The Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Natural Resources and Transportation and the Assembly Natural Resources Committee held a joint informational hearing on Wednesday on wildfire impacts on watershed lands. The hearing was another piece of the Legislature’s ongoing examination of wildfire, forest health, and how they impact California’s residents statewide as they move further into the 2019 Legislative session.
The hearing featured testimony by various state and federal agencies and stakeholders, including the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), the USDA Forest Service, the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, and the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO). The LAO presented a briefing paper to the committees with their recommendations on how to improve California’s forested watershed management, including suggestions to move forest health grant management from CAL FIRE to the California Natural Resources Agency, and increasing funding to CAL FIRE for air curtain burners to help dispose of woody biomass to expedite forest restoration projects.
The hearing can be streamed here.