.
Key Metric: Nine out of the 16,909 fires in California during 2017 and 2018 caused 95% of the damage. All nine fires occurred under extreme, wind-driven conditions where vegetation clearance projects proved ineffective. Nearly all the most devastating wildfires in California since the 1991 Oakland Hills Fire exhibit similar characteristics, and most had little to nothing to do with forests. A comprehensive fire management plan must focus on wind-driven fires where most fatalities and READ MORE: